Understand Your Rights. Solve Your Legal Problems
The US presidential elections came to an end on November 3, 2020. With the results now certified, Democrat candidate Joe Biden will take over the Oval Office in the White House from the incumbent Donald Trump on 20 January.
As has been the case for nearly two centuries and a half, the results of the US presidential elections do not affect only the United States but also the entire planet. A sudden change in external policy could impact international relations on a global scale and tilt the balance of power across the world.
The outcome of last year's US presidential elections is especially important in Canada. The "upstairs" neighbour of the US has been a crucial ally for years, and the two states share an agenda of crucial topics, one of them being immigration.
Today, we will take a closer look at how the 2020 US presidential elections might impact Canadian immigration, and whether you will need to pass by the immigration lawyer's office now that the results have been made official.
First things first, we should refresh our memory with a short guide on how the US presidential elections work.
In the US, voters do not elect their president directly. Instead, they are part of the US electoral college system, which designates various electors across the country. In total, 538 electors are representing the population with the right to vote in the United States. The person who becomes US President has to earn at least 270 electoral votes first.
The 2020 US presidential elections have kept every immigration lawyer office in Canada breathlessly anticipating the results. Their enthusiasm regards the candidates, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, both of whom have almost opposite views on immigration policies from their counter candidate.
The 2020 US presidential elections have kept every immigration lawyer office in Canada breathlessly anticipating the results.
Donald Trump has been in office since 2016 and has had a very restrictive view on immigration. The Trump administration has systematically increased the requirements for work permit applications and the number of restrictions for visa applications as well.
The incumbent President of the US is world-famous for his ambition to build a wall on the southern border of the US to diminish the entrance of illegal immigrants. His speech is often rich in nationalistic slogans that also hint at a gradual reduction of immigration free passes for people from other nations.
Joe Biden is a popular politician in the Democratic sphere of US politics. He is the former vice-president of Barack Obama and a staunch opponent of Trump’s administration.
Biden has already vowed that he will repair the debacles of Trump’s rule and reverse the restrictions imposed on immigration. He has also promised to devise a quick immigration process for those who want to become US residents but do not have the necessary documents.
Almost every immigration lawyer office in the US and Canada hopes that the new US President will reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), reverse the travel ban on certain Muslim-majority countries, and increase the number of refugee admissions to 125,000.
Trump’s administration and the increasing division in the United States have made many American citizens choose to emigrate to Canada. Additional factors that convinced them to take this decision include free healthcare, a more reliable education system, gun control, and welcoming immigration policies.
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The Express Entry system is especially advantageous since it reduces the processing time to as little as 6 months.
Also, Canada aims to attract more immigrants than the United States in the next three years. The new policies aim to combat the aging population in Canada and rejuvenate the population. The new immigration levels for 2021-2023 plans to register:
The future residents should also help Canada recover from the economical drawback that resulted from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the United States is facing a historically high rate of unemployment, it is expected that many US citizens will look once again to their “upstairs” neighbour for a chance at a better life through immigration regardless of the newly arriving administration
Canada is already making giant leaps ahead to make up for the job loss due to the pandemic. So far, the government has covered more than 75% of the positions that initially entered unemployment. If the country reaches its goals for immigration levels in the next few years, the adverse side effects of the pandemic will most likely disappear.
Michael Sophocleous, Partner at Stokoe Partnership Solicitors, analyses the reform proposed by the Law Commission and assesses its merits.
The Law Commission’s recent recommendations to reform the “outdated” and “unclear” ancient common law offence of misconduct in public office propounds the argument that changes are necessary in order to “clarify and modernise the law,” and to target the most serious cases of misconduct.
The Commission - an independent statutory body which oversees law reform in England & Wales - suggests that the introduction of two new statutory offences, namely corruption in public office and breach of duty in public office, will make the law “clearer and easier” to follow.
The offence of corruption in public office would apply to a public office holder “who knowingly uses or fails to use their public position or power for the purpose of achieving a benefit or detriment, where that behaviour would be considered seriously improper by a reasonable person.”
