Law Articles
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Latest "Law" Articles
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Facts about the US Constitution you might want to know (10/11/2010)
(...) In other words, a common legal claim asserted by a party challenging a law is that the law is unconstitutional. This means that the law violates a provision of the Constitution and is unenforceable.
What does the U. (...)
For a new law to be passed a bill must be introduced (10/11/2010)
(...) " followed by a number.
Any member of Congress (the House or Senate) can introduce a bill when the body is in session. The bill must then pass both Houses of Congress in identical form. (...)
Things to know if you want to become a lawyer (10/11/2010)
(...) It provides law school accreditation (approval), provides continuing legal education services, programs to assist lawyers and judges in their work and a variety of other legal services.
The ABA's stated mission is "to serve equally our members, our profession and the public by defending liberty and delivering justice as the national representative of the legal profession."
Can all law school graduates take the bar exam?
Most law school graduates take the bar exam, but there are exceptions. (...)
Lawyers in America have different kinds of jobs (10/11/2010)
(...) Public interest law firms usually have a different agenda.
There are many public interest law firms that defend civil liberties, advance guns-rights and libertarian points of view, advocate on behalf of religious causes, and defend certain types of cases. Some well known public interest law firms include: National Legal Aid and Defenders Association, Alliance Defense Fund, Legal Services Corporation, American Civil Liberties Union, National Center on Poverty Law, Public Justice, the Rutherford Institute, and the American Center for Law and Justice. (...)
Legal requirements to start a lawsuit (10/11/2010)
(...) The defendant must admit, deny, or respond that he or she does not have sufficient knowledge to answer the allegation.
Many times defendants will admit basic information in a complaint like the parties' names, the court's jurisdiction (sometimes) and a few of the underlying facts (such as plaintiff worked for the defendant) but deny the substance of the allegations and the legal claims.
What types of relief do plaintiffs seek?
Most lawsuits seek some type of monetary relief or damages. (...)
Rights to a preliminary hearing in state court (10/11/2010)
(...) "
What does a defense attorney hope to accomplish at a preliminary hearing?
In some cases, the defense attorney may hope to dismiss the case altogether by showing that the prosecution does not have probable cause to believe that the defendant committed the crime. In other words, sometimes the goal for the defense at the preliminary hearing is victory - getting the charges dismissed by a judge.
Other times, however, the defense might use the preliminary hearing to see what types of witnesses and/or evidence the prosecution has. (...)
Car insurance coverage exclusion for bodily injury to the insured (10/07/2010)
(...) The fee is calculated on the basis of the gross amount of a settlement or judgment, regardless of any contractual indemnity or reimbursement obligations the insured may have under a health insurance plan.
Thus, if an insured retains an attorney after an accident on a contingent fee basis, the fee does not include costs or liens that a health insurer or workers compensation insurer may have against the ultimate recovery. After the attorney’s fee is deducted and costs are paid, the insured could find him- or herself in the position of owing money to reimburse a workers compensation or health insurer and have no net recovery from the personal injury suit. (...)
Car business insurance and coverage exposures (10/07/2010)
(...) This exclusion precludes coverage for maintenance or use of any vehicle while the insured is employed or otherwise engaged in any business that is not one of the auto-related businesses described in the previous exclusion. However, this exclusion precludes coverage for your maintenance or use of an employer-provided vehicle while used for business or employment activities. For example, if you company-provided car is in the shop, your employer's commercial auto coverage should apply to a rental. (...)
Auto medical payments coverage is subject to a number of exclusions (10/07/2010)
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Use of Vehicle as Residence or Premises Exclusion
This medical payments exclusion precludes coverage for bodily injury to an insured sustained while occupying any vehicle located for use as a residence or premises. The intent of this exclusion is to apply, for example, when a motor home or trailer is being used as a primary residence or an office or business premises.
When the primary or exclusive use of such a vehicle is as a residence or premises, it is more properly the subject of a variant of homeowners policy whose medical payments coverage should apply in such circumstances. (...)
Insurance policies cover risks of loss arising from daily life (10/07/2010)
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Finally, when services are provided to an insured by a government entity as part of that individual's employment, it is simply improper for other policyholders of that insurer to foot the bill through their insurance premiums when they are already footing the bill for those medical services as taxpayers.
Racing Competition Exclusion
The ISO personal auto policy auto medical payments coverage excludes bodily injury losses while an insured is occupying any vehicle located in a facility designed for racing.
This exclusion, when read fairly, is pretty limited. (...)
Duties after an accident or loss applicable to car insurance coverages (10/07/2010)
(...) This is because one of the preconditions to recovery of uninsured motorist or underinsured motorist benefits by the insured is proof that the uninsured motorist or underinsured motorist is legally liable to the insured for damages.
The fourth and final paragraph of the insured's duties after accident or loss applies to the physical damage coverage. The insured must take reasonable steps after loss to protect a covered vehicle and its equipment from further loss. (...)
