By the way | Life begins

September was a milestone month for me as it contained that significant birthday which sees my age now starting with a four. I drew out the celebrations as long as possible, beginning in late July and only just having finished, with a view to meeting it head on.

The plan seems to have worked as here I am still in one piece and, surprisingly, feeling precisely the same as I did at the tender age of 39.

I spent most of the day itself in work but found myself being spoiled throughout, with breakfast in bed presented by my very overexcited children and then finding cards, gifts and even a pink helium balloon displaying my name and age adorning my desk on arrival.

Members of my team joined me at lunchtime for pizza and prosecco, and my husband showed off his culinary skills with a delicious dinner.

My new age is thus far proving fairly painless, although some wise older friends tell me that I will really need to watch what I eat from now on to avoid piling on the pounds, and keep recommending anti-wrinkle face creams. The only real wobble I had was when I read in the paper on the day itself that the healthy life expectancy for a man in Manchester is just 55.

While I am not a man, nor '¨do I live in central Manchester, this is an enormously alarming statistic. I haven't yet begun my mid-life crisis but it may already be too late.

Uncertainty continues

I referred in my article last month (Solicitors Journal, 157/33) to a number of cases which are ensuring that I currently work hard for a living. By way of update, the claimant who was facing the imminent limitation deadline apparently failed to provide her solicitors with instructions regarding whether she wanted to issue proceedings. In order, therefore, to avoid a negligence claim against their firm, they did issue protective proceedings in advance of the limitation date.

The £3,000 after the event (ATE) insurance premium has thus now been incurred, but the claimant did not feel the pain personally as she has a finance deal. Her solicitors await instructions as to whether proceedings are to be served. This means that the uncertainty for our client could continue until early 2014, because claimants have four months following the issue of proceedings to serve them.

The case which I was last month ranting was stagnant, with none of the other parties taking the imminent trial '¨date seriously, continues to '¨be the subject of intense procrastination. We made an offer five weeks ago to the Part 20 claimant's solicitors, with the intention that they would in turn make an offer to settle the underlying claim against their client. As I write, my incredulous understanding is that no onward offer has yet been made.

To put this into context, '¨there are only two days before witness statements are due to '¨be exchanged.

The same solicitor who has yet to make an offer is also not inclined to draft any statements, having informed me this morning that he has not yet started them. He assures me that they will, however, be very brief. They will have to be! I am not confident that he has allowed for the fact that regardless of how long they are, statements of course need to be reviewed and approved by the witnesses themselves, who must also be available to sign them in advance of the deadline. Rather him than me.

To end as I began, my substantial new age has not yet left me feeling any less energised, which is a good job given the continuing demands of my caseload and also the speed at which my social life appears to be travelling. I leave you with my favourite quotes from my birthday cards this year which are (flatteringly) "Catherine is more like two '¨20 year olds than a 40 year old" and (less so) "40 isn't old, if you're a tree". SJ