The offence of breach of duty in public office would apply when a public office holder is “subject to and aware of a duty to prevent death or serious injury that arises only by virtue of the functions of the public office, they breach that duty, and in doing so are reckless as to the risk of death or serious injury.”
To provide unambiguous guidance, the Commission is also calling for a statutory list of positions that constitute public office, including civil servants, MPs, councillors, quango employees, councils, schools, the NHS, public corporations, judges and magistrates.
According to the Commission, the current procedures are open to abuse. As a remedy, it proposes that future prosecutions should only proceed with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). This approval is designed to ensure that only the ‘right’ cases are prosecuted and to prevent “vexatious” private prosecutions.
According to the Commission, the current procedures are open to abuse.
The Commission’s suggestion has been driven by what they say is a significant increase in misconduct in public office prosecutions, which rose from single figures in the early 2000s to an average of around 80 a year by 2016. The last available figures are for 2018, when there were 95 prosecutions.
Notwithstanding this increase, one must question whether the number of individual prosecutions for misconduct really justifies a change in the law when it may be argued that the current law and procedure could be applied more rigorously and used more efficiently.
There may also be alternative options. Perhaps existing legislation could be amended, where relevant, to cover some of the proposed new offences. For example, the Bribery Act 2010 may be amended to expand on individual liability and/or create a new section to cover public bodies in line with the existing body corporate definition.
One also has to question whether a requirement for DPP approval is the right way to proceed, given the obvious corollary that a citizen’s ability to bring a private prosecution for these new offences would be removed. Despite the Commission’s view that such prosecutions may be “vexatious”, it does not provide any empirical evidence as to how often this is the case.
One prominent example cited by the media concerning the vagueness of the offence is the failed complaint concerning Boris Johnson over his relationship with the American businesswoman, Jennifer Acuri.
As Head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) which is the principal public prosecution service for England and Wales, the DPP, if asked to decide on a potential prosecution in such circumstances, may be unnecessarily dragged into the political arena.
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The only independent route to private prosecution is that which is currently in place. Before issuing a summons in a private prosecution, the Court is required to consider whether there is a prima facie case, whether the offence is out of time, whether the court has jurisdiction, whether the informant has the necessary authority to prosecute and whether, in all the circumstances, the allegation is “vexatious”. This is further supported by the Criminal Procedure Rules which set out the procedure to be followed when making such an application to the Court.
A defendant in a private prosecution would also be able to make an application to dismiss, giving that defendant a remedy against a vexatious prosecution. The court also has the power to make a Defendant’s Costs Order. Arguably, an independent court is much better placed to consider these issues on a case-by-case basis rather than the DPP.
The Commission’s recommendations have now been laid before Parliament and provided to the Ministry of Justice. It remains up to the Government to decide if and how it will implement these proposed reforms. One can only hope that they will consult properly before doing so.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order banning transactions eight Chinese-owned apps, citing cybersecurity concerns.
The apps affected by the order are Ant Group’s Alipay, CamScanner, QQ Wallet, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate, WeChat Pay and WPS Office. The ban will go into effect in 45 days, after Trump’s term as president has ended.
“By accessing personal electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers, Chinese connected software applications can access and capture vast swaths of information from users, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information,” the order reads, adding that this data collection would enable China to “track the locations of federal employees and contractors, and build dossiers of personal information”.
In addition to banning transactions using the named apps, the order also bans transactions with “persons that develop or control” the apps.
The order is reminiscent of previous executive orders that Trump levied against prominent Chinese apps WeChat and TikTok in 2020. Both orders have been blocked by federal courts, with US users still able to download and use the targeted apps.
As an unexpected parting shot against China, the order is likely to further heighten tensions between the US and Chinese governments. In a statement on Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying called the move an example of US “bullying” and accused the Trump administration of “stretching the concept of national security.”
