Wrongful death law refers to the law that aims to protect victims who are harmed by the action or inaction of another entity or person. A claim can be filed for injury acquired by an individual either physically or mentally. Wrongful death lawyers seek to win compensation for their clients. If you feel you are a victim and are uncertain what your legal options are, the best thing to do is to speak with wrongful death lawyers who will guide you through the process.
Basically, there are three reasons why you must hire wrongful death lawyers. First, you will need professional help to win against an individual or a large corporation. Second, you must not have to worry about your violated personal injury rights. Lastly, you must concentrate on getting better and not have to spend your time at the court house or with wrongful death lawyers. You must contact a wrongful death lawyer even if you only have a small concern. Whether big or small, you need to file your personal claim immediately and see what your legal rights are.
With the unmatched function of the Internet as the number 1 source of information for whatever purposes that it may be, even law firms have decided to advertise their firms and their services in the web. So, when you know someone who has been involved in a wrongful death accident, you’ll definitely need a wrongful death lawyer to represent the families of victims who have died wrongfully. Most states allow a relative or the spouse of the victim to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the negligent party.
When you search for wrongful death lawyers online, you’ll get lots of them in the search result finds. More specifically, you can search for the attorneys in your area, too. The Internet really has all of the information that you may need about wrongful death lawyers to form a better case. Since it can be difficult to understand the complexity of the legal system, it will be wise to find a lawyer to protect your rights through the web.
Truly, the Internet has made finding wrongful death lawyers and everything about the law simpler. There are several websites available that can provide you with the legal help that you are seeking. Knowing your legal rights does not have to be difficult, especially now that the Internet continues to expand its role in bringing everything to its users.
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More than ever before, it has now become absolutely necessary to obtain a formal academic training practice as a paralegal. Paralegal education is likely to be extremely different taught at one institution than it is when taught at another. Approximately 600 programs of study in the US are currently available to aid in the training of paralegals, so it could be better spend some time when choosing the right paralegal program. In this article we explain the basis of those programs to guide you a little in this confused environment.
Degrees in paralegal training are available at numerous schools and are offered at different degree and program levels. By attending a business school, you can earn a certificate or associates. The certificate can be as short as 18 semester credits or be very similar to an associate’s degree. To earn an associates degree, 60 to 70 credits will need to be completed. Certifications and Associates can also awarded at some four-year colleges and universities. These establishments will likely offer a baccalaureate as well as a masters. The baccalaureate programs generally require a completion of 120 to 130 semester units before a degree is awarded. In these programs, the general education courses and paralegal courses are combined to achieve a well-rounded education.
An accident at work claim has probably crossed your mind, and rightfully so; every year, thousands of hard working individuals are left injured or disabled due to unsafe workplace conditions, who do exactly the same.
An injury at work can strike out of nowhere, leaving you jobless and wondering how and why it happened. Any job, regardless of the industry or position you’re in, has its own unique dangers, whether they’re heavy machinery, or undue stress at the office; these hazardous conditions can leave you unable to re-enter the workforce, left to rely on small compensation payments that barely make ends meet.
Understand Your Rights! Laws To Protect Workers
As an employee, it is your right to work in a safe environment. Unfortunately many workplaces fail to meet safety standards, without your knowledge. Once injured, some workplaces will attempt to cover-up the facts or blame the injured for his/her “incompetence”, which is rarely the case. Accident do occur…
Don’t allow the facts of your suffering to be twisted to make you look like the bad guy, take charge, understand your rights, and make your employer financially responsible for the suffering that has been inflicted upon you.
You Gave 100% At Work
When working, you provided your employer with dedication and hard work, making the business a better place. Now that you’re hurt and unable to work, you feel as if you’ve been swept out the door and quickly forgotten. It seems as if your employer is merely worried about saving money rather than being a helping aid in your time of need, and on top of all that, it’s their fault.
Filing a workplace injury claim is your best bet for receiving the fair compensation that you deserve, not just any billboard accident solicitor. Choosing a specialised solicitor for workplace accidents is an important step in the process.
Who Can Get Me The Compensation I Deserve?
