DISTRICT judge David Carney was on hand to launch a new group for legal eagles in Basingstoke - and hand down some useful advice.

Mr Carney, who sits at Basingstoke's county court, was guest speaker at the inaugural meeting of the North Hampshire Junior Lawyers Division at the Light Lounge, in London Street.

He gave some sound advice to the group, made up of newly-qualified and trainee solicitors, legal execu-tives, paralegals and licensed conveyancers, on preparing a court case.

Mr Carney said: "What you need to look at is the facts of the case. You need to sift the evidence and the statements and decide what is relevant.

"You need to put the facts in some kind of order - alphabetical, chronological, biological. Any kind of order is better than disorder."

Kat Gibson, chairwoman of the Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) - a national body set up in January this year - was also a guest speaker.

She said the JLD had taken over the representation of junior lawyers in England and Wales from the Trainee Solicitor Group and Young Soli-citor Group.

Heading the North Hampshire JLD as chairman is Marc Jourdan, a trainee solicitor from Lamb Brooks. He explained: "It's mainly a networking support group, which brings together junior lawyers working in the legal profession across north Hampshire."

Mr Jourdan said the division's committee, made up of lawyers from Lamb Brooks, Phillips and Clarke and Son, is keen to listen to members as to the direction they want the group to take.

Julie Mehrabian, a trainee solicitor with Clarke and Son, who is expecting to qualify this September, said: "When you first start as a trainee, it is all quite bewildering. So it's nice to know there are other trainees in the area with whom we can swap stories and trade tips.

"And what's nice about this is that it's not all socialising and network-ing. We want to put something back into the community. For example, we are hoping to be able to organise a few careers evenings at schools."