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Discount Foundation

Can I sue if something goes wrong during LASIK surgery?

Posted on September 5, 2024September 5, 2024

LASIK eye surgery has become a popular choice for those seeking to reduce their dependence on glasses or contact lenses. While the procedure is generally safe and effective, complications can occur. This article explores the legal aspects of LASIK surgery and what options may be available if something goes wrong.

The Success Rate of LASIK

It’s important to note that LASIK surgery has a high success rate. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, over 90% of LASIK patients achieve 20/20 vision or better. However, like any medical procedure, there are inherent risks and potential complications.

Legal Grounds for a LASIK Lawsuit

If you experience complications after LASIK surgery, you may wonder if you have grounds for a lawsuit. The ability to sue successfully typically depends on proving three key elements:

Negligence: You must demonstrate that the laser eye surgeons failed to meet the standard of care expected in the medical community.
Causation: It’s necessary to establish a direct link between the surgeon’s negligence and your injury.
Damages: You need to show that you suffered actual harm as a result of the negligence.

Proving Negligence in LASIK Cases

The Essential Role of Actuarial Certificates in the Legal Landscape

Posted on May 24, 2023May 24, 2023

In the dynamic world of law and finance, actuarial certificates play a vital role in ensuring smooth transactions and safeguarding interests. These certificates, provided by professional actuarial services, have implications across a wide range of legal applications and scenarios.

What are Actuarial Services?

Before delving into the specifics of actuarial certificates, let’s clarify what actuarial services are. In a nutshell, actuaries use mathematics, statistics, and financial theory to study uncertain future events, especially those pertaining to insurance and pensions. Actuarial services encompass this data analysis to assess risk and predict financial outcomes. This expertise is sought after in a variety of sectors, including insurance, pensions, finance, investments, and even health care.

Understanding Actuarial Certificates

Now, let’s turn our attention to actuarial certificates. These documents are typically issued by an actuary. The certificate serves as an official confirmation that the actuary has examined the figures, methods, and assumptions used in the calculations and found them to be in accordance with accepted actuarial principles and regulations.

Actuarial certificates are thus a fundamental instrument in instilling confidence and trust in the integrity of financial and risk assessments. They provide an objective evaluation that validates calculations, facilitating informed decision-making.

Business Advice

3 Tips For Wills Lawyers If Legal Action Is Taken Against Your Business

Posted on March 15, 2023March 15, 2023

Whether as a private citizen or as a business owner who runs a wills lawyer business, there is always the possibility that someone may decide to take legal action against you. Conversely, you have the right to do likewise against someone else whom you feel has wronged you in some way. If we focus on the latter scenario of your business facing legal action, it can be a stressful situation for all concerned.

Obviously, as the business’s owner, you are at the forefront in terms of having to defend any legal action against your business, but for those whom you work with, including any employees, it can never be pleasant knowing that someone wishes to sue the company you work for. This is magnified when you consider that some businesses have actually had to close down due to them losing legal cases where the level of compensation awarded was significant.

Now we are not trying to scare you and suggest that being sued is going to cause the closure of your wills lawyer business. Nevertheless, it does need to be kept in mind that any decision that goes against your company in a courtroom is bound to come with some cost attached. It could be financial, which is bad enough, but it could also lead to negative publicity, which is definitely damaging for any business, including yours.

The Facts About Adult Child Maintenance For Divorced Parents

Posted on March 1, 2023

Whilst family lawyers may spend many hours working for clients with children under 18 concerning maintenance payments, it often comes as a shock to some clients when they are told by their family lawyers that maintenance payments can also be ordered by the Family Court for children over 18 years of age.

It is an assumption, not just in Australia, but in most countries that, when a child turns 18 they are considered an adult, and thus any child support or maintenance payments by the absent parent are no longer required to be paid. In fact, in Australia, they can end before a child turns 18 if, for example, the child marries, is adopted, or becomes financially self-sufficient.

However, as family law currently exists, an application can be made for “adult child maintenance”, and this is contained in the Family Law Act, Section 661. We must state at the outset that applications cannot be made simply because an adult child continues to live with one of their parents who happens to be divorced, but instead only when one of several specific circumstances exists.

