Understand Your Rights. Solve Your Legal Problems
Google has agreed to amend its global advertising business in a bid to prevent an abuse of power. The move nods toward antitrust pressures for the first time in a substantial settlement with French authorities. It is hoped that the deal could help to stabilise the power dynamic within advertising in favour of publishers who held influence over the business before the internet boom.
The antitrust settlement was announced on Monday and saw Google fined €220 million. It is the first time a U.S tech giant has agreed to amend its advertising business, which sits behind a monumental proportion of its revenue. In 2020, Alphabet (fundamentally a holding company for Google) generated nearly $183 billion in revenue. A whopping 80% of this revenue came from Google's ads business.
The French watchdog revealed that Google's ad management platform for significant publishers (Google Ad Manager) promoted Google's online ad marketplace (Google AdX) over others. AdX was reportedly provided with calculated data and given access to requests made by advertisers via Google's ad services. Successively, the data exchange between AdX with Ad Manager was far smoother than that with other advertising management platforms. Platforms such as these are vital for publishers to effectively manage and sell advertising space.
The terms of the settlement assert that Google must improve the way Ad Manager services work with rival ad spaces and servers. The watchdog has stated that a number of these changes will come into effect in the first quarter of 2022, while Google has additionally promised to make the use of its data and tools easier for publishers.
The Ph.D. or Doctor of Philosophy degree program is offered in a variety of academic fields. In general, the best programs are provided by exceptionally well-funded institutions, have top-of-the-line facilities for research, and possess a good supply of educational resources. The best way to choose between the shortest doctoral programs and the most straightforward Ph.D. programs is to ask each school for further information. Several accelerated online postgraduate programs are available, even though most online doctoral programs last two years and longer.
If you want to obtain a Ph.D., a long-term commitment is required. A doctoral program can take well over five years to complete. In many universities across the country, you can pursue an accredited accelerated Ph.D. program. Meaning, more schools offer a doctorate in one year. As a reference guide, the following list contains a selection of 3 of the shortest doctoral programs out there. Depending on how they are structured, these online degree programs are offered in full-time, part-time, online, or hybrid formats.
Distance learning is one of the easiest ways to earn a doctorate. The curriculum is designed for nurses currently employed and who wish to pursue higher education to advance their careers. Is there an online 12-month DNP program available? Yes, of course! Since self-paced learning is familiar with online programs, you can complete an online DNP degree program within 12 months. However, we will say that a nursing degree is completed within 20 months if you follow the “easy” path. Students acquire advanced knowledge about business and evidence-based models, population health, and healthcare systems. The program is completed within a short period through a final scholarly project that emphasizes quality improvement, translational science, and patient outcomes.
The program offers online Ph.D. scholars numerous opportunities to specialize in a specific area that best suits their professional development and research interests. There are many specializations to choose from, including Global Business and Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Business Management, Information Systems and Enterprise Resource Management, and Healthcare Management and Leadership. Universities that offer DBA programs provide state-of-the-art learning resources for convenient learning. The program is ideal for military personnel, working professionals, employees of the Department of Defense, and families of military members. It is possible to complete the degree program within 24 months.
Students can complete coursework in four 10-week quarters throughout the year, which allows them to take more courses within a short period. Please note that the overall Ed.D. program is completed within three to five years. It does not require a residency requirement, and you can meet all coursework and dissertation requirements at your own pace. In addition, students are exposed to opportunities to join academic networks through cohort systems.
Also note, nobody wants to spend ten years doing their Ph.D. So, let’s keep this straight and simple. No matter your degree program and university, you can hasten your program by keeping your topic as narrow as possible, writing a funding proposal ahead of time, and having your thesis examined from time to time.
Eleanor Weaver, CEO at Luminance, shares her thoughts with Lawyer Monthly on the billable hour and how it may no longer be relevant to the modern legal profession.
Lawyers have often held a special fascination in the eyes of those outside of the profession. Law is viewed as an industry where sharp arguments and even sharper attire combine to provide high-stakes drama. But in real life, a career in law is known for its demanding culture as well as its perks.
The reality today is that bright-eyed, bushy-tailed young lawyers enter the practice of law with big dreams of cracking open cases or closing big deals, but are too often confined to monotonous, repetitive document review work. With corporate data only continuing to increase, these budding young lawyers are quickly met with long nights spent reading and analysing near-identical contracts with little time allocated to the creative and analytical work that they actually entered the profession for. Some firms expect their junior lawyers to bill at least 2,000 hours a year even without holiday, leading to lawyers feeling unmotivated and unsatisfied, as well as displaying signs of mental distress.
