Understand Your Rights. Solve Your Legal Problems
The teaching law firm model has parallels to the teaching hospital model traditionally seen in the medicine discipline context, providing the opportunity for our students to obtain valuable work experience and develop their practical skills alongside their studies.
NLS Legal was the first of its kind when it became regulated in 2015 and it remains a model that is rare in the UK and international higher education sectors.
As a teaching law firm, alongside the typical law school academic and extra-curricular opportunities (student societies; mooting; competitions, etc.) offered at Nottingham Law School, we give our students the opportunity to work under supervision in a regulated law firm. Data shows that this work experience complements and enhances our students’ academic and employability outcomes, with our students consistently more likely to achieve a higher degree classification when compared with their peers who do not undertake work experience with us alongside their studies. There are also opportunities for students to undertake paid placements with us and gain Qualifying Work Experience.
The second, and equally as important, aspect to our work is to help bridge the gap in access to legal services across Nottinghamshire. Through the very generous support of Nottingham Trent University, we can offer pro bono legal services to those who would otherwise not be able to access legal advice – be that because of their financial circumstances or due to other barriers, such as lack of availability of a local legal aid provider.
NLS Legal provides legal services to individuals and organisations, predominantly from the Nottinghamshire area, who are unable to afford or otherwise access legal representation.
Our ABS status, combined with the incredible resourcing Nottingham Trent University provides us, means that our team of practitioners can offer advice and representation across a large range of service areas – namely business, civil litigation, employment, family, housing, intellectual property, special educational needs and disability, victims’ rights and welfare benefits. Our service includes representing clients in the relevant Tribunal and Courts, and this includes opportunities for our students to undertake the advocacy in many of these cases, something which our Bar students find particularly beneficial.
The teaching law firm model has parallels to the teaching hospital model traditionally seen in the medicine discipline context.
Across our services there is also a significant focus on providing public legal education – through seminars, webinars and information sheets. Such activity helps to expand our reach; educates attendees of their rights and responsibilities and provides our student volunteers with opportunities to develop their presentation and communication skills.
Across the last academic year (2021-22), NLS Legal created 735 opportunities for 619 students, both undergraduate and postgraduate. In addition to extra-curricular volunteering, many students get involved as part of their course, with a number of modules incorporating an element of NLS Legal activity.
Students who work with NLS Legal support the experienced and qualified lawyers in their delivery of advice to clients. The opportunities afforded to students are not confined to case work, however, as students also support our practice management functions through administrative placements, and through the NLS Legal Student Committee with the committee acting as an important bridge between the firm’s full-time staff and the student body. The committee provides feedback from NLS Legal students on their experiences with the firm, promotes opportunities to other students within the law school, and undertakes fundraising activities for other pro-bono organisations like the LawWorks Law School Challenge.
I first joined NLS Legal – then known as Nottingham Law School Legal Advice Centre - in 2015 as a student volunteer, whilst undertaking my Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) at Nottingham Law School. Following completion of the GDL, I was then fortunate enough to secure employment as a Legal Assistant in 2016, working full time alongside the part-time Legal Practice Course programme from which I graduated from with a distinction in 2019. I was the first person to undertake their solicitor training and achieve qualification with NLS Legal, since it gained law firm status in 2015.
In 2020 I had the honour of winning the Modern Law Awards’ Paralegal of the Year, which was followed by success in Nottinghamshire Law Society’s Junior Lawyer of the Year in 2021.
My professional journey to date has given me the opportunity to practice across a number of different service areas and for a diverse range of clients. I suspect I am one of very few NQ solicitors who juggle Education & Special Educational Needs cases with Intellectual Property work!
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As set out above, I qualified with NLS Legal through the SRA’s Equivalent Means scheme. As with the training contract process, an applicant for Equivalent Means must demonstrate experience of practice in a variety of areas (including contentious work) with a set of assessment criteria which aligns with the SRA’s competency framework.
That being said, the Equivalent Means route can be much more flexible than a more-traditional four- (or six-) seat training contract, allowing an applicant to aggregate experience gained over a number of years – and potentially with different employers – as is the case with QWE.
