The usenet newsgroup uk.legal.moderated was created on 6th May 2004. Some news servers might not carry it, but it is available for instance on news.btinternet.com. You can try opening an account with www.individual.net or with www.eternal-september.org for an alternative news server. You may be able to access the group via Google Groups but it is preferable to use an offline news reader such as Thunderbird, Windows Live Mail, Outlook Express or one of the newsreaders suggested here.
The normal rule is that any postings to the group must be approved by a member of the moderation team before they appear in the group. At certain times of the day or night there may be a lengthy delay before the moderators approve a posting, and the moderation team apologises for any inconvenience this might cause.
Crossposting is not permitted - if you post an article to several groups and uk.legal.moderated is one of them, the moderation software will automatically reject your article and it will not appear even in the unmoderated groups.
Warning
Postings on uk.legal.moderated may contain inaccurate advice. The team of moderators is not a team of legal professionals. The moderators will not normally reject a post on the grounds that it offers inaccurate advice and are not always able to ascertain whether or not the advice is accurate. If your question is important to you, please seek advice from a qualified legal professional. If you are posting messages to the group, please avoid misleading others. When offering advice about the law please state (if applicable) that you are not a lawyer or that your information might be out of date.
RATIONALE: uk.legal.moderated
In the existing unmoderated group uk.legal, it is known that people feel somewhat intimidated when they see that various contributors are already suing each other, insulting each other and posting private and personal information about each other, breaching confidentiality. A moderated group is necessary to provide an atmosphere that is polite and friendly and therefore more supportive. Additionally such an atmosphere would encourage more lawyers and other professionals to join, and for some posters rejoin, the group without feeling intimidated by some of the aggressive posters who frequent the unmoderated group. The charter has been written to extend beyond the giving of legal advice in the hope that contributors remain in the group after their questions have been answered, to discuss other issues of law and to be there when other newcomers post questions.
CHARTER: uk.legal.moderated
The purpose of the group is to enable contributors who have genuine legal problems to ask for practical advice from other people (lawyers or laymen) who have had to deal with similar problems in the past.
A secondary purpose will be to discuss
a) topical issues that are relevant to UK[1] law or to lawyers, law enforcement or legislators;
b) the UK legal systems and suggested changes in the legal system or the laws of the land;
c) international law, if it is relevant to the United Kingdom;
d) ethics and morality, in the context of discussions about UK law;
e) academic legal issues, to enable law students or laymen to seek help with hypothetical legal questions.
[1] UK above specifically includes English and Scottish law and for the purpose of the news group the Law governing other jurisdictions very closely related to the UK.
Moderators may use whatever tools they feel appropriate to ensure the smooth running of the group.
The moderators shall keep and publish regularly a detailed policy document detailing how moderation is currently performed (on this page).
Moderators should attempt to ensure that discussions can continue without undue delay, and should therefore attempt to make a decision on all posts within a few hours of submission.
Advertising
Advertising is forbidden, and such posts will be rejected.
Binaries & Formatting
Encoded binaries (e.g. pictures, compressed files, etc.) are forbidden. Such material belongs on a web or FTP site to which a pointer may be posted. Cryptographic signatures (e.g. PGP) may be used where authentication is important and should be as short as possible.
Posts must be readable as plain text. HTML, RTF and similarly formatted messages are prohibited. To see how to make some common news readers comply with this, read <http://www.usenet.org.uk/ukpost.html>.
Moderator Contacts
The submission address is uk-legal-moderated (at) usenet.org.uk.
(especially if you are unable to post to the group using your normal newsgroup settings due to difficulties with your news-server)
The group of moderators which controls the moderation of this group is currently made up of:
Moderators:
The Todal < always.in.moderation (at) gmail dot com >
Jon Ribbens <jon+ulm (at) unequivocal dot co dot uk>
Roland Perry <roland (at) perry dot co dot uk>
Peter Parry <peter (at) wpp dot ltd dot uk>
Simon Parker <simonparkerulm (at) gmail dot com>Si
s
In addition, there may at times be "probationary" moderators who are added to the team on a trial basis. If after six weeks they are to remain on the team their moderator names will be announced.
