Understand Your Rights. Solve Your Legal Problems
After years of overpromising and underdelivering, digital transformation has finally started producing results. Businesses across multiple industries are now accelerating growth through the creation of digital services as additions to traditional customer service channels. What’s more, large numbers of agile start-ups are disrupting the financial services and retail industries with innovative data-driven applications.
The impact of these new services has been a change in mentality. We now expect businesses to prioritise digital, and younger consumers in particular are disappointed by anything other than that. While digital services allow for instant gratification, they also make us more vulnerable to fraud. Among the industries most at risk is the legal sector, with law firms seen as lucrative targets as a result of the large volumes of sensitive information in their possession. Online channels present cybercriminals with countless new entry points for cyberattacks – with 91% of law firms falling victim to email spoofing to send spam, phishing and other fraudulent emails last year, clearly, they are not immune to cybercrime. There are various steps they can take to protect themselves, discussed below by Caroline Hermon, Head of Fraud Solutions at SAS UK & Ireland.
In the early months of 2020, we have seen a boom in digital services, while the traditional physical economy has slowed to a crawl. To stay in business, many companies are being forced to move services online faster than they had planned. In the rush to get these new digital services to market, there’s a significant risk that development teams will make mistakes and overlook the usual security checks. Unfortunately, the likely result is that fraudsters will have a field day as they find and exploit these new gaps in their victims’ armour.
To stay in business, many companies are being forced to move services online faster than they had planned.
In a highly dynamic environment where fraudsters are discovering new attack vectors every day, it’s critical for fraud prevention teams to be able to detect threats and respond quickly. Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) approaches can help by spotting patterns in previous fraud cases and using them to detect suspicious behaviour by customers, employees or systems.
AI and machine learning are vast and highly technical fields, and it can be difficult for fraud teams to choose the best way to start their adoption journey. Nevertheless, banks and other organisations are putting a variety of interesting AI/ML-powered anti-fraud solutions into production. For example:
Digital banks such as Monzo are using smartphone cameras with facial recognition technology to prevent unauthorised users from gaining access to customers’ accounts via their mobile apps. Today’s powerful facial recognition solutions are built using machine learning models that can tell the difference between a customer’s face and a photo or mask. They can even detect when a person is sleeping or unaware that the camera is being used, potentially making them a much more powerful access control measure than traditional password-based login methods.
Banks are also using image recognition to streamline processes such as paying in cheques, where customers simply take a photo of the cheque and upload it via their banking app. Banks already use machine learning models to identify whether the image is a genuine cheque and extract the key information from it. It will be a natural progression to analyse signatures and detect more types of potential cheque fraud.
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Natural language processing and text analytics can help companies handle larger volumes of internal and external communications – such as phone calls, emails, SMS and instant messenger/chatbot interactions – while still maintaining robust anti-fraud measures. For example, in a banking context, many institutions already record the phone calls of their traders and other employees to provide evidence in cases of insider trading and other financial crimes. By using natural language processing techniques, organisations can automatically transcribe these audio files into text. Then AI/ML models can recognise relevant keywords and topics, analyse tone and sentiment, and raise alerts to the fraud team when suspicious behaviour rises above a given threshold.
False positives are the bane of fraud investigators’ existence, diverting expert resources away from the true criminals and alienating innocent customers and employees. You can use AI/ML techniques to build models that can analyse previous cases and separate out the behaviour patterns that are truly suspicious from the purely superficial anomalies.
Many current fraud detection systems use a defined set of business rules to assess the likelihood that a given case requires investigation. You can use AI/ML models to supplement and test these rule sets. This provides insight into the relationship and relative predictive power of each rule and even suggests new rules that can be added to increase the accuracy of the results.
One of the most powerful tools in an investigator’s toolkit is network analysis, which provides tools to visualise and understand the relationships between the people, places and events surrounding a case under investigation. Just like human investigators, AI/ML models can be trained to interpret these complex networks, and can often identify patterns and relationships that traditional approaches might miss.
One of the most powerful tools in an investigator’s toolkit is network analysis.