Life insurance facts you should know before choosing an insurance plan (10/07/2010)
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For example, the Los Angeles Times has for decades offered to its subscribers the opportunity to participate in a low cost, group accidental death life insurance program. Available limits are relatively high and annual premiums are very low. Coverages are somewhat more restrictive than individually owned life insurance policies. (...)
Variations of a whole life insurance policy (10/07/2010)
(...) These are like mutual funds in the sense that they involve different balances between stocks and bonds or other market sectors, but are usually not publicly traded.
Because of these aspects of variable life policies, the cash value account is subject to the general market conditions and the risk of decline in investment value, as well as gains. So, while variable life policies create the potential for greater cash value accumulation than standard whole life policies, they also include a risk of investment loss not presented by standard whole life policies. (...)
Life insurance policy provisions and clauses explained (10/07/2010)
(...) The current suicide clause is the product of research that indicates that the great majority of cases in which an insured has committed suicide in order to make life insurance proceeds available to a beneficiary or creditors have occurred within a short time after the policy has been taken out.
Generally, there is a presumption against suicide. Since the suicide clause is in the nature of a policy exclusion, the insurer would bear the burden of proof that the insured's death was the result of suicide. (...)
Business exclusion to liability coverage of homeowner policy (10/06/2010)
(...)
Third, providing home day care services for which the insured receives no compensation other than mutual exchange of such services from others is not deemed a business.
Fourth, the definition of business does not include providing home day care services to a relative of an insured.
The business exclusion itself provides that the liability and medical payments coverages do not apply to bodily injury or property damage arising out of or in connection with a business conducted from an insured location or engaged in by an insured. (...)
Medical payment coverage similar to exclusions that apply to liability coverage (10/06/2010)
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Residents
This exclusion provides that the medical payments coverage does not apply to any person who regularly resides on any part of any insured location, except for residence employees.
Other Comments
Exclusions applicable to the liability and medical payments coverages do not vary widely from insurer to insurer. Some insurers include exclusions for punitive or exemplary damages. (...)
Insurance exclusions you need to know about (10/06/2010)
(...) This exclusion is included in the personal injury endorsement because common theories of liability asserted in pollution lawsuits by adjoining or nearby landowners or by governmental bodies include nuisance and trespass. These claims can at times fall into the wrongful entry group of personal injury offenses, depending on how those defenses are defined.
Pollution Remediation Expense
This precludes personal injury coverage for the costs arising out of requests, demands, or orders that an insured test for, monitor, clean up, remove, contain, treat, detoxify, neutralize, or in any way respond to or assess the effects of the pollutants. (...)
Liability coverage limit and severability of insurance (10/06/2010)
(...) The severability of insurance provision mandates that the insurer evaluate coverage separately for each of the insureds who are sued.
There may be conflicts of interest between the two defendant insureds that might require that each be represented by separate defense counsel. In short, this condition means that as to the liability coverage, the availability of liability coverage to an insured and duties owed by and to any insured are independent of the coverage available to and duties owed by and to any other insured. (...)
Medical payment coverage is actually a bodily injury coverage (10/06/2010)
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Suits against us
This is actually a set of three conditions. The first condition provides that no action can be brought against the insurer unless there has been full compliance with the terms and conditions of the liability coverages. As with the similar property condition, this provision cannot prevent an insured from suing his or her insurer. (...)
Conditions that apply to all insurance coverages (10/06/2010)
(...) It limits the ability of either to claim there was an agreement to change policy terms without written evidence of the agreement.
This provision is not ironclad. Agents of an insurer (insurance agents, claim representatives, and attorneys employed by insurers) can and do bind the insurer to changes in the terms of policies. (...)
Risk of incurring an insurable loss arising out of the use of your personal car (10/06/2010)
(...) They are: District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Utah.
In addition, there are several other states where no-fault (formally known as personal injury protection) coverage is an optional coverage. If you live in one of the twelve mandatory no-fault states, you will need to learn about your state's specific requirements. (...)
Definitions used in the ISO personal car insurance policy form (10/06/2010)
(...)
Family Member
Family member means a person related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption who is a resident of your household. This includes a ward or foster child. Other insurers' definitions can add qualifications that eliminate coverage for wards or foster children or for children who have manifested an intent to reside elsewhere permanently. (...)
Law and justice concepts for easy understanding (09/25/2010)
(...) By doing this, the lawyer can figure out whether, and why, some conduct is considered to be criminal and other conduct is not. The question is known as a hypothetical question. Hypothetical comes from a Greek word meaning "to suppose". (...)
The law system sees crimes either as felonies or as misdemeanors (09/25/2010)
(...) Literally meaning "to speak the law" or "to say what the law is", jurisdiction refers to the authority of a particular court to hear and decide a case. A court's jurisdiction may be limited in several ways. Juvenile courts, for example, only have jurisdiction in cases involving children under the age of 18. (...)
Model Penal Code and common law approach (09/25/2010)
(...) Juries would also have to investigate whether a defendant should have known about the law he or she allegedly broke, which would add another level of difficulty to trials.