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Alipay, a mobile payments app with more than 1 billion users, and most of the other named apps did not comment on the executive order. Kingsoft, developers of WPS Office, said in a statement published by state media that it did not expect the order to substantially impact its business in the short term.
Aman Johal, Lawyer and Director of Your Lawyers, looks back at the most significant data breaches of 2020 and their fallout.
The past year has profoundly accelerated the growth in digital dependence. Recurring lockdowns have pushed employees to work from home, students to learn online, and consumers to turn to eCommerce.
Global internet bandwidth surged 35%, the largest one-year increase since 2013, and with this online migration came a correlating increase in cyber threats. Cyberattacks have increased by 400% since the beginning of the pandemic, and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) revealed that 25% of all cyberattacks in 2020 were linked to the pandemic.
The threat has reached a critical level, with the NCSC launching its Cyber Aware campaign to inform businesses and consumers about cybersecurity risks and how to prepare for cyberattacks should they occur.
One cyberattack can create a domino effect of risks for victims. Stolen personal information can be used by hackers in a number of ways, including to access bank accounts, open new accounts and take out loans in the victims’ names. They could also make fraudulent purchases, transfer money from compromised accounts, or use the data to contact victims and dupe them into handing over access to accounts or money directly.
In mid-January, it was revealed that Marriott International had experienced its second substantial data breach, just two years after the huge previous one was revealed. The incident is understood to have affected 5.2 million guests when hackers procured the login credentials of two staff members and used the credentials to access guest details, including names, dates of birth, phone numbers, and loyalty account numbers.
One cyberattack can create a domino effect of risks for victims.
easyJet suffered a monumental data breach that was revealed in the springtime. In what was described as a “highly sophisticated cyber-attack”, the personal details of some 9 million customers were exposed, with the card details of 2,208 individuals reportedly compromised. Affected individuals were notified in May.
Following its surge in popularity as the world entered into lockdowns, users of the video platform Zoom also experienced cyberattacks. It is understood that some 500,000 compromised passwords were put up for sale on the dark web at a time when the app had reached 300 million active monthly users. Hackers were able to carry out the cyberattacks by collecting databases of usernames and passwords from crime forums, which themselves had been obtained in data breaches reportedly dating back to 2013. It was not a case of information being stolen from Zoom databases directly, but a case of data harvested from other breaches being used to target Zoom users.
The targeting of Zoom users is a stark reminder of the long-term repercussions of cyber theft, and why it is important to avoid using the same login credentials across multiple platforms, to employ strong passwords, and to respond to data breaches proactively.
More recently, Google suffered a significant cyberattack in December. It is an impressive feat to be able to hack Google, and the quantity of data which may have been compromised remains unknown at this time. Specialists believe that it is highly likely that a State actor is behind the attack. With increasingly sophisticated attacks and increasingly high stakes, it is clear that 2021 needs to be a turning point with regard to cybersecurity.
The frequency of data breaches, exemplified above, suggests the advent of corporate “breach fatigue”, where leadership understands the cybersecurity risks at hand, but passively accept that an incident is inevitable. Marriott, as a two-time offender of serious data breaches, perhaps highlights this apparent nonchalance.
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However, an activist watchdog may encourage companies to step up to their duties of data protection. The ICO has faced criticism over its dispensing of fines, as exemplified by Marriott’s 2018 incident, for which it was fined just £18.4 million instead of the original intention of a £99 million fine. The British Airways fine is another case in point: they were issued with a £20 million fine in October instead of the original intention to fine in the sum of £183 million. Both represent significant reductions, and the concern is that these huge climb-downs could prevent fines from having the dissuasive effect that they are designed to produce.
Beyond the fines, organisations that breach the GDPR may also face significant compensation pay-outs. BA alone could be facing pay-outs that total up to £3 billion on the basis of a £6,000 average claim for each of the circa 500,000 victims.
Data breach compensation amounts should reflect the significant impact on victims, and can account for financial, emotional and psychological damage. Action Fraud, the UK’s National Fraud and Cybercrime Reporting Centre, reported that cyber scams in 2020 resulted in losses of £16.6 million during the first lockdown alone. It is important for all interest groups that the serious cybersecurity lapses of 2020 are not replicated in the future.
