It's All Getting Busy In The Bailiff Industry.

Yesterday was a good day, not only was the weather glorious, but I learnt about a great deal of activity currently going on with the bailiff Industry, all of which I find positive and incredibly exciting and I congratulate The MoJ for publishing the first Year Review of The TCE Act 2007, which I feel was the catalyst needed to move The Industry on. I will work through my discoveries with no particular order.

1/ At LACEF's most recent meeting, we saw the presence of the New CEO of JBW, and The CEO of CIVEA, Russell Hamblin-Boone, a man I have been talking to recently and who I genuinely like, his vision for CIVEA is admirable, we have argued and agreed to disagree on a number of issues (as I will go into later), but are closer in many areas where we are far closer than I expected on the Majority of issues that we discussed, including the future that he has planned for the direction of CIVEA. The fact that I am even able to talk to the organization's CEO is,in itself, a big and bold move on his part and that this is something I feel that must acknowledge, as previously I was a person Non Grata and possibly even regarded as an annoyance, a position that may happen again.. I hope that this is not going to happen, though as I know that I will say some things that will upset the association. The other huge occurrence that happened at the LACEF meeting was the Cabinet Office making an involved briefing on the Centralization of debt, so that unpaid matters from Magistrates Warrants and Liability Orders, have a bearing on Defaulter's credit rating. I congratulate Barrie Minnie and Freddie Dawkins for the incredibly hard work they put into arranging these conferences and hope that they will allow me to attend future events, as I am a strong believer in Local Authority Enforcement Teams, who can not only bring in important revenue Streams, but can also fulfill many other functions that could create large cost savings and increased efficiencies through correct implementation.

2/ I have already mentioned CIVEA so it seems logical that I cover their AGM next, obviously I wasn't present at this event either, as I am not a member of CIVEA. However, I have been told a few bullet points that I have been told about by a member, who agreed to share these items (and nothing else) with me :-

(a) CIVEA have decided to become more open and approachable and work more closely with the Charities and other interested Organizations, the fact is confirmed by their CEO attending the LACEF conference, round table talks which I attended and the recent Conference held by Credit Strategy at The QE II conference centre.

(b) They are going to look at their complaints process and in the event of that they can't resolve the complaint themselves, they are prepared to refer the complaint to an Independent Body for adjudication ( a radical and refreshing idea that I particularly applaud, in view of their previous position on the matter).

(c) Their current Membership of 35 Companies and 16 Private Members, will be actively pursuing expansion on both Tiers, this one if feel is both good and bad, I feel that all companies should be registered, however I have concerns regarding the expense of being in CIVEA (which I am told would drive many small companies to cease trading), When it comes to Private Members, it would be replicating CEAA's role in The Industry, only at a far higher expense as CEAA Membership is currently ￡25 per annum, whilst CIVEA Private members have to pay ￡420 per annum, this is a huge expense in comparison, the fact that another of CIVEA's goals is to seek to engage with all of it's membership, rather than the current situation, where it's Central Committee makes all the decisions.

(d) The main areas that I have disagreed with CIVEA's new CEO on, come from their Website and reply to The 1st Year MoJ Review, where they state that they are an Independent Association, with Independent Funding and that they represent 2300 Certificated Enforcement Agents.I put it to him that they are in fact a Trade Organisation and are funded by Their Company Members, on this matter he conceded that I was right and has promised me that he will alter these facts on their Webpage and inform the MoJ on their real status, the one area that we failed to agree on was the Representation of 2300 CEAs, I stated that controlling the Bond of these Bailiffs was not the representation of them, especially as these bonds were actually under the control of the Company (who in many cases have sold the Bond to the CEA for upto ￡208 despite the fact that The Company only pays ￡65 for these indemnity products, which in real terms means that the Bailiff themselves could end up footing the Legal Bills and damages awarded after CIVEA have invoiced the Company that paid for them in the first instance and often withdraw the Bond if the Bailiff goes to work elsewhere, even though the vast Majority of these CEAs are regarded as Self Employed and by rights, having paid for this Bond, should still be covered by it on moving to a different Company. I offered to help CIVEA work through any problems and the door wasn't shut in my face, though I doubt that there would be an approach by CIVEA, but with it's new stance, it may happen sometime down the line. I genuinely wish CIVEA well especially their CEO, I hope his brush will wipe away the many cobwebs in the Association, I am hopeful that we will see a ground change in their approach.

3/ Finally I come to CEAA. I found out by complete accident that they are finally getting their act together by holding Elections for their Regional Chair and Vice Persons, I was in fact contacted through LinkedIn by one of the Candidates standing, asking for my vote. It was with regret that I had to stand down after Ill health and that Steve Woods had taken my position in the Founding Committee and is doing an excellent job(so I have heard), I hope that these elections are both Democratic and fair (unlike the abortive and irregular election of Martin Rodgers for London and South East Region last year), may I congratulate Andy Coates as President of the Central Committee for staging these elections and wish everyone involved with their Campaigns, the best of luck. I hope that we see New Blood coming onto the Committee and let it invigorate CEAA as much as a new CEO has at CIVEA, I have never seen so much potential Change in The Industry and truly hope things work out and ensure the Industry last another 800 years !

As an amendium, I would like to thank JBW's call centre for the way they dealt with the cases of two blind friends of mine, they were not only excellent and considerate of the circumstances, but at all times they were truly professional, I would offically like to thank Kev, the line manager who I dealt with, he was suburb and desrves a raise for putting up with me, it is refreshing to see how new management can make a change. I hope that all the Associations will do the same and believe that they will.