Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Facts to be considered while hiring any such Canadian law firm

It has become a common practice for individuals, businesses and organizations to hire a law firm to deal with various legal issues in their lives. It is important that when you plan to hire one, you need to be sure whether it is capable of carrying out your best interest and is competent enough to help you win your legal battle.

In Toronto and the GTA, in the Province of Ontario, Canada there are many law firms with good reputation that can give you dedicated and cost-effective services. So you have to take care of many things while choosing any such firms. In other words, certain important factors have to be kept in mind while making a selection of any such firm.

Experience plays an important role and should be considered as a major point while taking any such decision.You can ask for the results of the cases that have been handled by the law firm in the past or get the information about the number of cases won by the firm. Law firms which possess knowledgeable and expert attorneys are always noted for their excellence. Thus, opt for such firms as they will be able to provide you innovative legal solutions in the areas that you need legal assistance. The lawyers in the law firm should be able to provide creative solutions for your legal problems and should be capable of helping you out of any business transaction or litigation problem, no matter how sophisticated and complex the legal issues may be. The next point to be considered is the clarity. The firm you hire should be able to tell you all about the minute details of your legal process which you may not know while filing litigation. These little things if properly implemented can help you in your legal process. The firm should also be able to provide regular feed backs about the ongoing process. A properly trained staff, having enough knowledge and experience in the area can surely help you win the case.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Your Toronto Personal Injury Lawyer

A Personal Injury Lawyer Toronto is a specialist that helps people receives compensation for injuries. Toronto Injury Lawyers are the ones who focus and know all the rules with regards to suffering of those who are the sufferers of accidents. There are lots of lawyers that understand the law in making sure the rights of the victims are fully defended. These lawyers help the injured get their most compensation from their accidents such as vehicle accidents, slip and fall injuries. It doesn’t matter the kind of accident you may have to deal with, these Toronto Personal Injury Lawyers are the best in getting you the right award.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Business Law and necessity of Privacy Policies for business through Online Mode

If you are involved in running a businesses, you should be familiar with the law surrounding businesses and their relationship with other parties (might be a complicated one). Business law is meant to keep businesses in line with the law, as well as internal businesses problems, like workers compensation and trading disputes. One of the most common problems that most businesses face is how to resolve their disputes. These disputes can range from internal employee problems to defending a business from the federal government. Whatever the situation may be, there are several methods that business lawyers use to help resolve business disputes.

We all know that there are various mode of doing business, when the business is done through online medium the situation becomes more complicated . Hope many of you have noticed that most website include links to their "Privacy Policies" near the bottom on their home pages. You might have even tried to read through one of these Privacy Policies and understand what their purpose. They are so much legalese that it might be hard to figure out what it meant, and why it was there. If you are looking to maximize the protection of your online assets, you need to prepare and properly implement an appropriate privacy policy on your website.

Let's start with what privacy policies are, and how to prepare one that's best suited for your web-based business.

What are Privacy Policies?

A privacy policy is a written statements that sets forth the terms and conditions under which your website handles the personal information that it obtains from anyone who visits the site. There is no required length or standard form for a privacy policy, though many of them contain the same kind of terms and language. The Purpose for preparing your own website privacy policy are accuracy and clarity. First and foremost, your privacy policy should describe the things you do or might do with the personal information you collect from your website visitors.

As a starting point, your privacy policy should contain the following elements:

1. Identify the types of personal information your website collects about its visitors.
2. Describe how you use the information that is given by or collected from your visitors.
3. Describe how a website user can review and make changes to their personal information, if that's an option available to them.
4. Describe how you will declare changes to your privacy policy.
5. Provide your contact information.

Thought it is not compulsory for each types of business to have a privacy policy but it can safeguard you from any such future business liability. It is believed that those who collect any personal information from their visitors , then they must have a privacy policy apart from that it is not compulsory to have it. Not having an accurate privacy policy can expose your business to liability in a number of different ways.The first is that you might face liability under a growing number of state laws aimed at protecting consumer privacy.

If you haven’t yet prepared any such privacy policy or if you think of making a start than you don't need to start from scratch when you prepare your privacy policy. There are a number of resources available on the Internet that will serve as great starting points for your own privacy policy. But beware of simply copying another website's privacy policy word for word. This will increase the chances that the policy doesn't match what you do with your customers' personal information.