Many people who are injured on the job feel confused and don’t know where to turn. They know the company is responsible for their pain, yet don’t know how to make them fully responsible for their negligence. Filing a successful accident at work claim will help bring the crucial turn-around that you’ve been waiting for since the injury.
Remember, that not any accident solicitor will do; you need someone who truly understands workplace injuries and understand the suffering that is confronting you on a daily basis.
Make sure your solicitor understands the labor law and the situation you were in when injured. With a caring and trustworthy solicitor that you feel comfortable with by your side, your accident at work claim will have much greater chance of maximising the outcome that you deserve.
Take Control
With a solicitor that cares and understands your pain representing you for your injury claim, can also rebuild your confidence and power that was taken away from you.
While money will not fix everything, or take away all the suffering, but a successful compensation claim should be a critical step in taking control of your life again.
There is on the other hand a bonus for the employer… it helps them to amend or adjust the workplace to be more accident-free in the future.
It’s easy to proceed with an accident at work claim and gain maximum results without the hassle, costs and confusion. Discover the 12 revolutions of workplace accidents at http://www.100Percent-Compensation.co.uk/articles/accident-at-work-claim.html
Litigation Financing is a means to help the person fighting litigation with financial expenses. This is an amount fixed by the Litigation Financing Company as pre-settlement charges. These expenses are given as advances, for which the recovery is made only if the client wins the case.
Litigation Financing Expenses are handled through the attorney hired by the individual. An individual awaiting a fair settlement in a personal injury or any other situation decides to file a lawsuit. As a layman he or she may need the support and advice of an expert attorney. The attorney becomes the guide and philosopher to the individual. He or she builds up a case after going through the possibilities for a ‘good settlement’ or meritorious settlement charges. Once the case is filed, it is through the attorney that the individual contacts a Litigation Financing company or any source for the expenses involved.
Here, the attorney is helping with Litigation Expenses as ‘only’ an advance. The individual should not take any litigation cash advance or litigation loan from his or her attorney. It is unethical for an attorney to borrow funds from a lending company to pay for his or her client. On doing so the attorney will get a security interest with the contingent fee from the lender. Also, the attorney may have ulterior motives to recover the dues from the client. This would mean that the attorney is ‘cheating’ on his or her client.
Therefore, it is not permissible for the attorney to finance Litigation Expenses. The company deals with the individual through the attorney. While the attorney gets a contingent fee, the company buys a portion or share of the recovery settlement charges. There is no place for any expense in the form of interest or monthly payments in any Litigation Financing. Thus, for ethical reasons, no attorney lends money to his or her client.
Litigation Financing provides detailed information about litigation financing, commercial litigation financing, litigation cash advances, litigation financing companies and more. Litigation Financing is the sister site of Lawsuit Funding Companies.
Privileged Communications
Solicitor-client privilege is the legal protection given at common law to communications between lawyers and their clients. Since the privilege belongs to the client and not the lawyer, only the client can waive it.
As a result, lawyers have a legal and professional obligation to refuse to make disclosure of privileged communications, except where the client has waived the privilege; or unless the lawyer is compelled to do so, by a court of competent jurisdiction.
This protection from disclosure assures that client can be absolutely candid with their lawyer without any fear that what is communicated between them will subsequently be used for another purpose, except with their prior consent.
The privilege between solicitor and client is a fundamental right; without it, the legal system could not function: Smith v. Jones (1999), 132 C.C.C. (3d) 225, (S.C.C.) per Cory J. at p. 239 who said, “it is the highest privilege recognized by the courts.”
Accountant Privilege?
Generally this protection has not been extended to accountants, either in Canada: Baron et al. v. The Queen, [1990] 1 C.T.C. 84 (F.C.T.D.) aff’d [1991] 1 C.T.C. 125 (F.C.A.); or, in the U.S.: United States v. Arthur Young et al. , (1984) 465 U.S. 805 (S.C.)
If an accountant is acting as an agent for a lawyer, to facilitate the delivery of legal advice then their work produce may be privileged: In re Goodman & Carr et al. [No. 1], [1968] C.T.C. 484 (Ont. S.C.); and Southern Railway of British Columbia Ltd., et al. v. Canada (Deputy Minister Of National Revenue), [1991] C.T.C. 432 (B.C.S.C.)
