The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill has finally limped its way into law, and its many opponents might be expected to be retiring to lick their wounds and tool up for the next election and a chance of getting rid of it with another government. Indeed, the Bill's most vocal critic in the Lords, Lord Bach, has given up his front bench post in the wake of its passing into law.

However, Lord Bach is not giving up the fight: he had always intended to return to the backbenches after doing what he could to thwart the Bill and he has taken to the road. This year's London Legal Walk, in support of legal advice centres, was a seminal one in that it marked the start of 'FightBach', as the peer has styled his Twitter self.

The Law Society, meanwhile, is looking to big City firms to help fund a "strategic litigation function that will ­monitor and challenge LASPO's implementation". The starting point is that much welfare and immigration litigation results from "poor decision making by public bodies" and it is in such cases that legal aid will be withdrawn. It is hoped the fund will allow public decision making to be challenged and changed. Much expert opinion will no doubt be elicited to prove the point.

While @FightBach could not be accused of posting abusive or threatening messages on Twitter, there is a growing number of prosecutions in this country against people who are accused of just that. One such is due to run into its third year as the appeal against conviction of the Tweeter is to be reheard. The fact that the case was brought has itself offended many, including comedians Al Murray and Stephen Fry.

In the US, however, the social network has been given considerably more gravitas, with courts citing comments as evidence. This astonishing fact was disclosed by a blogger on American legal site JD Supra. He quoted a number of instances where courts had admitted the strangely-constructed messages as providing, among other things, "some evidence of actual association" between a logo on a basketball and the well-protected Louis Vuitton device, used in a Hyundai commercial.

What were most amusing were the names ascribed to the comments, and some of the language used. As the writer, from LA law firm Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP, put it: "Can we all collectively mourn the favorable citation of a written statement [that] contains the words 'dyd,' 'yall,' and 'tht' as the latest and best evidence of the decline of western civilization? I believe it is our civic duty." To quote former presidential candidate John McCain, I couldn't agree more!

Maybe there is scope for a further category in the expert witness directory – translation into real language of this lingua franca.

Chris Stokes