Moderation Policy
a) Contributors are permitted to express strong disagreement using whatever language they wish, but if they post offensive personal remarks about another contributor the post will normally be rejected. Posts (a term which means a message intended for publication in the group as part of a discussion) will normally be rejected if they imply that another contributor who is likely to see the post is stupid or dishonest, regardless of whether such observations contain any truth. If a poster chooses a posting name that is similar to the posting name used by another person and in the moderator's opinion has the effect of mocking or taunting that other person, or attempting to mislead the group into believing that the other person was the author, the post may be rejected.
b) Humorous, frivolous or off-topic posts will sometimes be permissible if they are followups to an on-topic discussion, at the discretion of the moderators.
c) Posts will be rejected if they supply gratuitous or clearly objectionable infringement of privacy of any individual. This would include information about the individual's address, job or posting history.
d) Posts will be rejected if it appears to a moderator that there would be an appreciable risk that a court would find the article to be defamatory. If postings contain a link to a website where potentially defamatory allegations are made, or a website which the moderators have reason to believe may somewhere contain defamatory material, the moderators may at their discretion reject the posting.
e) Repetitive postings of broadly the same point (whether in the main body of the message or in the final signature) will be disallowed at the discretion of the moderator, especially if the aim of such postings appears to be to have the last word in an argument or to upset other contributors. If the postings are helpful (eg another contributor wishes to confirm that he has had a similar experience or holds similar views) they will usually be allowed.
f) The moderators may at their discretion ban contributors who try to disrupt the group by wasting the moderators time. The moderators should confirm the decision of any one moderator by a majority of all moderators within 72 hours and should attempt to inform such contributors of their action. The moderators will use their best endeavours to avoid banning anyone and to persuade disruptive contributors to modify their posting style.
g) The moderators will not edit posts to make them suitable for publication. Each post is either accepted without changes, or rejected.
h) Posts which appear to quote copyright material (such as articles from online newspapers or journals) may be rejected at the discretion of the moderators and are more likely to be acceptable if they quote as little copyright text as possible and add some original commentary and on-topic observations.
i) The moderators may reject posts which appear to encourage criminal activity (example: using violence as a way of solving a dispute).
j) If a contributor knowingly evades moderation by posting his message other than through the usual channels and/or with headers that are designed to divert the post away from moderation, he will be banned from the group by blacklisting or otherwise, and the moderators reserve the right to reject follow up posts to any posts from such a banned contributor.
k) The moderators may at their discretion reject posts on the topic of whether moderators might be legally liable in respect of decisions they have made as moderators. Such posts might encourage mischievous litigation and disrupt the group. The moderators may likewise reject posts which attempt to discuss whether other posts in the group might be defamatory.
l) Signatures (sigs) at the end of posts must also comply with the moderation policy and in particular must not be abusive or defamatory or contain commercial advertising. The moderators may also at their discretion reject a signature which contains political slogans or solicits votes or support in respect of any election or campaign.
m) The moderators may at their discretion reject posts which contain incitement to racial hatred or derogatory descriptions of minority groups which may be hurtful or offensive to readers.
n) Discussions about moderation policy and whether individual posts should have been accepted or rejected will not as a general rule be permitted within the group and should instead take place in uk.net.news.moderation. Occasionally discussions about moderation policy may be permitted to a limited extent and at the discretion of the moderators, if it is felt that they would assist contributors in understanding how to post within moderation guidelines.
o) Posts must be in the English language. Posts that are in other languages or which are expressed in cryptic terms such that the moderator is not sure of the meaning are likely to be rejected.
p) If posts give a link to any rejected post or to the list of rejected posts, the moderators will usually reject such posts to avoid the risk that rejected posts will become part of a discussion in the group.
In the interests of making the moderators task simpler, articles that fail some simple technical requirements may be rejected automatically without direct human intervention. Articles cross-posted to any group in addition to uk.legal.moderated are rejected automatically. The moderators may if they choose operate a list of trusted posters but any posts from such contributors will be diverted to manual moderation if the posts contain prescribed "trigger words". The moderation system will try to return any rejected message to the sender via email with an explanation of the reason for rejecting the message. Disputed moderation decisions are best taken to uk.net.news.moderation. The moderators will on request try to assist posters in rephrasing articles so that they can be approved. However, they do not make any commitment to entering into extended correspondence with anybody.
A list of posts, showing whether they have been moderated yet and why some of them have been rejected, is at:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~webstump/l.ulm
Where a post has been rejected on the grounds of defamation, unreasonable infringement of privacy or unlawful content (eg possible breach of a court injunction) the text of the rejected message will not usually be available for inspection.
The moderators do not accept responsibility for the accuracy, truth or legality of any of the articles. Posters must assume full responsibility for the content of their own articles. The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of its content by the moderator or moderation team.
The foregoing information is believed to be accurate as at 27th September 2023.