Take the time to make sure that the privacy policy actually matches the way you do your business, and meets the minimum standards. If you have the resources, consult with a qualified advisor to make sure the proposed privacy policy works for you and your business. This will help you maximize the protection afforded to your online assets.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Personal Injury Lawyers: File a Claim Learn Your Rights

There are different types of accidents that may happen. Of course nobody wants to experience being a victim of an accident. If the accidents happen due to the negligence of another party or institution, then it is known as Personal injury.The injurer may be held liable depending on the damages that the victim sustained. The victim has the right to ask the right compensation from the injurer depending on the pain, suffering and medical expenses of the victim. It is also the right of the victim to ask for loss of salary. Relatives, family and friends can also claim for compensation.
There are lots of incidents that may happen. Time may come that you are driving a car when somebody hit you accidentally. Vehicular accidents are just a sample of those possible accidents that may happen. Accidents may also be in the form of slip and fall, product malfunction, malpractice of profession, workplace accidents and a lot more. And because of these accidents, if you are the victim it is just right that you have to seek the help of a Toronto personal injury lawyer. Normally if the damages are light there is no necessity of filing a case but once it is severe it might be loss of someone's life. For this, the victim has to file a case against the responsible party or institution and seek for compensation. if you are filing a case against the injurer, you have to seek the help of a Toronto personal injury lawyer. The lawyer is held responsible in representing you in the court and guides you legally with the procedure. Make sure that you are hiring someone that is knowledgeable and expert in the field. He is held responsible in filing legal complaint in the court. They are the one who are responsible in gathering evidences and gather all the statements of the witnesses. They have to make sure that all important information related to the case is gathered in order to prove that there is a case.

One of the main responsibilities of the lawyer is to seek justice for all the damages that their clients sustained and these is possible only if he gathers all the important evidence They have to help their clients to seek the right compensation that they deserve. But all of his duties and responsibilities should always be according to the legal standards of the law. Make sure that the Toronto personal injury lawyer that you are going to hire is loyal to you and makes everything confidential in order to protect your interest. If you experience personal injury, it is important to seek the help of a Toronto personal injury lawyer immediately in order to seek justice immediately. It will be easier to file the case if you will address it immediately. Toronto personal injury lawyers usually do some assessments first before accepting the case. They have to prove that there is a case before filing the case in the court. But due to higher cost of litigation, lawyers usually recommend out of court settlements. So be careful in hiring a lawyer that will represent you in the court.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Interesting Article

PROTECTION FOR DIGITAL ASSETS

Do heirs need to know your online passwords?
Monday, November 16, 2009 5:23 AM
BY TIM GRANT
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

After an American soldier died in Iraq five years ago, his father wanted to save copies of his son's e-mails sent through a Yahoo account. But the Internet company's privacy policy allowed access by only the soldier, triggering a legal fight.

The case highlights a growing discussion concerning what happens when the owner of a password-protected online account dies. To whom does the account belong? Can digital assets be passed on to heirs?

"If you use a computer, you need to have an estate plan that deals with digital assets and paperless transactions," said Lawrence H. Heller, an estate lawyer in Santa Monica, Calif. "People need to think about how to give their heirs access to information that may be stored online, but without the risk of unauthorized access."

Many important documents and personal treasures once kept in file cabinets and safe-deposit boxes are now stored electronically. Photographs, videos, music, letters and book manuscripts that might have monetary value -- or be priceless to loved ones -- often are saved exclusively on computer drives.

Legal disputes involving digital assets are relatively rare, but as the computer-literate population ages, after-death lawsuits are likely to become more common. "What we are trying to do is anticipate and avoid the problem," Heller said.

Until now, estate planning has primarily focused on tangible assets such as real estate, autos and jewelry and intangible assets such as stocks and bonds.

In exceptional cases, artists and musicians face issues involving copyright, trademark or patent law. But now, anyone who owns a computer could end up dealing with those issues, too.

"If I have created something in the digital universe, it's not free game. I may have a hard time protecting it, but I own it," said Steve Seel, an estate and trust lawyer in Pittsburgh.

Sometimes, heirs don't even know these things exist. As more companies move away from paper, online bank accounts, investment accounts, insurance polices, time shares and frequent-flier miles might become trickier to locate and access if someone dies without telling heirs of their existence.

According to a recent study by HSBC Direct, 49 percent of the online population conducts most of its banking via the Internet.

Meanwhile Internet blogs, as well as MySpace, e-mail and Facebook accounts, could be owned by an even greater percentage of the population.

In a growing number of cases, checking a deceased person's computer or other digital devices is becoming a crucial step in executing an estate.

Executors of estates often get special privileges giving them access to most assets. But privacy laws might prevent Internet companies from releasing username and password information to executors.

If a digital asset is stored on someone else's server, ownership becomes especially complicated. Yahoo mail, for example, has a provision in its user agreement that gives the account owner no right to transfer the ownership. All rights are terminated with the owner's death, and all content can be deleted.

The rules were tested in the high-profile case involving the father of Lance Cpl. Justin Ellsworth, a combat engineer with the Marine Corps who died in Iraq in November 2004. The two men were in constant e-mail contact during the deployment, and when the son died, the father wanted the e-mails from his son's account for sentimental reasons.

But the son had changed his password a few weeks before his death and had not shared it with his dad, who lives in Detroit. It took a five-month legal case to work out an arrangement to release copies of the e-mails.