And with the onset of remote working, the danger of overworking has increased for some professionals, thanks to the extreme proximity we have to our work phones and laptops. Work no longer ends with the commute and lawyers obsess about 6-minute billable blocks in their bedroom rather than the boardroom.
These billable blocks feed into the billable hour, which was first developed as a means of keeping track of clients’ fees and monitoring annual billing targets. The billable hour also bred competitiveness – as lawyers worked determinedly against the clock to deliver stellar results. But there is a fine line between determination and burnout, and with the volume of documentation legal teams are expected to review only continuing to increase, major law firms are recognising that changes to their billing model could improve employee well-being, while also strengthening the lawyer-client relationship.
Work no longer ends with the commute and lawyers obsess about 6-minute billable blocks in their bedroom rather than the boardroom.
Just recently, Osborne Clarke announced a move towards subscription pricing models by 2025. Indeed, world-leading law firms like Slaughter and May and Linklaters are also experimenting with more flexible alternatives to pricing such as fixed fees, capped fees and success fees. These pricing models work to reflect the value of the solution provided to the client and their business, not on the hours spent. This is critical in a market where the pressure to do ‘more for less’ has never been so apparent, with clients demanding to know exactly how and where their cash is being spent.
But in order to really rethink time management, efficiency must be increased, and the adoption of technology is the key to the success here. With the explosion in enterprise data, advanced AI technology has emerged as a critical enabler for law firms of all sizes, helping to speed up and enhance laborious and repetitive tasks like mass-document review in an arbitration dispute, for instance. This means lawyers are able to focus less on the mundane and more on the fulfilling tasks such as consultancy work and legal analysis, putting to use the skills they honed during law school and most likely entered the profession for in the first place.
A high-volume M&A due diligence review arriving in the form of a request for proposal (RFP) document can illustrate a challenge with traditional time management. Trainees can be faced with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of documents for a single review. On top of this, increasing quantity and complexity of legal and regulatory change, a prime example being the disruption arising from Brexit, means that lawyers must constantly assess and mitigate associated risks for their clients. If these clients are paying for advice on the hour, then there’s pressure to deliver, but law firms can scrap this model of payment while also drastically reducing the time spent on review by utilising the right software. Whether you’re using a tool that helps with document collaboration and e-signatures, reviewing datasets to uncover key information embedded in contracts, or managing workflow, technology is proven to be the greatest friend to any junior lawyer.
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And beyond just improving employee wellbeing, a move to more flexible pricing models might soon be very necessary in order to remain competitive in an increasingly dynamic legal market, as Alternative Legal Service Providers or ‘ALSPS’ start to make their mark on the sector. PwC and Deloitte’s legal divisions now employ more lawyers than most law firms and 23% of large firms in the UK and US say they have lost business to the Big Four. These new players are creating a new legal service delivery model built around integrated technology platforms and delivered with value-based pricing. And it’s effects are certainly being felt - a recent survey by Thomson Reuters found that the ALSP market is now worth more than $10 billion.
In order to retain the best and brightest – the future partners and leaders – law firms need to ensure that they modernise to get the most out of their employees’ talents and meet the demands of their clients; the key to this is rethinking the rigid framework of the billable hour. By switching to outcome-based pricing while boosting digitalisation, law firms will no longer have to adopt a framework which unnecessarily constricts the way lawyers work.
Nobody expects to be involved in a car accident, which is why most aren't prepared for what comes next. In the case of small accidents, making a small mistake or omission won't make that much of a difference. However, if you were involved in a serious accident where you or another party was severely injured, or died, it's very important to know what you should do and avoid. Let's get a look at some of the worst things that you can do after being involved in a car accident.
One of the things you should never do after a car accident is start apologizing to other parties. Even if you feel like you're responsible, you have no idea what was happening on the other side. You might find out later that there was negligence on their part. Or maybe the accident was caused by something else, like bad road conditions, for instance. So, don't assume automatically that you should be the one carrying the blame and wait for all the facts to come out.
If you live in a no-fault state. This means that your insurance company, and not the other party, will be responsible for compensating you in case you suffered damages. This doesn’t mean that you can’t sue the other party if you get involved in a car accident , however.
If your injuries are life-changing, life-threatening, or there was a casualty, then you or another party has the right to sue. You could be able to sue for a variety of non-economic damages. You will need someone in your corner to help establish at what level each party was responsible to make sure that everyone gets properly compensated. You also need someone who knows what you can sue for and what you can realistically get.
Now, if you want to have grounds to sue, you cannot ignore your doctor's advice or start missing appointments. How are you going to sue for pain and suffering if you're constantly flaunting your doctor's rules and don't bother to go to follow-up visits? This could be enough to invalidate your claim, so take any advice the doctor gives very seriously. They could become one of your greatest assets in your case.