The content of the rationale, charter and policy was devised by the moderators with the invaluable advice and assistance of Richard Ashton or {R} as he was known in Usenet. In memoriam {R}, 22nd February 1947 - 8th March 2016 R.I.P.
The normal rule is that any postings to the group must be approved by a member of the moderation team before they appear in the group. At certain times of the day or night there may be a lengthy delay before the moderators approve a posting, and the moderation team apologises for any inconvenience this might cause.
Crossposting is not permitted - if you post an article to several groups and uk.legal.moderated is one of them, the moderation software will automatically reject your article and it will not appear even in the unmoderated groups.
Warning
Postings on uk.legal.moderated may contain inaccurate advice. The team of moderators is not a team of legal professionals. The moderators will not normally reject a post on the grounds that it offers inaccurate advice and are not always able to ascertain whether or not the advice is accurate. If your question is important to you, please seek advice from a qualified legal professional. If you are posting messages to the group, please avoid misleading others. When offering advice about the law please state (if applicable) that you are not a lawyer or that your information might be out of date.
RATIONALE: uk.legal.moderated
In the existing unmoderated group uk.legal, it is known that people feel somewhat intimidated when they see that various contributors are already suing each other, insulting each other and posting private and personal information about each other, breaching confidentiality. A moderated group is necessary to provide an atmosphere that is polite and friendly and therefore more supportive. Additionally such an atmosphere would encourage more lawyers and other professionals to join, and for some posters rejoin, the group without feeling intimidated by some of the aggressive posters who frequent the unmoderated group. The charter has been written to extend beyond the giving of legal advice in the hope that contributors remain in the group after their questions have been answered, to discuss other issues of law and to be there when other newcomers post questions.
CHARTER: uk.legal.moderated
The purpose of the group is to enable contributors who have genuine legal problems to ask for practical advice from other people (lawyers or laymen) who have had to deal with similar problems in the past.
A secondary purpose will be to discuss
a) topical issues that are relevant to UK[1] law or to lawyers, law enforcement or legislators;
b) the UK legal systems and suggested changes in the legal system or the laws of the land;
c) international law, if it is relevant to the United Kingdom;
d) ethics and morality, in the context of discussions about UK law;
e) academic legal issues, to enable law students or laymen to seek help with hypothetical legal questions.
[1] UK above specifically includes English and Scottish law and for the purpose of the news group the Law governing other jurisdictions very closely related to the UK.
Moderators may use whatever tools they feel appropriate to ensure the smooth running of the group.
The moderators shall keep and publish regularly a detailed policy document detailing how moderation is currently performed (on this page).
Moderators should attempt to ensure that discussions can continue without undue delay, and should therefore attempt to make a decision on all posts within a few hours of submission.
Advertising
Advertising is forbidden, and such posts will be rejected.
Binaries & Formatting
Encoded binaries (e.g. pictures, compressed files, etc.) are forbidden. Such material belongs on a web or FTP site to which a pointer may be posted. Cryptographic signatures (e.g. PGP) may be used where authentication is important and should be as short as possible.
Posts must be readable as plain text. HTML, RTF and similarly formatted messages are prohibited. To see how to make some common news readers comply with this, read <http://www.usenet.org.uk/ukpost.html>.
Moderator Contacts
The submission address is uk-legal-moderated (at) usenet.org.uk.
(especially if you are unable to post to the group using your normal newsgroup settings due to difficulties with your news-server)
The group of moderators which controls the moderation of this group is currently made up of:
Moderators:
The Todal < always.in.moderation (at) gmail dot com >
Jon Ribbens <jon+ulm (at) unequivocal dot co dot uk>
Roland Perry <roland (at) perry dot co dot uk>
Peter Parry <peter (at) wpp dot ltd dot uk>
Simon Parker <simonparkerulm (at) gmail dot com>Si
s
In addition, there may at times be "probationary" moderators who are added to the team on a trial basis. If after six weeks they are to remain on the team their moderator names will be announced.