Having attained qualification in October 2022, I am looking forward to growing our much-needed Special Educational Needs & Disability service and expanding the service into other education-related matters, such as school exclusions and admissions appeals. Furthermore, like many of my NLS Legal colleagues, I would like to be able to contribute to policy and law reform using the University’s pedigree in research to complement the work of our practice.
Additionally, in line with NLS Legal’s mission as a teaching law firm, I am looking forward to further my mentoring, training and supervision of those who are at an earlier stage in their legal careers – be they full-time members of staff with our firm or be they Nottingham Law School student volunteers who work alongside their studies.
Callum Scott, Solicitor
NLS Legal
Nottingham Trent University – Nottingham Law School
Tel: +44 01158 482648
Callum Scott is a newly qualified solicitor at NLS Legal, Nottingham Law School’s ‘teaching law firm’. Callum’s undergraduate degree is in Chemistry and, having completed the Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course, he completed his training via the SRA’s Equivalent Means route. Equivalent Means has elements of both the training contract and of the new Qualifying Work Experience (QWE) routes to qualification.
NLS Legal is an SRA-regulated law firm fully integrated into Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University and operating as an Alternative Business Structure (ABS). NLS Legal provides pro-bono legal services to individuals, start-ups and not-for-profit organisations across a number of practice areas. NLS Legal was named ‘Law Firm of the Year’ at the LexisNexis Legal Awards 2022.
I am Principal Lecturer for the Practitioner Portfolio at Nottingham Law School. In this role, I develop tailored continuing professional development courses for law firms and individual practitioners and oversee a team of NLS tutors and practitioner consultants who regularly teach on the courses. I joined the Law School in 2002. Before that, for many years as a qualified solicitor, I practised commercial litigation with a national law firm.
My role at NLS ranges from leadership of strategy for the Practitioner Portfolio to line management of colleagues and external faculty, coaching students for negotiation and mediation competitions and designing and delivering practical courses for practitioners which emphasise the skills required in the practice of law and how delegates may develop their skills after the course. I coach colleagues in leadership and management, sit on course design committees in the University and am a member of the School Academic Standards and Quality Committee.
One of the most common complaints about formal legal education and training is that, whilst the experience may be interesting and even enjoyable, nothing happens afterwards as a result. There is no ‘bottom line’ benefit. Whilst we cannot control what delegates do or do not do differently once they leave the course, we can offer some guidance on how to maximise the chances of delegates translating their learning into relevant action for their practice.
The practitioner courses at NLS are all based on an approach to learning called reflective practice. The approach encapsulates much of the classic theory about how adults learn.
‘Continuing’ is the focus of our courses which require delegates to reflect on what they have experienced in their practice, on the course and following the course. Our aim is to introduce tools for the development of these skills, provide a framework for practising those suggested methods and encouraging, by application of reflective practitioner principles, to adapt their learning to other contexts. The pedagogy is transformative and produces graduates with the ability to grow their mindset and achieve excellence in their endeavours.
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‘Learning by doing’ or experiential learning at first instance might imply the requirement for physical engagement and until 23 March 2020, this was our preferred means of delivery. Interaction and engagement are key to the successful achievement of the learning outcomes and metacognitive enrichment in the delegates. Providing delegates with a ‘safe environment’ to practice skills underpins the successful delivery of experiential learning. Movement around NLS’s small group classrooms to complete tasks is traditionally central to the effectiveness of delivery of ‘learning by doing’ pedagogy.
However, the pandemic lockdown on 23 March 2020 forced us to question this belief. Could we deliver our constructively aligned experiential learning courses online? Could we replicate the physical movement between groups and outputs from group discussions? Would the tutor be able to ‘sit’ among the delegates to give feedback and facilitate guidance on the tasks? Could we ensure delegates’ access to and engagement with the course and mental health?
With these questions in mind, we turned to Microsoft Teams and created a ‘virtual NLS’. Delegates raced around the virtual group rooms created within the Team, documents were created on communal Word documents, and tutors ‘sat’ in their dedicated group’s channel – which frequently split into subgroups, causing tutors to ‘jump’ between the calls in their subgroups. Tutors moved around the group rooms to ‘judge’ advocacy hearings and delivered short plenary sessions in a dedicated plenary channel. Timing was crucial, so tutors liaised in a locked Tutor channel to co-ordinate timing and preparation.