This is one of the worst mistakes that you can make. Even if it seems minor, you should wait for the police to get there unless you can get to an agreement with the other party. Leaving could be considered a hit and run, which can be a felony in the state and carry serious consequences.
These are just a few examples of mistakes that you should avoid if you have been involved in a car acciden. Now that you know a bit more about them, consider speaking with a lawyer today if you think you have grounds to sue.
For any business or individual that consults or gives professional advice, it can be very valuable to have professional indemnity cover in case something does not work out as planned. For doctors, lawyers, financial advisors or anyone providing their expert opinion, whilst we always have best intentions, you could find yourself at the hands of a big lawsuit if the outcome of your advice turns sour.
Do you give medical advice? Do you give financial advice? Well, if one of your clients finds themselves in a worse position physically or financially, you may be held responsible and required to pay compensation or damages to the customer. If the stakes are high, you could owe millions - so having professional indemnity or PI cover is essential to cover your back.
Who is Professional Indemnity Insurance For?
Whether self-employed or part of your business, professional indemnity is for anyone who gives professional advice for a living, including but not limited to:
In fact, for some industries, having PI cover is so vital that your governing body or employer will not let you operate without it.
How Much Does Professional Indemnity Cover Cost and What Is Included?
The price of policies may vary depending on your line of work and potential damages, but professional indemnity insurance with Get Indemnity™ starts from £322 per year or monthly fees of £26.83 - and will give you up to £1 million coverage.
You can also apply for up to £5 million, £10 million or £100 million worth of cover - and this will be priced accordingly.
What is Included in Professional Indemnity Cover?
Professional indemnity cover is essentially there as a back-up in case you have to pay any damages to a customer. But the overall fees can be quite significant. Especially if you are factoring things like court fees, legal fees, compensation paid out, time off work and business interruption.
In some cases, a bad lawsuit could bring your business to a halt, creating a bad public image and a real loss of income. In fact, you may need to use cover to pay for PR or rebranding to reshape your public image.
Whilst you may receive up to £1 million cover on your policy, you may find that this sum is necessary taking all expenses into consideration.
What Are Common Claims for Professional Indemnity?
So The Question Is: Do I Need It?
If you operate in a highly specialist field where there is a lot at stake, then yes, you will need professional indemnity insurance.
Above all, those giving medical or financial advice where there is a lot to be gained or lost for clients - this would make you a good candidate for purchasing PI cover.
But remember, it is not a legal requirement, such as car insurance for employers liability, so if you are a small operation, you do not deal directly with clients or there are not huge things at stake for clients - you may not need cover in place or you could opt for a very cheap policy.
Each year, over 300 million workplace injuries occur around the globe. For many, the experience of the incident and the events that follow can be traumatic and difficult to deal with. The mental stress that comes with a work-related injury can have a massive impact on one’s life. Many studies have demonstrated the serious mental health consequences these injuries may bring. The good news is you are not alone, and there is help available.
What to Do After Being Involved In a Serious Work-Related Accident
There are deadlines for reporting a workplace injury, be it physical or mental. The first step is seeking out professional medical help and reporting the incidents to your employer. This stage could be scary, but taking that first step may leave you feeling less anxious.
Give Yourself Time
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can affect people differently. Some lash out and become defensive, while others may retreat from the world. Unfortunately, there is no specific timeframe for PTSD, and what may seem normal for some will be entirely different for others. Slowing down and giving yourself time to process what has happened can allow you to acknowledge the incident and possibly help you to see a way forward. Often when time is not provided for these initial steps, a person cannot heal mentally or physically, which can lead to feelings of helplessness.
Don’t feel ashamed or embarrassed if you need time to yourself. Feeling like no one else understands what you’re going through is a frequent experience with post-traumatic stress disorder. If you require professional help, reach out and don’t wait. You can also gain valuable information on the symptoms of PTSD and what to do from research and self-study.
Asking for Help Is Okay
PTSD is often accompanied by feelings of isolation and separation from things you enjoyed before the incident. One of the most significant steps is reaching out to others that you trust and who can aid in your understanding of the event. Sometimes a traumatic occurrence does not allow for clear thinking. However, a legal professional like Williams & Kamb may often put things into perspective and provide the support you need regarding confusion about your legal rights.
Removing Any Unwanted Stress
Much of the stress that comes from a workplace incident is seeking the correct advice from trusted legal representatives. Filing for worker’s compensation can be a long and stressful process, and can ultimately affect your mental health. While lawyers aren’t usually associated with mental health, having a legal professional in your corner can help when you have been negatively affected by a work-place incident.