The move towards providing digital services for customers and remote working capabilities for employees poses new problems for network security teams, who can no longer count on all sensitive activity taking place behind the corporate firewall. However, you can also use AI/ML solutions to process vast quantities of network logs and identify suspicious events at a speed and scale far beyond the capabilities of human network administrators.
Ultimately, the threat of fraud within the legal sector has potential for serious reputational and financial fallout, highlighting the need for pre-emptive fraud defences. Open source coding tends to be the starting point for many organisations in their AI journey, and works perfectly well for small-scale initiatives. But enterprise-grade deployments are highly complex and call for a much more robust approach, plus scaling with open source can be difficult. Among the factors to consider is the need for governance to ensure information is used for its intended purposes, as well as ongoing model testing and monitoring to ensure accuracy and avoid bias. Here, taking a centralised approach is a good way to go. By this, we mean putting an analytics platform in place which supports not just traditional statistical methods, but also newer AI/ML-enabled techniques.
Litigation finance is used by both individuals and companies who have been mistreated and want to take another party to court, but cannot afford the high legal fees often associated with litigation.
The litigation finance industry is currently valued at $5 billion dollars in the US, and is expected to reach $22 billion by 2027.
Currently used for shareholder disputes, class actions and claims against a director, a famous case hit the press in recent years when Hulk Hogan used litigation funding of $10 million to fight a misrepresentation claim, and eventually won $31 million in damages.
Dan Kramer of Kramer Sullivan explains: “Litigation finance is certainly on the rise. Historically, a lot of people gave up on claims because they were too expensive or inaccessible to the general public. Now, you can speak to specialist funders who will take a view and only operate on a no-win, no fee basis.”
“The biggest demand we have is for people with shareholder and director disputes, mostly when they are denied a huge sum or pay out. But the more evidence you have the better, whether it is documentation, contracts, recordings and emails. You don’t have to go fishing for information or try planting things, but if you have a legitimate case, these bits will help.”
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“Furthermore, you should adequately look at the costs you need for litigation, including how much your solicitor would charge, court fees, time off work and other expenses. This allows you to determine how much you need to borrow and it will help the lender too.”
The amount you can borrow through litigation funding is almost unlimited and having claims worth up to £1 billion are not uncommon. A prospective lender will look at the value of your potential claim, the risks and chances of being victorious, usually taking a success fee of up to 5% if you are paid out.
If you have obtained funding but eventually lose your claim, this is something that the financier would have budgeted for. You can also purchase supplementary litigation insurance to provide some form of financial backup. This will pay for any legal or solicitor fees on a damaged-based fee structure. It is common to include indemnity insurance in any litigation funding to cover any negligence by your legal team.
Many businesses and households in the UK use second legal charges as a way to secure extra funding for household debts, home improvements or business expansion.
The idea is that it is the ‘second charge’ against your property, so your first charge would typically be your mortgage, since this is the first thing that gets charged each month – with the second charge being the second payment taken out.
You can usually borrow a little less with your second legal charge than your first main charge or first charge mortgage – since the lender is now second in line to receive funds. You can also have a third charge if you require additional funding on top, although this is less common.
To be eligible for second charge, you typically need to demonstrate a good track record at paying off your first charge mortgage and being up-to-date with mortgage repayments will certainly help your eligible. Both employed and self-employed individuals can apply and your property will usually be subject to valuation to ensure that it is still growing in value and does not have any detrimental issues such as subsidence.
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Products ranging from £1,000 up to £5 million are available from your local bank, initial mortgage provider or a specialist lender. You can borrow up to 70% LTV through providers such as MT Finance, Precise Mortgages or Masthaven, and this is slightly less than your first charge would may be up to 80% LTV.
Second legal charge terms range from 1 to 24 months but may last several years depending on the provider or bank you apply with. Repayments are typically made in equal monthly instalments or you can request different payment terms such as interest only or rolled up.
A second legal charge is secured against your property and failing to keep up with repayments on time will put your property at risk. Although the first charge provider will be able to access more equity, a second charge lender will be able to claim whatever equity that is owed to them.
Some lenders may be willing to take a view on adverse credit histories. Since the loan is secured, this will help your application if the property is valuable and continues to grow in value. Being up-to-date with existing mortgage repayments will be key to support your application.