The criteria for determining whether to extend the privilege to accountants were set by the Exchequer Court of Canada: Susan Hosiery v. M.N.R. , [1969] C.T.C. 353.
Limited Or Absolute?
In England solicitor-client privilege has been found to be absolute. It was deemed too crucial to the administration of justice to interfere with: R. v. Derby Magistrates’ Court, [1995] 4 All E.R. 526.
In the U.S.A. attorney-client communications will generally be found to be privileged if the four criteria of the Wigmore test have been met: J. H. Wigmore, Evidence in Trials at Common Law, Vol. 8. (McNaughton Revision) Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1961.
In Canada the privilege is not absolute, although its exceptions are narrow: preventing a risk to public safety (Smith v. Jones, above); preventing a risk to prison security (Solosky v. The Queen, [1980] 1 S.C.R. 821); where the communication itself is a crime (Descoteaux v. Mierzwinski, [1982] 1 S.C.R. 860); or where the accused can show their innocence is at stake (R. v. Leipert, [1997] 1 S.C.R. 281).
Although courts may override solicitor-client privilege: R. v. Dunbar and Logan, (1982), 68 C.C.C. (2d) 13 (Ont. C.A.), an override will not be automatic even where the accused needs the information to make full answer and defence: R. v. Mills, (1999), 139 C.C.C. (3d) 321 at p. 364 per McLachlin J.
A court will weigh the principles of fundamental justice, as well as, the provisions of the Charter before permitting the privilege to be set aside.
The Supreme Court of Canada has established a flexible, two-part test to balance the competing interests of an accused’s need to make full answer and defence, and the inviolability of solicitor-client privilege: R. v. O’Connor, [1995] 4 S.C.R. 411 (S.C.C.)
Privilege And Income Tax Act
Although Parliament recognizes the existence and application of solicitor-client privilege, it has incorporated into the Income Tax Act (”ITA”) a statutory exclusion for the “accounting records” of a lawyer. That means that lawyer’s journals, vouchers and cheques will not be protected from disclosure as privileged (232(1) ITA), because of that restrictive definition.
Parliament has also provided that the procedures for the claiming of privilege over documents to be seized or examined is only applicable if those documents were in the possession of a lawyer at the material time: 232(3) and (3.1) ITA; In re Sandwell Ltd. , [1969] C.T.C. 617.
Should a seizure be made under 232(3) or (3.1) ITA then the taxpayer, or their lawyer, has only fourteen (14) days to make an application to a court for a hearing to confirm the existence of the privilege (232(4) ITA). If an application is not made within that time a judge may order the documents delivered to CRA: 232(6) ITA.
One cautionary note for CRA is that 488.1 in the Criminal Code (”CC”), a provision similar to 232 ITA, has been held to be unconstitutional under 8 of the Charter. The Supreme Court of Canada found that the statutory procedures infringed the Court’s discretion in handling claims for solicitor-client privilege: Lavallee, et al. v. Canada (Attorney General), [2002] 3 S.C.R. 209.
Comments made by Arbour, J. in Lavallee (at 21) suggest that 232 may also unconstitutional because it mirrors 488.1 CC.
Privilege And The Canada Revenue Agency
CRA has its own ideas about what is, or isn’t, properly the subject of a privilege claim by a lawyer.
For example, CRA publishes internally a guide for handling Privilege Claims during the execution of search warrants. Their document R350 E (99) recites, in part:
“(3) In spite of recent legal challenges, the following should be noted in respect to solicitor-client privilege: a. It is clear that the onus is on either the lawyer or the client to show that a solicitor-client relationship was in place so that solicitor-client privilege applies. b… the limits of solicitor-client privilege may not be fully understood by all members of the legal profession. Some lawyers confuse the principle of confidentiality with the rule of privilege” : pp. 1 - 2. [Emphasis added]
With this verbiage CRA gives the impression that CRA considers itself to be a better arbiter of privilege than are the lawyers who are professionally obligated to protect it.