Obtaining worker’s compensation may seem like a hassle in your anxious or injured state, but it is possible with help from the right people. The main goal when suffering from PTSD is to lower your stress in any way possible. You can do this by seeking professional medical and legal help, and usually, a balance of the two is most effective.
Contrary to popular belief, PTSD is not a life sentence, and legal representation is your right. Reach out for assistance today and start rebuilding your life.
If you’ve never gone through the process of divorce before, it’s expected that you’d be totally unfamiliar with the aspects surrounding it. There’s so much information and several notions circulating about it and it can be difficult to ascertain which of them are true and which aren’t.
It’s completely normal to talk to other people and ask for their opinion while you’re about to get a divorce. Maybe you’d confide your ideas with your trusted hairdresser, a close friend at work, a distant cousin, or even your gym instructor. Chances are they’ll tell you conflicting things that may show several perspectives, and at some point, a few myths about ending your union with your spouse.
Leading Divorce Misconceptions Debunked
While it’s okay to talk to someone you trust about your plan to end your marriage, you should keep in mind that obtaining a legal expert’s perspective is the best approach in dealing with complicated legal situations like divorce. You can’t merely rely on hearsays and just believe in anything that people around you’d say most especially if you’re inquiring about how to best proceed with your case.
Take a look at some of the regarded top myths below about divorce that you shouldn’t fall for along with a brief explainer about each one.
1. Once You’ve Committed Adultery, You’ll Lose Everything
This is probably the most common fallacy people think about divorce that isn’t true in any way. You may have seen it happen on popular media but in real life, it almost never happens. If you cheated on your spouse and got caught red-handed, your aggrieved partner may ask for a divorce. That doesn’t mean, though, that you’ll be losing everything that you’re rightfully allowed to such as child custody, monetary support, and properties such as cars and the family house.
However, it’d be an entirely different story if the adulterous act has significantly affected your finances. This may possibly impact the future division of jointly-owned assets and other sharing concerns.
If you’re currently in this situation, it’s best to contact a lawyer to assist you. Family lawyers often represent clients who are dealing with divorce proceedings, child custody battles, and adoption cases. They’re law practitioners that solely focus on legal issues that can potentially impact families and how to navigate through them in court to champion their client’s best interests.
2. You Can’t Get Divorced If The Spouse Doesn’t Agree
There’s always been a false belief that people can’t get divorced if the other party doesn’t agree with it which is entirely untrue. The government recognizes that every person should be free to leave a marriage if they no longer want to stay in that commitment.
If you’re really set and decided about your divorce, what you should do is file the paperwork accordingly for the process to get started. There’ll be a given time frame or deadline for your spouse to respond and if they fail to do so, you can proceed to file a motion for default. The motion will prompt a default judgment which basically means that you can get out of your marriage on your own terms.
3. A Divorce Can’t Be Filed Without A Lawyer
Getting a lawyer isn’t really a requirement when filing for a divorce. You can represent yourself if you prefer to. There are several guides online on how to handle a divorce on your own. However, you need to prepare yourself because that can be a long and tedious journey before a judgment is rendered.
DIY or do-it-yourself divorces might only work in certain cases though. These instances may include proceedings with no kids involved or when there’s not a lot of property to split between you and your partner. If it’s your first time getting a divorce, it’s highly recommended to hire a professional lawyer to take care of everything for you.
4. Child Custody Always Goes To The Mother
In earlier times, perhaps, mothers always get a step ahead when it comes to child custody at the resolution of each divorce. However, time’s constantly involved in a perpetual cycle of change and so is the law. Today, the court prioritizes the welfare and best interests of the child above all else.
Legally speaking, both mother and father are equally entitled to their rights in the child’s custody. The case and court decision will usually depend on who can prove that they can provide the best love and care in the name of the child’s welfare.
5. Alimony Is Gender-Based
Another divorce myth that seems to still not get straightened out up until now is that females will always get the alimony. This may be the case back in the day; yet today, more and more women are earning considerably higher than their spouses. The court will be looking at the incomes of both spouses and not just the husband.
With the said rising number of stay-at-home dads who have quit their job to take care of the kids and the home, male spouses nowadays may be granted spousal support and not the other way around.
Listen To The Experts
Before believing in any myths about divorce, make sure to consult with an attorney first. Not everything you hear is true, especially when it concerns intricate legal battles such as divorce. The court nowadays, on its part, considers several aspects and angles before rendering its decisions regarding several issues ranging from child custody to assets and property ownership.
