Amnesty International Files Legal Action Against UK Security Services

International Human Rights Group Amnesty International has filed legal action against the UK government and its intelligence-gathering agency GCHQ for “highly likely” intercepting calls, emails and other communications made by the human rights agency. AI speculated that they were an important source of information especially regarding sensitive topics and events in the world.

According to Director of Law and Policy for AI Michael Bochenek, they are deeply troubled with the idea that the communications of their staff was intercepted. This statement follows the revelation of Edward Snowden regarding the NSA and GCHQ developing great capabilities to facilitate espionage in different industries and collecting mobile phone information by collecting raw data from undersea cables and the servers of Internet companies.

Several other human rights groups, including Liberty, Big Brother Watch and Privacy International, have also filed legal action against the UK government.

Eight technology companies, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Apple and LinkedIn, had sent an open letter to US President Barack Obama to protest reforming the existing surveillance laws of the country. The technology companies’ siding with consumers indicates the lacking integrity of the technology due to the surveillance activities of the US government.

Amnesty International had already issued a claim at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. They argue that the actions of the UK government was a breach of the right to privacy and right to freedom of expression.

Source

The Possibility of Abusing the Anti-Bullying Law

Almost every western country and some Asian countries are adapting anti-bullying laws to better protect young people from people who take advantage of their position and attributes. While this is a great victory for all those who fell victim to bullying from education to employment, there is a great chance this could be abused.

In countries where compensation culture is quite a big part of everyday life, employees who were shut out by their employers could file for damages based on bullying. This can create problems for employers who rate and lay off their employees performance-wise. Employees could claim for damages against their employer, or possibly retain their work.

This could create an unfair advantage this time to superiors. Although legal challenges are available against those who claim damages, it can become a very costly issue for the company.

It is important that the use of such laws as loopholes and personal rights be monitored carefully. The definition and exclusions of the law must be well defined. In this way, nobody, especially those who have actually done wrong and were given rightful reprimand, could be properly given justice.

The provision of an anti-bullying law is a country still has its benefits outweigh the cons it could possibly have, such as this one.

Injury Compensation Claims: Protecting Your Rights When You Are Injured

If you are the victim of a work or car accident injury, you have your own rights that protect you from offenders and legal representatives trying to pry into your case. When you make an injury compensation claim, remember the following to protect yourself.

1.    No Confidential Information

Your legal representative should evaluate all confidential information that the other party asks from you. You have the right to keep information about yourself that is delicate unless the court asks you to show such.

2.    Right to Challenge

If you believe the claims of the offending party is far from the truth, you could challenge them by providing your own evidences that will disprove their claim.

3.    Medical Priorities

You have the right to make use of your medical condition for a delayed case against your offender. By law, your medical priorities should be at the top, especially if you have suffered serious injuries.

4.    Rightful Compensation Demand

As a victim, you could only get a lump sum repayment from your offender, but with the help of legal representatives, you could raise the amount of compensation from an offender. Legal representatives are knowledgeable about cases similar to yours and can use these cases as frameworks to get back your full compensation.

Mexico’s Teachers Rally Against New Educational Bill

Mexico was paralysed Wednesday as thousands of teachers and educators marched in the streets in protest against a controversial educational reform bill. Thousands of members of teaching unions became furious with the controversial move and they consider the bill a violation of worker’s rights.

The controversial educational bill was voted 102-22 that will submit teachers to periodic and compulsory performance exams. Anybody not willing to partake in the tests will lead to the person’s professional dismissal. Also any teacher who fails the exams three times could be dismissed. Those in the older ages could be given an early retirement from the industry.

This spurred the anger of the National Coordinator of Educational Workers, or CNTE. They said that this was a ‘national teacher’s insurgency’ and was not fair for many teachers, especially those teaching in the poorer areas of southern Mexico. However, SNTE, Mexico’s main teacher’s union, supported the new bill. However, some from SNTE also did not agree with the new bill.

The teachers threatened that they will not return to classrooms unless Mexican President Pena Nieto will negotiate with them directly. The new bill could still be vetoed by the president.

The CNTE had blamed the government for poor federal funding, which limits the capabilities of some professional educators in the country.

The US Administration Actually Abused the Espionage Act

The Edward Snowden case is one of the highest-profile cases there are in the world today and yet many see that the United States has a right to persecute the NSA intelligence leaker because of the damages the leak did to the country’s security. However, the 1817 Espionage Act had been abused by the country against its own whistleblowers over and over again.