On April 21, 2020, the DGCCRF (Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control), the French market surveillance authority, published the result of its investigation on digital platforms, and more specifically, their duty to inform. This investigation was conducted 2 years after the entry into force of new obligations in the European Union. Here are the lessons learnt after 73% of the controlled platforms were found non-compliant, analysed by Sylvie Gallage-Alwis and Lorène Massé, respective Partner and Paralegal at Signature Litigation.
Online selling, which is often referred to as electronic commerce or e-commerce, is the exchange of goods and services between two parties via electronic networks, in particular the internet. It is a specific type of selling that refers to all commercial transactions carried out from the website of a seller or through emails exchanged between potential co-contracting parties.
Whilst originally online selling referred to websites dedicated to creating business relations between professionals, in particular for calls for bids (B2B), its definition now extends to several other types of platforms, including those connecting professionals and consumers (B2C) and those connecting consumers, individuals and non-professionals, who want to sell their goods or services directly between themselves (C2C).
[Online selling] is a specific type of selling that refers to all commercial transactions carried out from the website of a seller or through emails exchanged between potential co-contracting parties.
The main European Regulation in the field of e-commerce and online platforms is Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of June 8, 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market, which created a regulatory framework for business transactions on the internet.
This Directive was strictly transposed in France in law no. 2004-575 of June 21, 2004 for Trust in the Digital Economy, which defines electronic commerce as "the economic activity whereby a person offers or provides at a distance and electronically services or goods".
On October 7, 2016, the French Digital Republic Law no. 2016-1321 was enacted, whereby its Article 49 created Article L. 111-7 of the French Consumer Code. This Article makes a distinction between two types of activities of operators of online platforms (search engines, marketplaces and collaborative platforms): (i) listing or classification and (ii) bringing different parties together for the conclusion of an agreement for the sale or exchange of goods, services or content.
Article L. 111-7 of the French Consumer Code lists the information to be provided by operators of online platforms to consumers in a "faithful, clear and transparent" way, including:
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Decree no. 2017-1434 of September 29, 2017, which came into force on January 1, 2018, specifies the conditions of the application of this Article, depend on the nature of the activity of operators of online platforms. It provides that they "must indicate in a special section the listing, delisting and classification conditions", this section must be "directly and easily accessible from all the pages of the website" and contain the following information:
The DGCCRF has conducted a survey targeting 44 online platforms to check their conformity to the above information obligations, concluding that there was a "high rate of non-conformities" with 32 out of the 44 companies failing to comply with the Decree.
According to the operators of online platforms, the Decree entered into force only recently (2018), hence not giving sufficient time to become compliant. There is also no information on the applicable regulations making it difficult for them to know what to do exactly.
The DGCCRF have argued that the new provisions containing the new obligations had been the subject of a very broad consultation and of an information letter issued by the DGCCRF reminding operators of the applicable obligations.
According to the operators of online platforms, the Decree entered into force only recently (2018), hence not giving sufficient time to become compliant.
Some of the concepts of the new obligations are also the source of interpretation difficulties.
For example, the section referred to in the Decree, which states that operators must include information on the listing, delisting and classification conditions, has led businesses to consider that their general terms and conditions could act as the "section" or that two different sections could exist. The DGCCRF answered that "the concept of section is defined as a specific section guaranteeing that the information is directly and easily accessible to the consumer".
Several operators are unwilling to precisely define this criterion as they consider that doing so would be tantamount to revealing one of their trade secrets. Indeed, the use of algorithms is a major aspect of the operation of online platforms.
The DGCCRF explains that for consumers to trust the digital economy, it is necessary to provide them with objective information, including regarding the definition of the classification criteria used and the indication of the main parameters applied, always in accordance with the principle of confidentiality of trade secrets.
All the above non-conformities have given rise to the application by the DGCCRF of 21 administrative police measures, 8 warnings and 4 reports of administrative fines. While most platforms quickly defined and implemented the appropriate corrective measures, many of them are still yet to take action. It will now be interesting to see whether the DGCCRF conducts another similar survey next year and whether the applied penalties will become stricter.
National law firm Slater and Gordon has announced its intention to institute remote working policies on a permanent basis, and will not be renewing the lease on its London office when it ends in September.