Another argument is that the law is the command of the community that is binding upon all members of society; the law is not what individual members of society believe it to be. By allowing defendants to decide what the law is by their own ignorance, the legal system would be destroying its own authority. (...)
The consequences of receivership in a debt recovery court trial (05/18/2010)
(...) This will include an estimate of how much (if anything) is expected to be available for preferential creditors and how much (if anything) is expected to be available for unsecured creditors. At the end of the receivership the company may well be put into liquidation and if this happens, the receiver will hand any available funds to the liquidator. If the company is not to be wound up, the receiver relinquishes control and hands control of the company back to the directors, though this does not happen very often. (...)
The court orders the defendant to pay the claimant a certain sum of money (05/16/2010)
(...) This might be done, for example, if the defendant's circumstances change.
The defendant must make immediate payment or must exactly comply with the terms of the order. If he fails to do so, even if the failure to comply is marginal, the claimant can take enforcement measures. (...)
A court order to obtain information will not by itself produce payment (05/16/2010)
(...) There are two application forms for an order:
Application for order that the debtor attend court for questioning
Application for order that an officer of the debtor company attend court for questioning
The forms have many similarities. The first is used when the judgment debtor is an individual and the second is used when the judgment debtor is a company. In the latter case a company officer should be named to attend, and it is usual for this to be a director or the company secretary. (...)
The Enterprise Bill deals with many topics (05/16/2010)
(...) These will ensure that bankrupts make an affordable contribution to their debts out of their income.
The Crown's preferential right to recover unpaid taxes ahead of ordinary creditors in winding up and bankruptcy will be abolished. It is expected that secondary legislation will ensure that a proportion of the money that would have gone to the Crown will be available for unsecured creditors, rather than it all going to secured creditors. (...)
If you want a divorce you have to pay for predivorce debts (05/12/2010)
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By the time of bankruptcy, she faced almost US Dollars 50,000 in short-term unsecured debt on top of her US Dollars 78,000 mortgage. Half of the unsecured debt was credit cards, because, "After a year of struggling to keep up the payments on my own, I took cash advances on some of the credit cards to meet the monthly payments." After two years of robbing Peter to pay Paul, Melanie followed her ex-husband into the bankruptcy court. (...)
Options of a defendant who chooses to defend a debt recovery claim (05/11/2010)
(...) For example, a key phrase might be 'delivery of the goods never took place'. This would leave the defendant to provide supporting details and evidence later. The detailed defence used later should be within the limits of the outline defence stated on the form. (...)
The allocation questionnaire is very important in a debt recovery claim (05/11/2010)
(...) Alternatively the judge may order an allocation hearing, and he may order that the party at fault pay the cost of this.
It is expected that the claimant and the defendant will cooperate as necessary to provide information for each other's questionnaires. In reality this may sometimes be an ambitious expectation because the defendant and client are not likely to be on good terms. (...)
What is a case in the fast track or multi track (05/11/2010)
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A listing questionnaire is required for fast tack and multi-track cases and there is a trial fee which is payable when the listing questionnaire is filed. At the time of publication this is British Pounds 200 for a case in the fast track and British Pounds 300 for a case in the multi-track. The fee is payable only by the claimant unless the case is proceeding on a counterclaim alone. (...)
What to keep in mind when issuing a debt recovery claim (05/09/2010)
(...) It is not necessary to name any or all of the partners. Examples are:
Jenkins and Johnson (a firm)
Wessex Holiday Services (a firm)
It is normal to specify a major place of business if there is one, but the residential address of any partner may be used.
A company registered in England and Wales
The exact registered name of the company should be entered. (...)
The debt recovery defendant has various legal options (05/09/2010)
(...) If this happens, the claimant has a policy decision to make and may decide not to pursue these amounts. On the other hand, they are payable and the resources of the courts are available to enforce payment. After waiting for the required period the client can request judgment, which will be granted, then set about enforcing the judgment and getting payment. (...)
Start a debt recovery trial if you want your money back (05/08/2010)
(...) '
It may of course be difficult in practice to establish whether the customer does or does not have the means to pay. Credit reference agencies may be a source of good information. Another good indicator may be the Register of County Court Judgments. (...)
Sellers can sue customers and go to trial if these do not respect the contract (05/08/2010)
(...) It is not uncommon to be presented with 'buyer's terms and conditions' and if you sign them you will be bound by the buyer's terms. If neither side signs or agrees the other side's terms, it is probably the case that the last assertion of terms will prevail. It can all get very childish but it is the law. (...)
Negotiating a settlement in a debt recovery process can bring great satisfactions (05/08/2010)
(...) The law about acceptance of without prejudice offers may be summarised as follows:
a without prejudice offer may be withdrawn at any time before it is accepted;
if a without prejudice offer is accepted, it becomes a contract and is binding on both sides;
an oral agreement is usually binding on both sides, but it is sound practice to confirm it in writing. This avoids arguments about exactly what was agreed.
The exercise of retention of title rights
There may be a clause in your conditions of sale that states that you retain ownership of goods after delivery until payment has been made, and that you may repossess the goods if you have not been paid. (...)
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