Public confidence in cyber resilience needs to be improved after 2020 being yet another year of significant data breaches. It is critical that businesses and consumers focus on high standards of cybersecurity over the course of the year to come.
More than 200 employees at Google and other Alphabet Inc units in the US have formed a workers’ union, becoming the first group at a Big Tech company to do so.
The Alphabet Workers Union was organised in secret and is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America, which represents workers in media and telecoms in the US and Canada, The New York Times first reported.
Unlike traditional US labour unions, the AWU is a “minority union” that will not necessarily be able to force the company to collectively bargain over wages or other rights issues, but will be able to include a wider range of workers, such as contractors.
The union has announced that it is open to all US and Canadian workers at Alphabet, including both full-time employees and temporary workers and contractors – unofficial employees who make up the majority of Google’s workforce, outnumbering direct employees at the company by roughly 135,000 to 115,000.
“This union builds upon years of courageous organising by Google workers,” said Nicki Anselmo, a program manager at Google, said in a statement. “Our new union provides a sustainable structure to ensure that our shared values as Alphabet employees are respected even after the headlines fade.”
Kara Silverstein, Google’s director of people operations, said on Monday that the company supports its employees “protected labour rights” and will “continue engaging directly with all our employees.”
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Google has recently come under fire from the US labour regulator, which sued the company in December for alleged unlawful monitoring and questioning of employees for attempting to unionise. Google said it was confident that it acted lawfully.
It's a given that we trust the medicines prescribed to us by professionals because they're supposed to relieve us from pain. What most people aren't aware of is that some medicines contain ingredients that can cause several side effects to a person, and unfortunately, some manufacturers don't warn people about it.
Poorly made medicines and incorrect drug prescriptions can cause long-term side-effects that can worsen a condition. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plays an important role in regulating drugs to ensure their safety for human intake (as well as their effectiveness as medications), but it's the manufacturers that will be held accountable if their medicines cause problems to someone's health.
For cases involving the safety of human lives, dangerous drug lawyers exist to protect victims brought by inaccurately-labeled medicines, poorly made drugs, and incorrect medicine prescriptions.
Dangerous drug lawsuits are mostly personal injury lawsuits that have been grouped with other victims of the same defective drug to create a mass tort. An individual needs to join a mass tort since it has a higher probability of being noticed by big drug companies who have manufactured the defective pills. Mass torts also lead to quicker results and higher chances of winning instead of filing a claim alone.
If you or a family member is experiencing a worsened condition due to a medicine you took, or someone you know has lost their life caused by unwanted effects from a drug, then you may file a claim and join a dangerous drug lawsuit. If a lawsuit becomes successful, the victim/s will receive compensation for medical expenses, wasted budget, reduced quality of life, and suffering.
If a lawsuit becomes successful, the victim/s will receive compensation for medical expenses, wasted budget, reduced quality of life, and suffering.
There are three class-action lawsuits that you can file against bad drugs. The first one is the failure to warn or inaccurate labeling on a medication bottle, which means the label fails to convey what the medicine is for and how to use it.
A great example of this is an anticoagulant drug called Xarelto, which is mostly prescribed to people who have increased risks of blood clots. As stated by the Source, Drug Guardians, plaintiffs are claiming that the company failed to warn the consumers about the potential side-effects that come with using this drug. Another problem with this drug is it causes more side-effects than its intended benefit to a person, which leads to the next class action lawsuit.
The second one is drug design defects, where the drugs are not poorly made, but the side-effects exceed the benefit a person should be getting from the medicine. The common side-effects of bad drug design are dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and vertigo.
The last one is defective drugs brought by manufacturing, where the medicine itself is the reason why the end-user is experiencing a bad condition. There has been a mistake during the manufacturing process of a batch where the manufacturers fail to notice. In the end, this causes harm to everyone who uses it.