We adapted our sessions and pushed Teams to the hilt to replicate our teaching ethos. It worked. What did we find?
Delegates would visit the Team at the end of the days’ sessions (which would finish earlier than the physical course to limit time on screen), and work offline with other team members to discuss or prepare a task for the next day’s session. They worked simultaneously on a Word document to which their dedicated tutor also had access to give feedback. This was effective for giving feedback on cross-examination questions. Delegates also found they could ‘call’ or message their tutor through Teams. It was a pleasure to witness the delegates’ engagement and enthusiasm given this new regime and the anxiety of the pandemic.
Providing delegates with a ‘safe environment’ to practice skills underpins the successful delivery of experiential learning.
Now we are back in person, have we changed our approach in any way? Yes, we have. The underpinning pedagogy of our courses remains but our approach to physical delivery has changed. MS Teams is a permanent feature of our delivery in conjunction with face-to-face sessions. Using the communal Word document to provide immediate and recorded feedback in a session in addition to being able to walk the room to facilitate group work has enhanced delegates’ experience. From a tutor perspective, the reams of papers or emails that would fly around to exchange documents in a task have gone. The exchanges take place via Teams.
Building on our experience and success, we explored the possibility of taking our experiential learning offering purely online but this time with intermittent rather than constant tutor interaction. The topic we identified, given NLS’s experience in delivering IP courses, would be an online interactive means of academic learning about Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in the first instance. Armed with that knowledge, the student would progress to the application of their knowledge to practice in commercial intellectual property.
Interactivity and student engagement are key to the design. We worked with the NTU digital team to create a digital experience that ensures that the time poor student will remain engaged and part of the NLS community. The result is an online Postgraduate Diploma in Commercial Intellectual Property.
The course is delivered at the student’s pace. They choose when, where and for how long to study. Each section has a ‘time to read’ indicator which assists the student in planning their time to engage with the course. Some of the sessions are narrated as well as being produced in writing so the learner has a choice and accessibility has been reviewed across the course.
We have done the hard work for the student by identifying what they need to know, how to apply it in practice and advise clients. The aim is to teach students how to begin to think like an IP lawyer, using the tools of reflection on what they have learned on the course and their practical experience to date, which may not be in the practice of IP.
Joy Davies, Principal Lecturer
Nottingham Trent University – Nottingham Law School
Tel: +44 01158 482206
Joy Davies is Principal Lecturer for Nottingham Law School’s Practitioner Portfolio of courses as well as Director of the Mediation and Dispute Resolution Hub that sits within the Centre for Legal Education. Among her many professional roles, she is a member of the NTU Coaching Academy, a member of the Law School Academic Standards and Quality Committee, and for several years was Verifier for Standards and Quality for one of NTU's international collaborative provision partners. She also received the Vice-Chancellor's Outstanding Academic Practice Award in April 2022.
Nottingham Law School is one of the UK’s largest and most established law schools. Its courses are accredited or approved by a range of professional bodies, including the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Bar Standards Board and the Intellectual Property Regulation Board. Nottingham Law School also allows students the unique opportunity to gain unique real-world experience through NLS Legal, its in-house teaching law firm.
However, the idea of AI as a creator of art is less than settled. The use of automated processes to produce static and moving images on demand has caused a significant degree of backlash from the creative industries, particularly for the program’s need to be ‘trained’ on human artists, who often do not stand to gain from the technology’s success. In this month’s deep dive, we take a look at the brewing conflict in the art world and what it means for the field of IP law.
AI has been a staple of futurists’ visions for the evolution of the working world for decades. Whether the form it takes is the predictive text function of a smartphone or an ‘autopilot’ function in a smart car, companies the world over have dedicated R&D wings tasked with the creation and implementation of AI in these products for a more efficient, less taxing user experience.
When it comes to the newly emergent software for the creation of images, the driving force is ‘generative’ AI. This simply refers to a set of algorithms that create an output. ‘Outputs’ can range from plain text to illustrations, captions, essays, emails and computer code, among many other content types. This form of algorithm includes the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a tool unveiled in 2022 that shocked the world – and the legal sector, as in-house counsel wondered at its potential to create legal documents on demand.
