The general rule in law is that if you have an agreement with somebody and that other person breaks that agreement and you suffer a loss as a result, you can sue that person for breach of contract. That is not however the position as far as engagements are concerned. If I employ a builder […]
At the moment if a parent wants to make a gift to a child or provide for them if they are in difficulties, they can do so because the threshold before tax has to be paid is at the moment €224,000. For instance where a couple are engaged and they are going to a buy […]
I recently spoke to a child psychologist who said that he was very concerned at the growing number of cases he deals with involving what he described as severe cases of emotional abuse. This generally happens in cases where one parent denies a child contact with the other parent. The psychologist said that in cases […]
Anybody who has children and has been involved in the family law proceedings will be familiar with reports prepared under section 47 of the Family Law Act, 1995. These reports are generally prepared by expert child psychologists and courts will feel themselves, if not bound by the findings in these reports, then they would regard […]
The judge had to decide how much maintenance a mother and the father had to pay to look after their 7-year-old son. The mother earns €60,000 a year, the father earns €20,000 a year. The judge accepted that the earnings figures were correct. When all the evidence had concluded, the mother said could she say […]
A client can be in a very difficult position when they decide to leave their solicitor and instruct somebody new. The first solicitor is entitled to insist that his/her fees be paid in full before they release their file to the new solicitor. This can often create difficulties because the client generally will only leave […]
You defame somebody if you make a false allegation about them and that allegation has been made known to third parties. There are however certain defences open to the person who made the defamatory statements. One of the defences is that of privilege. Privilege can be absolute privilege, which generally refers to comments made in […]
Mario Gonzales recently brought the Spanish government to the European Court of Justice arguing that data should be removed from Google if it was no longer accurate or relevant or it was excessive or inadequate. In his case, if you searched his name in Spain, an article would appear describing how he had to sell […]
We often read in newspapers about terrible cases where animals have been mistreated. The general outcome is that the person who abused the animal will be fined or in extremely rare cases they might be sent to prison. I am of the view that at some point in the not too distant future, an abused […]
If a client has a problem with a solicitor and is considering making a claim on the Law Society Compensation Fund, that claim must be received by the Law Society within six months of the loss coming to attention of the claimant.
I have recently discussed problems that have arisen with section 47 reports in family law cases and I am not sure if it’s coincidence but I have received a number of queries recently in relation to people who are having considerable difficulties with section 47 reports. The main problem appears to be that many clients […]
You will all be familiar with Monica Leech case, which is currently before the Supreme Court. This is the case where an allegation that Monica Leech was having an affair with a government minister resulted in a High Court jury awarding her €1.87 million in damages. That order is currently being appealed to the Supreme […]