The Espionage act, according to one source, actually makes a great impact on the life of a so-called traitor. The entire case could have the person viewed as a traitor, avoided by their close companions and leads the whistleblower to his or her own unmaking, which forces them to plead guilty to anything

.

The abuse of the Espionage Act had always been enforced against intelligence leakers. But in my opinion, the real trouble is this.

Whistleblowers will not do their activities if there was really nothing wrong with the government process. Edward Snowden’s leak was a confirmation that the US’ intelligence gathering capabilities have grown greatly and are going too far in collecting the information they need.

Past espionage-charged traitors have also exposed several US government misdemeanours including the CIA’s torture program.

It is highly clear that today, the US government preys on the fears of its country by means of terrorism and that exposing any information about US practices involving the violation of human rights and civil liberties is strictly a crime.

The Two Kinds of Child Custody Regulations

I am a single parent and I understand that divorce could mean you could never see your child again or your child lives with you, but this is not true. If you’re planning an undefended divorce with your husband, it is important that both of you know the differences in the kinds of child custody the legal system recognizes.

1.    Legal Custody

The parent who makes the decisions as to where the child will attend school, the religion the child will have and other medical matters is given the child’s legal custody. Legal custody could mean a single parent has this right to make decisions for the child or both parents could do so in a joint legal custody.

2.    Physical Custody

The parent where the child will live in most of the time has the physical custody of the child. Physical or residential custody also has its own sub-categories.

-A sole physical custody allows the child to physically reside only in one location. However, the non-custodial parent has more visitation rights, including the right to take the child home and sleep over during the day.

-A dual residence custody allows the child to live with one parent for one part of the year and live with the other parent. This could also be set for months and weeks, but the time spent in each location should be equal.

UK Finance: A Harsh Time For Banks and PPI Claims

The BBA’s push for a PPI claim deadline failed this week as UK consumer groups expressed their discontent with the banks’ efforts in improving customer services. Regardless of the BBA’s offer to market the entire reclaiming process and make the process simpler, Lloyds’ scandal involving mishandling PPI claims intentionally had reached the high water mark for consumer groups.

In the UK today, it is a harsh time for the financial sector. Reports from the Prudential Regulation Authority show that Barclays, Co-operative Bank, Nationwide, RBS and Lloyds have a shortfall of £27 billion in capital. There is no coincidence that the missing capital rests on the total PPI compensation package banks have set aside for the UK with a total of £25 billion.

The shortfall can directly affect the mentioned banks’ ability to lend. Barclays and Nationwide are advised to reduce the risks of their business because their leverage ratio must go below the standard of 3 and must do so by 2019. The PRA tasked the two banks to come up with a plan to reduce their leverage ratios. RBS had the largest shortfall of £13.6 billion.

However, the PRA ensures that once all these measures are met, the shortfalls that do not reduce the lending to the real economy will not falter. However, given the large call to claim PPI, it is indeed a very difficult situation for banks.

UK Social Media Defamation: What You Could Do

The Internet gave way for people to interact with each other quickly and effectively through social media and electronic messaging. However, this also gave way for many people to post offensive and obscene methods of expressing themselves through messages, pranks and deliberate meanness. Here are a few ways you could defend yourself against social media defamation in the United Kingdom.

1.     Defamation Bill 2013

On April 23, 2013, the UK Lords passed a defamation bill that would stop cases against journalists, academics or individuals who live outside the cases to reduce the amount of libel in the United Kingdom. The law makes filing for libel in social media a bit more difficult because you will need to prove the social effects of the defamation before the law can take action.

2.     Copy Important Documents

Conversations, mocking social media profiles, wall posts, tweets, blogs and virtually anything that shows defamation against you or any party, organization or other business must be documented and saved. Copying important documents like these online on soft copies serve as evidence in your future defamation case against the defamer.

3.     Leeway

In the Internet, defamation is different from cyberbullying. If a threat was issued against a person, they could just have the individual surveyed by authorities in case they prove true to their promise. Cyberbullying is intently defaming a person. Defamation, in itself, is a negative branding of a person, company or organization. There is leeway given to defamation than cyberbullying.

UK Fraud Laws: What Protection Do You Have?

In every country, people will try countless methods to earn more from a buyer by selling them a fraud or involving them in a scam. Every country deems fraud punishable by law. In the United Kingdom, the Fraud Act of 2006 protects consumers from fraud, fraud by false representation, fraud by failing to disclose information, fraud by superposition and more.