In the art world, generative AI image creators of note include Midjourney, DALL-E 2 by OpenAI and Dream by WOMBO. All are simple to operate, often requiring only a text prompt of varying specificity in order to produce a selection of images on demand. This ease of use has been one of the most important factors in the explosion of popularity that AI art experienced in the latter half of 2022 and which continues today.
The above programs did not become able to create art spontaneously. In each instance, their algorithms were ‘trained’ on millions of pre-existing images, establishing patterns that can later be reproduced should a user input an associated keyword. These images are ‘scraped’ from the internet and public data sets such as free-to-use art sites, often without the original creator’s consent or credit.
In many cases, generative AI can even be used to directly emulate the style of an established artist should the user request it. The backlash to this from some quarters has been extreme. Popular internet content creators Corridor Digital drew condemnation after producing an AI-created video trained on the style of animated series Vampire Hunter D, which some viewers branded as “theft” of the source material.
Ease of use has been one of the most important factors in the explosion of popularity that AI art experienced in the latter half of 2022 and which continues today.
Others have characterised the emergence of trained AI as an encroachment of corporate management upon the art world. This was the stance of Swedish painter Simon Stålenhag, whose work was mimicked by a Midjourney user in a series of viral Tweets that have since been deleted. "It basically takes lifetimes of work by artists, without consent, and uses that data as the core ingredient in a new type of pastry that it can sell at a profit with the sole aim of enriching a bunch of yacht owners,” he said of generative AI.
Popular criticisms of AI art tend to focus on its quality or its derivation from existing sources. However, potential IP violations on the part of generative AI creators have the potential to result in far greater consequences for the nascent technology, as has been demonstrated by stock photography company Getty Images and its lawsuit against tech start-up Stability AI. In the suit, Getty Images claimed that Stability AI copied more than 12 million images from its database “without permission ... or compensation ... as part of its efforts to build a competing business”. In training its Stable Diffusion generative tool on the images, Getty claims, the firm infringed on both its copyright and trade mark protections.
A similar lawsuit has been filed by a trio of American visual artists against Stability AI, DeviantArt and Midjourney, alleging that the Stable Diffusion tool used by all three companies was trained on their copyrighted images. Stability AI have been sanguine about these lawsuits so far, commenting in a statement to the media: “Anyone that believes that this isn’t fair use does not understand the technology and misunderstands the law.”
Observers in the legal sector have commented that Getty’s case against Stability AI is on sturdier footing than the artists’ class action lawsuit, but both cases exist in territory that has yet to be tested in court. Whatever the outcome, these cases will likely set a precedent for a good deal of legal action involving generative AI yet to come.
Currently, algorithmically generated art is far from perfect. Many generated images – especially when aiming to replicate detailed anatomy – are rife with uncanny errors that prove its AI authorship. However, the technology in use is constantly evolving, and projections are emerging that its growing ease and accessibility will reduce demand for human-created art. If these prove to be accurate, the new wave of art in business will nonetheless be sourced in the first instance from human artists.
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Unlike the 2021 NFT bubble, AI development is more than a passing tech trend. Microsoft, Meta and Google have all begun investing heavily in generative AI technology, and it is highly likely that further clashes between IP holders and AI creators will follow unless a method of training these new AI through means other than image-scraping is pioneered. The IP world would be wise to watch the outcomes of the Stability AI lawsuits closely.
Thankfully, no matter what size of business you manage or which sector of law you specialise in, it is possible to create effective strategies for promoting your law company.
From leveraging new technologies and content marketing strategies to old-school tactics such as networking meetings or webinars, this article will guide you through some innovative ways to market your legal services and increase visibility for your firm’s name among potential clients. Read on for tips on developing an effective promotional strategy!
Identifying your target audience is essential when it comes to promoting your law company. It’s important to have a clear idea of who you want to attract, and why they should choose your services over others in the field. Doing research into customer needs, researching trends in the legal industry, and talking to potential customers can help you understand what elements will make your services stand out. You can then use this information to create tailored messages that address each demographic’s needs. This will help you promote your law company in a way that appeals directly to them, leading to more effective marketing results.
Law SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a great way to increase visibility and attract potential customers to your law firm’s website. By optimising content for search engines, you can make sure that your firm appears as close to the top of the results page as possible when potential customers search for relevant legal topics or services. To optimise effectively, you may want to find someone who specialises in lawyer SEO, or hire a professional SEO agency. The right specialist will be able to ensure that your website is optimised, making it easier for potential clients to find you.