Make the whole divorce process easier for you by learning the basics about the proceeding. Once you’ve made yourself aware of how it works, you’ll hopefully find it easier to navigate through the process of putting an end to an unhappy and unsatisfying marriage.
Some already established lenders including Wonga, The Money Shop and QuickQuid have fallen into administration in the last few years, following thousands of complaints and reimbursements to former customers.
When the City regulator opened the gates to loan claims, thousands of previous customers applied to receive a full refund for high cost loans, claiming that they could not afford them and were put under greater financial pressure due to lack of affordability or employment.
To give an idea of numbers, Wonga paid a total of £500 million worth of compensation to its ex-customers, although the overall bill owed was more than £4 billion. With The Money Shop and QuickQuid paying back a modest £100 million to its customers in comparison.
The latest companies to face increasing claims are guarantor lender, Amigo Loans, and sub-prime lender, Provident. Bournemouth-based Amigo Loans has already paid back more than £50 million to its customers who have struggled with repayments, through a combination of self-claim forms and aggressive marketing from claims management companies, who often take a percentage of any successful claim. Some claims firms have charged up to 36% in commission to administrate the reclaim process on behalf of customers, something that Amigo CEO Gary Jennison has called ‘outrageous.’
With thousands of claims still in the pipeline and a risk of insolvency, Amigo has structured a deal that will see all customers receiving a payout, but only around 5% to 10% of their overall amount owed. Wonga had previously committed to a 4% of the total reclaim amount to their customers and fell into administration thereafter.
Whilst this proposed structure will keep Amigo profitable and trading for future years, this was recently challenged and rejected by the Financial Conduct Authority last week - asking Amigo to come up with a stronger repayment package to its former customers.
Provident is one of the UK’s oldest lenders, specialising in doorstep loans, going from home to home, well before the Internet was invented. The firm is also under huge pressure to resolve its claims - and is looking to see the outcome of Amigo’s ongoing court case before acting accordingly.
David Beard, founder of LendingExpert, commented: “A lot of customers were granted high-cost loans that they simply could not afford and they were given top-up loans and rollovers, which led to an inevitable spiral of ongoing debt”.
“With the Financial Ombudsman upholding around 88% of claims for Amigo so far, there certainly needs to be more transparency in terms of what lenders can and cannot do.”
“On the one hand, they want to fund loans, but if the customer cannot repay, they are obligated to provide a full refund and compensation on top. This is not a sustainable business model for any lender and there will be fewer and fewer in the market until we are left with just banks. So it will be interesting to see how the proceedings conclude with Amigo and more transparency in the industry would certainly be warranted.”
Viessmann has acquired Dutch family-owned company Priva. The transaction combines Viessmann’s air conditioning, cooling and industrial solutions with the Dutch expertise in building automation as well as climate and process control at Priva. The partnership of the two family-owned companies is expected to strengthen their sustainability strategies.
Viessmann has acquired a minority shareholding in Priva to emphasize the long-term perspective of the partnership. This allows Priva to pursue its strategy, which focuses on technical innovation and international growth while maintaining its independence. Viessmann, in turn, can use its stake to rapidly develop its business in climate solutions for commercial buildings and explore opportunities in the horticulture sector.
Shibley Righton LLP acted as Canadian counsel to Viessmann in connection with its acquisition of a minority position in Priva Holding B.V. The lead partner on the transaction was Marlin Horst with assistance from Joel Berkovitz in respect of intellectual property matters.
The SPHERE group is strengthening its position in the United Kingdom, thanks to the acquisition by its subsidiary ALFAPLAS of 100% of the shares of SARPAK Ltd, based in Port-Talbot, South Wales. SARPAK Ltd employs 53 people at its Port Talbot site, where it extrudes, converts and recycles PE and compostable films. It has a 2019 turnover of €12 million, and currently has a production capacity of around 7,000 tons.
Sphere were advised in the acquisition by the corporate team at Thompson Smith and Puxon (TSP), the Essex based law firm who have a long- standing association with Sphere.
The TSP team, led by corporate director and partner Mary Anne Fedeyko, was multi-disciplinary in focus and included company commercial lawyers Claire Powell, Nick Mayles and Nicola Rout, commercial property lawyer Mark Rowlands and employment solicitor, Sam Welham.
Mary Anne Fedeyko remarked: “The team here at TSP were, of course, delighted to advise on this acquisition which will undoubtedly prove the springboard for future growth given the obvious synergy between Alfaplas and SARPAK. Sphere has for many years been focused on reducing the environmental impact of the products it manufactures and sells; the acquisition means that Sphere is ideally positioned to develop further new and innovative products which, together with the economies of scale, marks the beginning of a new and exciting future’.’