Most UK fraud and scams come from the Internet, through telemarketing or text marketing, and through actual fraud of certain criminals. Sometimes, these scams come from an anonymous call or text that is unsolicited. Often, these scams will tell you that you have money waiting in your bank account and a fee is needed to deposit the amount into your bank account.

Fraud by false representation tackles the area of buying designer products that turn out to be imitations with sub-par quality of materials used. Fake items, such as bags and clothing, are common targets. With digital media, pirated movies, DVDs and CDs are punishable by law for selling or even ownership.

If you’re a victim of fraud, the UK government has the Action Fraud hotline for its citizens who fell victim to Internet crime frauds and scams. Action Fraud’s suspects are not limited to individuals to large corporations and organized crime. Again, all fraud suspects are subject to punishment by the Fraud Act of 2006, which is commonly five to seven years imprisonment.

Things To Know About Divorce In the United Kingdom

UK’s divorce procedure is not very difficult if it is undefended and the complainant can fill up all the necessary forms properly and process them in the proper agencies. Undefended divorces do not require a legal court proceeding as it is with the consent of the two parties. Defended divorces can be difficult because of the settlement of issues between the two parties.

Complainants also have a choice to do their own divorces by themselves. Most legal companies offer free online tutorials and the forms needed. Most legal companies also offer smaller fee for starting DIY divorces.

For undefended divorce services, a standard divorce service including everything could cost an average of £250-300. Online divorce services may cost half around £150-200. Do it yourself divorce services where the legal company begins the divorce procedure for you could only cost around £90.

If you have a defended divorce, the case hearing might take a long time and the costs for undefended divorces above could increase in value.

A defended divorce handles cases such as unreasonable behaviour, desertion, dissolution, adultery, two to five years separation, no fault and irreconcilable differences, which is why it is more expensive and it takes more time to resolve. Defended divorce costs also increase with the use of legal courts and personnel.

UK’s Penalties for Tax Evasion

The proper filing of taxes is a requirement in most countries and to skip this requirement could mean great penalties. In the United Kingdom, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) ensures that all UK citizens fulfill their stamp duties and pay their taxes accordingly, or else, they can face the following consequences:

1.     Custodial Sentence

In a serious case of tax evasion, a citizen could face potential custodial sentence for tax evasion. Usually, these involve the citizen not paying their taxes for more than half a decade and gaining a large net profit. Sometimes, if the business is an underground business, for example, the sale of smuggled oil or perishable goods without taxation, the larger the profit, the larger the citizen’s potential for a custodial sentence.

2.     Paying it All Back

Along with the tax evader’s sentence, the law also requires you to pay back all the tax you owe along with the interest the tax has accrued over time. Along with the interest, you will also pay back the maximum penalty. For serious cases, evaders are actually charged with a 100% equivalent of the tax owed by the evader.

3.     Process

If you’re incarcerated for a high amount of tax evasion, you may need to serve your sentence and pay off your tax debt for the rest of your life. However, for tax evasion cases lower than £50,000, tax evaders may only face an offense and may need to pay only their actual tax, interest rate and penalty fee with an arrangement both the evader and the HMRC agrees upon.

Imagining A World Without Rules or Legal System

My name is Jeremy Williams and I like discussing topics about the law of countries, states or cities. However, I don’t wish to discuss them in the full technical veracity associated with laws. For my first post, I want to share to you readers about an idea of a world without rules or legal systems. Will it do humanity good, or will it do the world worse? Here are my two cents.

Different people in the past have always said that for the world to remain civilized, rules need to be in place. Rules make a person more civilized, more mature and responsible, and this is what sets them apart from barbarians. Indeed, this is true, with rules, the world had probably become a great place with proper respect for inventions, creativity, religion, cultures and others.

However, rules have also made a man more cunning and unreadable than he ought to be. Rules made transparency impossible; while barbarians were honest with their intentions, civilized men appearing to be good may actually be evil. Rules could be used as a tool for manipulation or to push up a person’s personal interests. Most of the time, those who make these rules are the ones who only benefit from them.

A world without rules will not also be a beneficial world. Without the legal system, no justice could be served. Voices cannot be heard. While oppressors are obvious in their appearance, there is no way for a governing body to control them and their dispute. Without proper control, there is chaos and this is where the law protects the ordinary citizen.

It is therefore important that we find the balance in transparency and the protection of citizens and individuals from those who manipulate the law. Advocacy, and the awareness of knowing the rights of citizens and individuals can make a civilized world truly civilized and free of any manipulations.