If you are looking to promote your law company, create a professional website as a first step. You can easily use design tools such as WordPress or Wix to make your website attractive and useful. Doing so not only provides potential customers with an insight into who you are and what services you offer, but it is also one of the best ways for business owners to get their legal services noticed.
If you are looking to promote your law company, create a professional website as a first step.
With their powerful design capabilities and easy-to-use templates, WordPress and Wix provide the ultimate tools for creating an informative and captivating website for any law firm. Make sure your website stands out by showcasing your expertise, adding testimonies from past customers, and providing excellent customer service through user friendly forms and chatbots.
Attending networking events can be an incredibly powerful way to promote your law company and meet potential clients. Taking the time to plan out a few events each year that focus on legal topics is essential for successful marketing. If you are able to host them directly in-house, even better! You can create a memorable experience that gives people insight into how your organisation works, builds relationships with those in your industry, and shows guests the benefits of doing business with you. Inviting clients to these events or seminars is also a great way to position yourself as an expert in the field and show them how you can help them solve problems - all while making connections in fun, artistically designed spaces.
Reviews and ratings from clients can be important factors in promoting a law company. Gaining positive reviews on popular websites such as Yelp or Google+ gives potential customers an idea of the quality of your services. Asking clients, both current and former, to provide an honest review of their experiences is a simple yet powerful way to showcase the outstanding reputation you have built. Moreover, taking the extra step to publicize your results – like those high-value settlements or awards you won – will increase visibility and help build trust with potential customers. Thus, it’s essential that you get online reviews and ratings from your clients to fully capitalise on your success in this competitive industry.
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Advertising in local publications can be a powerful way to attract business to your law company. By leveraging the print and digital publications that your community trusts, you can ensure that potential customers know about you before they have even considered speaking to anyone else. This means that when the time comes for them to look into legal services, they already have a familiarity with your company, making it more likely they will reach out compared to other options.
Furthermore, focusing on local media allows you attractive rates which are economical for any business budget. Whether a newspaper ad or social media post, advertising can be one of your most effective strategies in growing a successful law company.
Investing in yourself and your law firm is an essential step to success. Each of the strategies outlined above are meaningful ways to promote your law business and make sure it stands out amongst competitors. By engaging with your target audience, building a strong presence on social media platforms, creating a professional website, attending key events and seminars, getting positive online reviews and ratings from clients, and advertising through local publications – you have the power to set yourself apart from the rest.
When you employ these strategies together in sync, you will be able to build an effective promotional strategy that could just give you that edge over your competitors. All these steps require dedication but if executed right, will ensure greater visibility for you and your business in the legal market!
It is essential that employees be aware of their legal rights and seek advice if they believe they have valid grounds for wrongful dismissal. By taking legal action, employees may be entitled to compensation for the financial loss they have suffered.
If you would like expert legal advice on your situation, consult an expert wrongful dismissal lawyer. In this article, we will discuss what constitutes wrongful dismissal and valid grounds for pursuing a claim.
Unless the employment contract states otherwise, an employer generally has the right to terminate employment without cause, provided they give reasonable notice or payment in lieu of notice. In certain cases, employment may be terminated with cause. This is usually due to serious misconduct, such as fraud, violence, or incompetence by the employee, and in such cases, the employer is not required to provide notice or payment in lieu of notice.
Wrongful dismissal occurs when an employee is terminated without just cause and without the employer providing adequate notice or payment in lieu of notice resulting in a breach of the employment contract. It is important to note that an employment contract does not have to be in writing and an oral contract or an implied contract may also exist, which if breached, can provide grounds for wrongful dismissal.
There are several grounds for wrongful dismissal that an employee may pursue.
These include:
With knowledge of the legalities surrounding wrongful dismissal, you will have a better understanding of the circumstances that constitute grounds for a wrongful dismissal claim.
Under the plan, judges will be able to order parents to make reasonable attempts to mediate disputes. If they do not reasonably comply and are deemed to be harming a child's well-being by prolonging proceedings, they may face a fine.
The planned requirement will only be applied to cases considered to be low-level. Those involving allegations or a history of domestic abuse will not require mandatory mediation. The Ministry of Justice believes that up to 19,000 currently active cases could be solved through mediation.