Slater and Gordon will carry out a review of all of its nationwide properties, also due to finish by September. The intention for the firm’s 200 London employees is to either move to a smaller office that is more suitable for hosting meetings or continue to work remotely for the indefinite future.
Speaking with The Law Society Gazette, chief executive David Whitmore said that the move towards a smart working model has been prompted by its observed success during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are not doing this to be different, we want as much as possible to be business as usual,” he said. “A lot of people have liked the way they have been able to operate and we have been listening to them.”
Slater and Gordon employs 2,000 staff worldwide. There is no definitive answer yet on how staff in other locations may be affected by wider adoption of remote working policies, but Whitmore stated that offices are likely to run at 35% capacity while social distancing measures remain in place.
To assist those working from home, staff will be supplied with multiple monitors and comfortable office equipment if required.
The official Bar Council Pupillage Fair has been given the green light for 2020 and is set to go entirely online this year with more students than ever expected to attend as a result of the move to a virtual format.
The Fair, now in its fifth year, looked set to be cancelled, denying hundreds of students the chance to find out more about a career as a barrister from chambers and specialist associations. However, the Bar Council plans to put the whole fair online on Saturday 17 October 2020 to give exhibitors and students access to the event.
The Bar Council’s Pupillage Fair is the only recruitment fair run by the Bar, for the Bar of the future. Over the past five years, it has grown significantly in size and become a key fixture in the profession’s calendar. At last year’s Pupillage Fair, the Bar Council welcomed over 800 aspiring barristers from throughout England and Wales, 80 exhibitors and hundreds of volunteers from across the Bar.
Malcolm Cree CBE, Chief Executive, said: “The Pupillage Fair is part of the Bar Council’s wider commitment to ensuring fair access to the Bar, regardless of background, and provides chambers and other organisations an opportunity to invest in the future of the profession. Now, more than ever, it is essential to demonstrate to aspiring barristers that the profession is committed to providing opportunities for pupillage, and that they will be able to build a career at the Bar in the post-coronavirus era.
“It’s essential to embrace technology and modern ways of working in the current crisis. By going entirely online we can diversify what we can offer to both students and exhibitors and open the Fair to more students than ever. ”
Volkswagen has lost a landmark legal battle over compensation for plaintiff Herbert Gilbert, a motorist who bought a second-hand Volkswagen minivan fitted with emissions-cheating software.
Germany’s federal court of justice, the nation’s highest civil court, ruled that the company must take back Gilbert’s car and offer compensation of €28,257.74.
The ruling marks the latest development in the ‘Dieselgate’ scandal, in which Volkswagen was found to have installed software in its vehicles to artificially lower emissions of nitrogen oxides while they were being tested. Under normal conditions, the output of harmful pollutants from the vehicles was much higher than indicated during tests.
By Volkswagen’s reckoning, these devices have affected roughly 11 million cars globally. Since the scandal broke in 2015, the company has paid more than €30 billion in fines, compensation and buyback schemes.
The recent ruling also sets a benchmark for 60,000 similar cases, which the carmaker now intends to settle.
In a statement on Monday, Volkswagen said: “For the majority of the 60,000 pending cases, this ruling provides clarity as to how the [court] assesses essential questions in German diesel proceedings.”
“Volkswagen is now seeking to bring these proceedings to a prompt conclusion in agreement with the plaintiffs. We will therefore approach the plaintiffs with the adequate settlement proposals."
Fortunately, being the injured party may entitle you to a right to recover fair financial compensation for the collision's damages. Below are some tips in dealing with damages from a car accident:
Unless you're a lawyer yourself, you probably don't know what “damages” mean. In the legal sense, damages are defined as the estimated monetary compensation that you can recover due to the injuries and losses you've suffered as a result of an accident.
To collect these damages, you usually have to file an injury claim with the responsible party's insurance company. Besides, under the law, the person at fault for the accident should be held accountable for compensating the offended party for the losses they've incurred.
If you want to ensure that you’re able to maximise your compensation, the following are the damages you should get familiar with:
To collect these damages, you usually have to file an injury claim with the responsible party's insurance company.