Finding the right lawyer is the most crucial decision you have to make in the middle of the process of filing a dangerous drug lawsuit. A good lawyer should be ready to take on multiple cases of bad drugs all at once, and they should be knowledgeable and confident enough to go against big drug companies.
Below are the guides on choosing the right “bad drug” lawyer:
Personal injury caused by medical malpractice is quite common nowadays, and some of your friends or family members may already have worked with a lawyer who has a good reputation in dealing with similar cases. Asking for experiences from clients is the best way to know if the lawyer can handle the case you have.
Finding the right lawyer is the most crucial decision you have to make in the middle of the process of filing a dangerous drug lawsuit.
Once you’ve compiled several lawyers that have good reputations in the field of handling medical malpractice, pick at least three to four to consult with. It will be easier to find the perfect lawyer for you if you narrow down your choices to the best ones among the list you made. Meeting with different attorneys can also help you explore your options.
- Are there any upfront costs? If yes, how much?
- What are the means to pay?
- Can you tell me more about your experiences with a bad drug lawsuit?
- Will you provide transparency throughout the whole process of the case?
- Are you currently handling similar cases?
- What is the probability of us winning the case?
- If we don’t win the case, are there any case-related costs that I have to pay?
- How long will cases like mine take to be resolved?
Asking these questions to your lawyer and getting a positive response on most questions (if not all) can determine that the lawyer you pick is an experienced one and can be trusted with your case.
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Law firms that handle multiple cases at once manage their workload well. Aside from this, you also have to consider how they manage their workload and if most of the cases they work with have won or not.
There are many instances where people might be scared to file a personal injury claim because of the trouble and costs that accompany it, but would you deal with the consequences brought by defective medication alone instead of fighting for your rights? If you don’t have any knowledge about lawyers and bad drug lawsuits, our guide here is to help you understand and make the first few decisions during the process of the case. It’s also important to research similar cases to yours, to know the process and how it all went.
Don’t let doubts eat you up, it’s part of a person’s right to seek explanation and compensation when they’ve experienced the opposite of what a product claims, especially if it involves getting life-threatening side-effects.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service has announced that safety measures currently implemented by courtrooms are sufficient to protect visitors and confirmed that the justice system will continue to operate during lockdown.
In its weekly operational update, HMCTS said that physical hearings would continue to be held in Tier 4 areas wherever necessary, an extension of advice issued in December when the highly contagious new variant of COVID-19 was first identified. HMCTS added that lawyers will also be allowed to stay away from home overnight for work purposes if it is deemed essential that they physically appear in court.
“Public health experts have confirmed that existing COVID-secure arrangements remain sufficient in dealing with the challenges provided by the new mutation of the virus,” HMCTS said. “Our buildings are not considered close contact settings and the measures we have put in place, as part of our COVID-19 risk management arrangements, are extensive and satisfy public health guidelines for a COVID-secure environment.”
“The way to control the virus is the same, whatever the variant.”
The advice comes as more areas of the UK are expected to be placed under Tier 4 restrictions, in which residents must stay at home unless their physical presence is required for the purposes of work or education. The UK government has also not ruled out a full nationwide lockdown as the rise in COVID-19 cases accelerates.
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To combat the strain placed on the legal sector by the pandemic, HMCTS is spending £110 million on emergency measures including the addition of Portakabin units, installing plexiglass barriers in workplaces and recruiting more staff.
Around 260 courtrooms have been assessed as being capable and available to hold jury trials. The Ministry of Justice has also begun to operate 18 Nightingale courts to ease the case backlog that has built up since March 2020.
The Fair Debt Collection Protection Act spells out what debt collection practices are not allowed. Breaching these rules will land the debt collector in trouble. You have the right to sue a debt collector for implementing any of the following shady practices.
Take note every time a debt collector calls you. You should also copy all texts, emails, and letters. You may need this evidence in court later.
Stay calm no matter how often they contact you. You don't have to give them your financial details. Experts recommend avoiding this because many debt collectors have wrongly taken excess payments from their victims over the phone.
