The Evil Diaries: “Every lawyer is an idiot until proven otherwise”

Apparently, should one be drafting the settlement of a divorce, one downloads forms offered by the Ministry of Justice. There is one form which covers the store of wealth represented by property but which fails to require debts and liabilities to be deducted. This has been operational for about two years and, as a result, perhaps 20,000 couples may have settled their affairs on the basis of incorrect information/assessment method. Leaving aside the moron who arranged for/allowed this form to be used, there are presumably countless solicitors who have gone along with it to their client’s advantage or disadvantage (depending upon who is the beneficiary of this slovenly computation). There was a time when I used to respect lawyers. But no more: every lawyer is an idiot until proven otherwise.

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I am chasing up Shore Capital as to what is going on by way of management charges relating to St Peter Port Capital (SPPC). Graham Shore says that Shore Cap owns 5.6m shares or, currently, or c. £1m worth given SPPC’s share price of 18p. (This contrasts with the NAV of perhaps 40p as computed by PwC: it is the NAV that, I think – Graham Shore has yet to reply – determines the management fee.)

However, that stake’s value needs to be set against the fee charged. Hence my enquiry.

Mr Shore advises that, amongst other achievements, Shore Cap has “flown” to Panama and met with representatives of the relevant ministries (unfortunately, as he discloses, with not much progress to date). The mode of travel is odd since he presumably goes from Shore to Shore and would therefore understandably be expected to use a rowing boat.

I tried to get hold of the chairman. But he was not available. I find all this extremely tiresome.

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Mercifully, the High Court cleared Watchstone (WTG) to cough up 90p a share on or before 31st December (I’ll bet it’s after – bankers love sitting on money – particularly your money). The rump could open at 7p. After that… well, we’ll see.

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I paid 18.2p for Churchill Mining (CHL). Here, I am told that Indonesia will be asked by the Court to cough up perhaps £250m. Further, the fiddler in the Indonesian administration system has backed off. For some extraordinary reason all this will take at least another six months.

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Mind you, it is not as bad as at Oxus (OXS) where the arbitration court has been sitting on its papers/judgement for a staggering eighteen months. One of the judges is 87 years old and could well snuff it before whatever.

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Finally, Legal and General have increased their holding of Tyratech (TYRU) from 26m to 33m shares. The stock stands at 2.5p offer or a capitalisation of the order of £5m. Something wrong somewhere.