If you have no idea how to settle your damages, you should hire an attorney to handle your car accident claim on your behalf. When you have a legal professional on your side, you can get proper advice about your situation and available legal options. Also, they can evaluate your case, negotiate a fair settlement, protect you from the dirty tactics of the insurance company, and make sure you're represented aggressively, so you get the compensation you deserve.
That said, find an attorney who can protect your rights and interests. For example, if you've been injured in a car accident in Houston, look for someone specializing in personal injury cases in that area. With several attorneys to choose from, it's best to conduct a little research to help narrow down your options. You can ask for some referrals from your loved ones or check some prospects online. You can also read some reviews online to know the performance of your candidates in handling personal injury cases.
By doing these things, you can find the right legal representative for your case.
Whether you're negotiating with the responsible party's insurance company or filing a personal injury lawsuit claim in court, the presentation of evidence is vital in a personal injury trial. That's because it's one of the best ways to prove that someone else's negligence caused your injuries. This means that the more pieces of evidence you’re able to gather, the higher your chance will be to recover just and fair compensation for your damages.
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To do this, you shouldn't forget to take images of the accident area, as well as your injuries and the damages to your vehicle. Also, find time to gather some critical information from your witnesses. Lastly, keep a copy of the police report and your medical records to strengthen the authenticity of your claim.
After you've sustained injuries from the car accident, it shouldn’t take you long to file your claim and recover the compensation you deserve. This is especially true if you're elevating your case to the court, where the statute of limitations or deadlines apply.
Thus, if you don't want your time to run out and waive your right to get compensation for the damages, you should file your case as soon as possible. Know the applicable statute of limitations in your area and have your attorney check it. In doing so, you can make the most out of your chances to get compensated for the damages caused by the accident.
Getting involved in a car accident can be a traumatic experience. Aside from injuries and property damages, you have to deal with other damages, such as lost wages and even pain and suffering. Therefore, if you're looking to settle these damages without hassle, keep these tips in mind and hire the best personal injury lawyer. That way, you can get a legal outcome in your favor.
Solicitors at City of London firm Osborne Clarke will see their salaries reduced by 7% from the beginning of June, in what the company has called an “unfortunate but prudent decision.” The reduction will last for a period of 11 months.
Staff, partners and trainees earning more than £30,000 annually will all be affected by the cuts, though their other benefits will remain untouched. Pension contributions will continue to be paid according to their unadjusted salaries.
A minimum cap of £30,000 will also be placed on the salaries of those affected. In cases where an employee would earn less than this threshold after pay cuts will instead receive a higher percentage of their salary.
The firm has also stated that if it reaches its financial target for 2020/21, it will then begin to repay employees for the salary reductions incurred by this emergency move.
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A spokesperson from Osborne Clarke outlined the precise cuts being made. “We announced in April that UK partners would defer 75% of their special draws while also proceeding with long-planned additional capital contributions. From 1 June, they will also be subject to a 10% cut in their monthly draws (essentially their salary) for 11 months.”
“Following consultation, we are also taking the unfortunate but prudent decision to reduce some staff pay by 7% from 1st June [2020] for 11 months,” they continued. “The partnership would once again like to thank all our employees who are continuing to work so hard both for the firm and our clients during this very uncertain time.”
Dorsey & Whitney LLP confirmed on Tuesday that it intends to lay off a “limited number” of attorneys and other staff in its US and international offices in order to address the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the firm.
Other members of staff will have their pay reduced by between 10% and 20%, though the firm clarified that those earning less than $150,000 per year will be unaffected by these cuts. Its summer associate programme will also be shortened from ten weeks to seven.
In a statement, Dorsey & Whitney managing partner Bill Stoeri said: “After intense deliberation, we made these hard decisions so that we will continue to be a strong, efficient law firm”, adding, “There is an emotional toll that goes along with these measures and these times”.
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Also on Tuesday, Philadelphia's largest workers' compensation firm Pond Lehocky Giordano announced that it will lay off 76 of its employees effective at the beginning of June, approximately a quarter of its staff. It did not state which of its 44 attorneys and 250 staff members would be let go.
“We can confirm the layoffs are related to the pandemic, but otherwise, out of respect for the privacy of our clients and staff, we don’t think it’s appropriate to discuss the layoffs further,” the firm said in its statement.