There is no obligation for you to respond beyond asking for their identity and proof of the debt owed. Collectors that keep contacting you are building a case against themselves.
The collector cannot say you owe more than you do. They also cannot lie about the identity of the original creditor. Collectors are not allowed to pretend to be law enforcement.
Make sure to request information about any debt collectors contacting you. You should ask for their physical address, a call back number, and a written request for payment. You can look at a sample validation letter detailing the information you should ask for.
Make sure to request information about any debt collectors contacting you.
This forces them to disclose the original creditor and the correct total due. Make sure to date and save copies of this document. Sending a validation letter stops many scammers posing as debt collectors since they want to avoid leaving a paper trail.
Debt collectors are not allowed to threaten you with arrest. This should set off immediate red flags in your mind because collection agencies have no law enforcement powers. Debt is a civil issue. There are very few cases where someone will go to prison over debt.
Debt collectors are also not allowed to threaten to call your workplace or family members. They may call people you know in an attempt to find the best number to reach you at but they are not allowed to disclose the debt to shame you into paying. Some cases allow limited contact with your domestic partner or spouse. Anti-harassment rules still apply to these interactions too.
They are not allowed to use foul or obscene language either.
You should send an overly persistent collector a written notice to stop calling. It is best if you send a certified letter. Certified letters give you a receipt of the time and date they received the notice.
This letter will make your case if the collector keeps calling you. Take a note of all calls after this letter.
You can also set the times that they can call you. It is within your rights to tell them not to call you while you are sleeping or working. Calling outside the hours of 9 AM to 8 PM is not allowed, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
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Using an auto-dialler is common among debt collection agencies. This is a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Violating the TCPA carries fines up to $500 per call and damages up to $1,500 per call.
Use of automated contact is only allowed with your written consent. You have zero obligation to consent to receive any automated contact. You can also withdraw consent at any time.
If you’re not sure if a debt collector is using an auto-dialler, there are a few strong indicators you can look for. One sign is that they call you many times a day. Another sign is that no one is on the other end when you answer the call. Pre-recorded messages are a major sign they are using automated software.
Make sure to keep a record of these calls. If you can set up recording software legally on your phone, that will provide strong evidence of legal violations.
These are just a few examples of shady debt collecting violations you may experience. Take advantage of the Fair Debt Collection Protection Act to protect against yourself from predatory debt collection practices. You are within your legal rights to sue a debt collector who uses illegal tactics.
Loss of consortium is a lot more than damages received because you can no longer have a sex life. It means that the loss of your loved one deprived you of many or all of the benefits you received from a relationship with that person. This could mean no longer being able to have sex, or it could mean that your spouse is in a vegetative state and you essentially no longer have any relationship at all outside of being a caregiver.
The following are some of the ways your spouse’s injury or illness can damage your relationship:
In a personal injury or wrongful death case, you will ask to be compensated for the losses you suffered. If your spouse survived, you are entitled to make a claim for loss of consortium. You should read further for more information about monetary compensation you can receive if a loved one was a victim of wrongful death.
In a personal injury or wrongful death case, you will ask to be compensated for the losses you suffered.
It can be difficult to prove loss of consortium cases. That's because loss of consortium is such a subjective area. It suffers from the same challenges as other emotional claims. It's simple to demonstrate that a victim lost physical things because a monetary value can be placed on them rather easily. This cannot be said for emotional damages and loss of consortium.
These are the types of losses that require an experienced personal injury attorney with experience demonstrating the impact that the plaintiff's injuries have had on the victim and the victim's family members.
In the past, the only people able to bring a loss of consortium claim have been spouses. Now, courts are allowing domestic partners to bring these claims. Some states allow children and the parents of a deceased loved one to bring these claims as well. In the case of a child, they would be able to claim that the injured parent is unable to care for them in the same manner as before the accident.
Both the child and the parent of the victim will need to demonstrate to the court that the relationship they now have with the victim was dramatically changed the day that the accident occurred.