"It’s only recently that domestic abuse in its various forms has been better recognised and understood in English family law and care must be taken not to undermine this with compulsory mediation. Encouragement through mediation for the parties to communicate directly in a safe and respectful mediation setting is otherwise a positive step, reducing costs and the impact of separation on all members of the family."
These are emotionally charged questions whose answers will vary from case to case.
If you're in this situation and worried about the implications of your divorce for your children, then it might be a good idea to look at how child custody works. You can give yourself the best chance of a successful outcome by recruiting some expert family law solicitors. But it's still a topic worth exploring yourself – that way, you'll be able to understand any decisions made.
So, what types of custody are there to consider?
This refers to where the child actually lives from day to day. It can be either sole or joint. The former refers to when the child lives with just one of the two parents (called the ‘custodial’ parent). The other parent may be granted visitation rights.
Joint custody is when both parents share living time with the child. Also called ‘shared residency’, it’s quite rare in practice, since it requires both parents to be on fairly amicable terms with one another.
Since the courts are bound to arrive at a solution which favours the well-being of the child, they will usually award custody to one parent (usually but not always the mother).
This term refers not to where the child lives, but how they live. It relates to where they go to school, what medical care they receive, and the role that religion plays in their upbringing. Keeping these ideas separate from the physical location of the child will allow both parents to have a say in the upbringing of the child. If you belong to one religion, for example, then you’ll be able to prevent your child from being raised according to the precepts of another.
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If a parent has both the legal and physical custody of a child, then they’re said to have ‘full custody’. This tends to be awarded if one parent is deemed unfit to raise a child. They might be a convicted criminal, or have a history of abuse or neglect. On the other hand, they might be severely ill, and therefore lacking the ability to raise the child.
When agreeing the terms of your divorce, it’s often easiest (and cheapest) to work out a schedule between you. If you can decide on housing arrangements and visitation rights, then you’ll be able to get on with life with minimal disruption. Often, the obvious path forward is the right one. If you can’t come to a decision, then the court will intervene and come to a decision for you.=
To prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, California has implemented legislation mandating sexual harassment training for all employers in the state. This training is designed to help employees identify, prevent, and report instances of sexual harassment. In this article, we will provide a comprehensive guide to California sexual harassment training.
Under California law, all employers with five or more employees are required to provide sexual harassment training to their staff. This training is mandatory for full-time, part-time, and temporary employees. Additionally, supervisors and managers must complete two hours of sexual harassment training every two years. Employers must provide this training within six months of an employee's hire date, and every two years thereafter.
The training must cover specific topics to be considered effective. These topics include:
● Definition of sexual harassment: The training should explain what sexual harassment is and provide examples of inappropriate conduct.
● Prohibition of sexual harassment: The training should explain that sexual harassment is prohibited under state and federal law.
● Legal remedies: The training should explain the legal remedies available to employees who experience sexual harassment.
● Prevention of sexual harassment: The training should provide tips on how to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
● Reporting sexual harassment: The training should explain how to report sexual harassment and the importance of reporting inappropriate behavior.
Employers can use a variety of methods to deliver the training. Companies like Seyfarth at Work Sexual Harassment Training offer live presentations, videos, or interactive online modules. The training must be presented in a manner that is easily understood and accessible to all employees.
Employers who do not provide sexual harassment training to their employees can face serious consequences. If an employee files a complaint of sexual harassment and the employer has not provided sexual harassment training, the employer may be held liable for damages. Furthermore, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) may issue a citation to the employer and require them to provide sexual harassment training within a specified period.
Sexual harassment is a significant problem in the workplace that can have detrimental effects on employees and employers. California's mandatory sexual harassment training is a significant step toward preventing sexual harassment in the workplace. The training aims to educate employees on how to identify, prevent, and report instances of sexual harassment. Employers must ensure that they comply with the law by providing sexual harassment training to their employees within the specified timeframe. Employees should take the training seriously, understand their rights and responsibilities, and strive to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. By working together, we can create a safe and respectful workplace for everyone
If your accident was caused by another person, it is important to remember that you may be entitled to compensation for damages such as medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. To find out more about a claim it is worth speaking to a specialist in this area such as a car accident lawyer fort worth.
