Herbies to send Aussie work to Belfast review centre

Readers' comments (15)

• Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 9:21 am

  "...whether... any language barriers can be overcome in the long run"
  I thought they spoke English in both Australia and Belfast?

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• The Cunning Linguist | 19-Nov-2012 9:32 am

  @Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 9:21 am
  
  Good point, perhaps they mean that the Irish accent is incomprehensible for Aussies? Though, that seems unlikely. But, if so, maybe Herbies will have to introduce elocution lessons?

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• Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 9:53 am

  They should be used to accents from either side of the border, the Irish have been emigrating to Australia for years after all!

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• Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 11:52 am

  "language barriers" - what an outrageous comment to make. how offensive.

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• Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 12:44 pm

  Im of irish decent and find these comments very insulting as these comments have moved away from where Herbies uses it review centre to insulting the irish.

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• Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 1:12 pm

  I may be wrong but in Freebies' and the journalist's defence, I think the reference to "any language barriers" is meant to address the possibility that the pilot case can be drawn from the Asia Pacific region so could involve documents in diverse languages such as mandarin, cantonese, japanese, thai and indonesian to name but a few.

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• Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 1:17 pm

  Grow up chaps - they specifically reference the Asia-Pac region as being part of the pilot. Understanding whether the Irish and Vietnamese (for example) can converse must surely just be part of their dd in looking at the project

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• Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 1:27 pm

  @Anonymous 12.44
  
  You aren't helping dispel the "language barrier" issue with your appalling spelling and grammar.

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• Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 1:40 pm

  Calm down all you touchy people -- this is document review work being done overnight (for the Aussies) -- one would assume that "language differences" referred to differences between Australian and UK legal drafting conventions. Or is that too dull for comment?

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• Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 1:48 pm

  I'm actually Irish and I don't find these comments insulting at all, it's obviously just a stupid reference to language barriers which was not clearly thought out, if anything it could be insulting to Australians, if you think about it, so just don't worry about!
  And just an extra comment from today's brilliant LND which said:
  "It could just be one big trick though. The Australian state of Victoria has a coastal town called Port Fairy with roughly 2,500 residents, not far from Melbourne by Australian standards. Sydney solicitor James Atkinson, who was from Northern Ireland, bought 5,120 acres of land in the town in 1843 and renamed it after his hometown - Belfast. It was a name that lasted until 1887, when the town reverted to its old name following an act of parliament."
  In my view Port Fairy sounds strangely similar to the name of Portaferry, a town in Northern Ireland.
  In any case, I think if this move by Herbies means that more work will be coming into the Belfast office and therefore potentially more locals will get work there, then that's surely a good thing.

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• Ir Ish | 19-Nov-2012 2:25 pm

  Well I for one will be taking my personal injury claim (trip and slip at work if anyone is interested) elsewhere after reading this article. One has to make a stand and talk with one's feet in a situation like this and Herbert Smythe will not be getting my custom on this occasion. Language barriers indeed. I never !

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• Anonymous | 19-Nov-2012 3:18 pm

  To be fair, if there's going to be any cross border dictation/WP interaction then accents can be a pretty big problem.
  When I worked in NZ and had Aussie WP typing out dicta it was generally full of question marks and mistakes due to differences in pronunciation (and this is between two very similar accents). I'm sure this would be exacerbated by differences in law between Aus/Asia Pacific and N. Ireland (i.e. unfamiliar terms etc).

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• Parddy O'flannagan'anan | 19-Nov-2012 6:07 pm

  Sum awf dose soo eaasily offendeded arbove needs too getta life, too bee sure. Ma falks were oon Boot A too de Colonies all'd does years awgo. Top awf de mawning toos ya alls.

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• Anonymous | 20-Nov-2012 8:44 am

  I once worked in a coding room in Australia where one of the coders, a qualified Irish barrister, was one of those strong silent types. It was very difficult to get him involved in a meaningful conversation but I remember people thought well of his coding work.

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• ExCityLawFirmWorker | 23-Nov-2012 3:23 pm

  Does this mean that another law firm has realised it cannot rely on the gravy train that is low-level document discovery work?
  
  If so, well done Herbies on moving into the noughties....modernity will catch up with you some time soon...

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