Moderation Policy
a) Contributors are permitted to express strong disagreement using whatever language they wish, but if they post offensive personal remarks about another contributor the post will normally be rejected. Posts (a term which means a message intended for publication in the group as part of a discussion) will normally be rejected if they imply that another contributor who is likely to see the post is stupid or dishonest, regardless of whether such observations contain any truth. If a poster chooses a posting name that is similar to the posting name used by another person and in the moderator's opinion has the effect of mocking or taunting that other person, or attempting to mislead the group into believing that the other person was the author, the post may be rejected.
b) Humorous, frivolous or off-topic posts will sometimes be permissible if they are followups to an on-topic discussion, at the discretion of the moderators.
c) Posts will be rejected if they supply gratuitous or clearly objectionable infringement of privacy of any individual. This would include information about the individual's address, job or posting history.
d) Posts will be rejected if it appears to a moderator that there would be an appreciable risk that a court would find the article to be defamatory. If postings contain a link to a website where potentially defamatory allegations are made, or a website which the moderators have reason to believe may somewhere contain defamatory material, the moderators may at their discretion reject the posting.
e) Repetitive postings of broadly the same point (whether in the main body of the message or in the final signature) will be disallowed at the discretion of the moderator, especially if the aim of such postings appears to be to have the last word in an argument or to upset other contributors. If the postings are helpful (eg another contributor wishes to confirm that he has had a similar experience or holds similar views) they will usually be allowed.
f) The moderators may at their discretion ban contributors who try to disrupt the group by wasting the moderators time. The moderators should confirm the decision of any one moderator by a majority of all moderators within 72 hours and should attempt to inform such contributors of their action. The moderators will use their best endeavours to avoid banning anyone and to persuade disruptive contributors to modify their posting style.
g) The moderators will not edit posts to make them suitable for publication. Each post is either accepted without changes, or rejected.
h) Posts which appear to quote copyright material (such as articles from online newspapers or journals) may be rejected at the discretion of the moderators and are more likely to be acceptable if they quote as little copyright text as possible and add some original commentary and on-topic observations.
i) The moderators may reject posts which appear to encourage criminal activity (example: using violence as a way of solving a dispute).
j) If a contributor knowingly evades moderation by posting his message other than through the usual channels and/or with headers that are designed to divert the post away from moderation, he will be banned from the group by blacklisting or otherwise, and the moderators reserve the right to reject follow up posts to any posts from such a banned contributor.
k) The moderators may at their discretion reject posts on the topic of whether moderators might be legally liable in respect of decisions they have made as moderators. Such posts might encourage mischievous litigation and disrupt the group. The moderators may likewise reject posts which attempt to discuss whether other posts in the group might be defamatory.
l) Signatures (sigs) at the end of posts must also comply with the moderation policy and in particular must not be abusive or defamatory or contain commercial advertising. The moderators may also at their discretion reject a signature which contains political slogans or solicits votes or support in respect of any election or campaign.
m) The moderators may at their discretion reject posts which contain incitement to racial hatred or derogatory descriptions of minority groups which may be hurtful or offensive to readers.
n) Discussions about moderation policy and whether individual posts should have been accepted or rejected will not as a general rule be permitted within the group and should instead take place in uk.net.news.moderation. Occasionally discussions about moderation policy may be permitted to a limited extent and at the discretion of the moderators, if it is felt that they would assist contributors in understanding how to post within moderation guidelines.
o) Posts must be in the English language. Posts that are in other languages or which are expressed in cryptic terms such that the moderator is not sure of the meaning are likely to be rejected.
p) If posts give a link to any rejected post or to the list of rejected posts, the moderators will usually reject such posts to avoid the risk that rejected posts will become part of a discussion in the group.
In the interests of making the moderators task simpler, articles that fail some simple technical requirements may be rejected automatically without direct human intervention. Articles cross-posted to any group in addition to uk.legal.moderated are rejected automatically. The moderators may if they choose operate a list of trusted posters but any posts from such contributors will be diverted to manual moderation if the posts contain prescribed "trigger words". The moderation system will try to return any rejected message to the sender via email with an explanation of the reason for rejecting the message. Disputed moderation decisions are best taken to uk.net.news.moderation. The moderators will on request try to assist posters in rephrasing articles so that they can be approved. However, they do not make any commitment to entering into extended correspondence with anybody.
A list of posts, showing whether they have been moderated yet and why some of them have been rejected, is at:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~webstump/l.ulm
Where a post has been rejected on the grounds of defamation, unreasonable infringement of privacy or unlawful content (eg possible breach of a court injunction) the text of the rejected message will not usually be available for inspection.
The moderators do not accept responsibility for the accuracy, truth or legality of any of the articles. Posters must assume full responsibility for the content of their own articles. The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of its content by the moderator or moderation team.
The foregoing information is believed to be accurate as at 27th September 2023.
The content of the rationale, charter and policy was devised by the moderators with the invaluable advice and assistance of Richard Ashton or {R} as he was known in Usenet. In memoriam {R}, 22nd February 1947 - 8th March 2016 R.I.P.