When it comes to car accident cases, evidence is key. This can include things like police reports, witness statements, medical records, and photographs of the scene and your car accident lawyer will work with you to gather and review all of the available evidence to determine the best strategy for your case. In this article, we will discuss the importance of evidence in car accident cases and how it can be used to build a strong case.
The police report is a publicly obtainable, written document that details the circumstances of your accident, including the names of the parties involved, the location of the accident, and any witnesses to the scene. It will also include the officer’s assessment of who was at fault for the accident which can serve as valuable and credible evidence from an impartial third party. The police report can also be reviewed to determine whether there are any errors or discrepancies that can be used to challenge the officer’s assessment of liability.
Witnesses can provide important details about the accident that may not be included in the police report and your lawyer will seek to identify and interview witnesses to the accident to get their account. Such evidence may include details about the weather conditions, the speed of the vehicles, the actions of the drivers involved, and other factors relevant to the accident.
Witness testimony can be used to corroborate your version of events as well as challenge the other party’s arguments and version and can also be particularly persuasive to a jury, as it provides an objective account of what happened at the scene of the accident.
Medical records also provide important evidence in car accident cases and your lawyer can review these to determine the extent of your injuries and the costs associated with your treatment. Such records can be used to demonstrate the seriousness of your injuries as a result of the accident and the impact they have had on your life, supporting your claim for compensation for matters such as medical bills and lost wages.
Visual evidence of the scene of the accident can also be important evidence in car accident cases. Several types of photographic evidence can be useful in supporting your car accident case, including damage to the vehicles which can help determine the cause of the accident and the severity of the impact, and photographs of any injuries you sustained to support the extent and the severity of your injuries.
Evidence is a key component of any car accident case and your car accident lawyer will work with you to gather and review all of the available evidence to determine the best way forward for your case.
It is not uncommon for people to suffer injuries from motor vehicle accidents, at work, and other random events. In most cases, injured victims file personal injury claims to hold liable individuals accountable for injuries caused. If both parties can’t reach an agreement, the case proceeds to trial.
Unfortunately, personal injury cases are complicated and take time to conclude. Interestingly, the burden of proof in personal injury cases lies with the plaintiff, making it prudent to hire a top injury attorney in your area. Besides hiring an attorney, you should watch out for several mistakes that can hurt your chances of being compensated. Common mistakes to avoid include:
Your personal injury claim would have slim chances of success if you didn’t seek medical treatment immediately for the injuries sustained. Insurance companies for at-fault drivers often look for ways of minimizing compensation payouts. This includes evaluating if the injuries sustained were as bad as claimed.
As such, they investigate the plaintiff’s actions right after the accident to evaluate the seriousness of the medical treatment received. Not seeking medical attention immediately or failing to follow treatment recommendations may cast doubts on the nature of your injuries. Insurers will claim that your injuries are exaggerated or fake if there’s more time between the accident and initial treatment.
While accidents and events preceding personal injuries are traumatizing, ensure that you file a personal injury claim within the given time limit. Most people are unaware of the time frame for filing personal injury lawsuits. Different states have varying statutes of limitations for filing these cases. The court can reject your suit if you don’t file your case within the given period. The statute of limitations ranges between one and six years in the U.S. However, this varies depending on the state. This is certainly enough time to plan your injury claim to avoid this costly mistake.
In this era of social media, you shouldn’t share much about your personal life when battling a personal injury lawsuit. You should consider deleting or archiving your social accounts. Most people overshare daily details about their life on social platforms. While it appears harmless, a single photo or video can harm your lawsuit.
The defendants or insurance company’s attorney will certainly go through your social profiles searching for evidence of injuries. They can use what you’ve shared online to prove that your injuries aren’t as severe as you’ve claimed. Remember that lying or exaggerating your injuries can void the entire compensation. Being untruthful ruins the client-attorney relationship. The jury can also see through deceit and reject your case.
Seeking compensation for personal injuries caused by accidents or sustained after work is natural. Unfortunately, winning a personal injury case isn’t simple. Insurance adjusters and defendants attorneys will try everything possible to reduce or deny your claims. Hiring a personal injury lawyer and avoiding these mistakes increases the chances of getting fair compensation.