Is CRA’s interpretation of the law of privilege correct? In this writer’s opinion - no - and for the following reasons:
i. it is not appropriate for CRA to counsel its officers conducting searches of law offices to ignore the law (i.e. , “in spite of recent legal challenges“);
ii. no search warrant can be issued with regard to documents that are known to be protected by solicitor-client privilege: Lavalle, above, 49.1;
iii. it is the obligation of CRA’s affiant to meet certain criteria and satisfy a justice of the same, before such a search can be authorized (Ibid. , 49.2 to .4; and 487 CC);
iv. although legal counsel ought to claim the solicitor-client privilege as a duty to their client, a failure to do so will not make a privileged communication admissible: Bell v. Smith, [1968] S.C.R. 664 (S.C.C.);
v. 488.1(8) CC reads, “No officer shall examine, make copies of or seize any document without affording a reasonable opportunity for a claim of solicitor-client privilege to be made under subsection (2) “; and
232(12) ITA reads, “No officer shall inspect, examine or seize a document in the possession of a lawyer without giving the lawyer a reasonable opportunity of making a claim under this section“.
In other words before CRA’s officers are to do anything they need to ensure that the taxpayer’s lawyer, or a member of the Law Society of the province, is present to protect the privilege interests in the material being searched.
Thus, the onus is on the searching officer to first ensure that the lawyer has a reasonable opportunity to make a claim; they assume that because no claim was made no privilege exists. CRA is also bound by the law: Ludmer v. Canada, [1995] 2 F.C. 3 (F.C.A.), Chevalier D.J. per curium at p. 17;
vi. Solicitor-client privilege may be raised in any circumstance were the privileged communication is likely to be disclosed without the client’s consent: Descoteaux v. Mierzwinski, [1982] 1 S.C.R. 860;
vii. Once a claim has been made under 488.1(2) CC (cf. , 232(3) or (3.1) ITA) the legislation defines the procedure for sealing and bringing an application before a judge to determine whether the seized/sealed materials are privileged 488.1(2) (cf. , 232(4) ITA).
The empowering legislation gives no authority to CRA officers to override the rights of lawyers to claim privilege or to otherwise abrogate the privilege itself.
In counselling its officers to do both CRA seems to be violating its legislative mandate, the prevailing case law, as well as, 8 of the Charter;
viii. CRA apparently still regards privilege as an evidentiary issue, but solicitor-client privilege has become a rule of substantive law: Solosky v. The Queen, [1980] 1 S.C.R. 821; Descoteaux v. Mierzwinski, [1982] 1 S.C.R. 860; Lavallee, Rackel & Heintz v. Canada (Attorney General) et al. , [2002] 3 S.C.R. 209;
ix. Notwithstanding CRA lack of deference to the courts, it is the Courts and not CRA, which establishes the proper interpretation of the law: Descteaux v. Mierzwinski, [1982] 1 S.C.R. 860, at p. 875 per Lamer, J.; and
x. Any communications between solicitors and their clients which are intended to be confidential are afforded some protection: Greenough v. Gaskell (1833), 39 E. R. 618; Solosky, above; Smith v. Jones, above.
There is no justification in the ITA or in the case law, to permit CRA, or its officers, to usurp the decision making authority of the judiciary: Descteaux v. Mierzwinski, above, at p. 891.
Properly Construed
According to Parliament it is the responsibility of the judiciary - not CRA - to decide whether a particular document is, or is not, subject to solicitor-client privilege: 232(4) ITA and 488.1(4) CC.
Arbour, J. in Lavallee (20) stated that, “…solicitor-client privilege must only be impaired if necessary and, even then, minimally.”
In applying Lavallee principles the definition of ‘law office’ should be extended to “any place where privileged documents may reasonably be expected to be located“: Festing v. Canada (Attorney General), (2003), 223 D.L.R. (4th) 448 (B.C.C.A) at 30.
Policy Considerations
It is difficult to reconcile the Crown’s paramount obligation to uphold the integrity of the justice system, with such a restrictive interpretation of solicitor-client privilege as is found in R350 E (99), above: Lavallee, 21, 22 and Charter 7 & 8.
Privilege is an integral part of the administration of justice and legal counsel for taxpayers who have had privileged materials seized, or examined, will have to exercise eternal vigilance to ensure that their clients’ Charter rights have not been violated.
It remains to be seen whether CRA’s position vis–vis solicitor-client privilege will improve, but until such time as it does, taxpayers will have to rely on the courts.
Staff Writer
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