It can also be difficult to obtain monetary compensation for loss of consortium because some laws or insurance policies intend for it to be that way. For example, some jurisdictions require that you prove that you were in a valid marriage with your spouse. This means that you will have to agree to place your marriage and the intimacies of it on display.
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The defendant's attorneys will ask you questions during the deposition and again during the trial that you may be uncomfortable answering. Then, your answers will remain in the public record. Before you decide to claim loss of consortium, you may want to discuss this matter with a personal injury attorney first.
For the average person, consulting a lawyer—or a litigation team—is only necessary when legal troubles arise. More often than not, people who urgently need a lawyer are those who already have a pending case against them. Some also seek legal services only when they feel the need to file a complaint against someone.
However, there are people who need not just a lawyer, but a whole litigation team that can help them sort out complicated legal issues and processes. Usually, these people don’t even have to wait for legal issues to arise. They already have a dedicated legal team that can give counsel, mediate issues with a third party, or represent them in a full-blown trial. Below are some of the most common reasons why a person or group has to consult and hire a litigation team.
A business lawyer can either be a litigation or transactional lawyer. Commercial or business litigation is similar to civil litigation, where two business firms sue each other in court for either breach of contract, infringement of intellectual property rights, or other business or trade-related issues. The bigger a business, the more it needs a litigation team that can work on multiple claims and suits that the company is involved in.
On the other hand, a transactional (business) lawyer does not necessarily go to court. This legal expert handles paperwork and documentation matters to ensure that a corporation or firm is doing business within the bounds of law. Aside from that, a transactional business lawyer can give legal advice or mediate between third parties so the client does not have to resort to litigation.
Some of the responsibilities of a transactional lawyer include drafting employment contracts and non-disclosure agreements and negotiating a sale or acquisition between two or more firms and companies.
The bigger a business, the more it needs a litigation team that can work on multiple claims and suits that the company is involved in.
Family lawyers can handle many issues involving divorce, child custody, paternity, adoption, and even pre-nuptial agreements. Family lawyers also work with other lawyers, such as criminal lawyers, who can also help them in instances where there are criminal acts involved (like domestic abuse and violence).
Now you might be thinking that you only need one lawyer to handle a divorce or custody trial, but that’s not always the case. For clients with large properties, a litigation team can best handle the situation as there are also shares and divisions of property that are going to be done.
If you want to dispute a will, you would need a trust and estate lawyer. Again, while one lawyer could be enough for this, it would be arduous and more time-consuming, especially if it involves multiple properties across different states.
Each state also has varying succession laws and estate taxes that have to be taken into account. With a litigation team, the process can be faster and more efficient as they can also work with partners that are based in different states.
There are slight differences in tax rules and rates in each federal state. A litigation team can best handle the problem for those who have several assets or estates and businesses across multiple states. A litigation team can also help settle disputes and responsibilities with the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) and other tax collecting agencies.
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Declaring bankruptcy or insolvency and the task of liquidating assets is a long and tedious process, especially for corporations and individuals who have a long list of obligations to answer for. With a litigation team, filing for bankruptcy and going through the proceedings can be done faster and more efficiently. The liquidation of assets and fulfillment of obligations, including payment for damages, can also be dealt with more quickly.
A legal issue is never simple. Whether we like it or not, we must approach legal troubles with a lawyer beside us. Hiring one does come at a cost, but it is not as expensive as jail time or a tarnished reputation.
The more complicated a legal issue is, the more one would need to consult a litigation team. That’s because one legal issue can have different facets, and laws are not always the same or complementary between different states or countries. While litigation is commonly associated with court procedures and trials, a litigation team can also settle disputes outside of court and assist in mediating and forging amicable settlements instead.
Finding a competent litigation team is difficult, especially if you need lawyers from different fields of expertise and practice. But for such concerns, a legal recruitment agency can help you connect to a battery of lawyers and legal experts who are ready to represent your interests and uphold your rights.