How Dental Practices Can Avoid A Legal Minefield By Having A Privacy Policy

Posted on December 8, 2022November 8, 2023

How Dental Practices Can Avoid A Legal Minefield By Having A Privacy Policy

Most businesses require personal information and data from their clients and customers, and for dentists, reading this will apply to your patients. Not only will that data include the information that patients provide, such as their name, address and date of birth, but the subsequent information you add to their files regarding their oral health and treatments, many of which they will have paid for, so you may also have credit cards or bank details stored.

What all of that means, and in line with the relevant commercial law, which for dentists located in Australia is the 1998 Privacy Act, is that the storing and using of personal information must be done in a way that protects that data. Should you fail to protect the data and it is shared deliberately, in error, or due to a security breach, you and your dental business could face penalties.

Lawyers for Dental O So Gentle advised one of the ways you can ensure you comply with privacy law is for your dental business to have a privacy policy. This outlines what steps your business takes to protect data, what legitimate ways it can be used, and how you will handle privacy-related complaints. Read on, and we will explain further.

Ways To Prevent Your Landscaping Business From Being Taken To Court

Posted on June 15, 2022June 21, 2022

Ways To Prevent Your Landscaping Business From Being Taken To Court

Being taken to court is not a pleasant experience but when it is landscapers who are subject to legal action it can have ramifications that go as far as threatening the very existence of their landscaping business. The thought that the other party could be awarded a substantial financial settlement that could wipe out all their assets is enough to give most landscapers sleepless nights.

Before any landscaper reading this starts to panic, let us point out first of all that it is extremely rare for a landscaping business to be taken to court. Thankfully, in most cases, a resolution to a dispute can be made without the courts having to step in, and there are also mediation services that can help.

However, we are sure you would still like to avoid your landscaping business being involved in a lawsuit. Not only are there potential financial repercussions but a court case can generate negative publicity that is not helpful to your business in maintaining its reputation. So, if you would like to avoid legal action being taken against your landscaping business, here are some ways that can be achieved.

Terms And Conditions A Landscaping Business Should Have To Protect Itself

Posted on May 18, 2022April 12, 2023

Terms And Conditions A Landscaping Business Should Have To Protect Itself

For many landscapers, like those from martincuthbert.com.au who also have responsibility for running their business, there will be many financial and legal necessities that you would much rather not concern yourself with, but the sound running of your business requires you to. Thankfully, much of it can be passed to your accountant or commercial lawyer to deal with, nevertheless, you must still have a reasonable understanding of it all.

One aspect of the legal framework within which you operate is the contract between a client and your landscaping business. Again, this is best left to a legal expert to create the main template and then for you to enter the specifics you have agreed with your client relating to the landscaping work they require.

Within that contract, there must be terms and conditions which apply to any landscaping agreement you have with a client. As for what those terms and conditions should cover, we have outlined the main ones below which should appear on every contract for landscaping work you undertake.

Services

This will outline the landscaping services which you are going to be providing to the client under the contract agreed to. We recommend that you have these as specific as possible and in crystal clear language to prevent any chance of misunderstanding, especially given the fact that not all clients will be cognisant of all landscaping terminology.

7 Local Marketing Tactics To Boost Your Divorce Lawyers Business

Posted on February 22, 2022October 12, 2024

7 Local Marketing Tactics To Boost Your Divorce Lawyers Business

Your divorce law business likely operates within a specific location or area. As such it naturally classed as a local business. That is not to suggest it is necessarily a small business as there are huge companies that only operate within a specific city or state.

Being a local small business also signifies that your marketing needs to be localised. In other words, the way you market, the people you market to, and the locations you target are all clearly defined. That applies as much to small business online marketing as it does to offline marketing, such as advertising in local newspapers.

With the internet playing such a huge role in everyone’s lives, if your divorce lawyers business does not market online it is depriving itself of a huge opportunity to generate clients. Specifically, we are talking about local marketing online, as the internet provides many opportunities to target a local audience. Here are some marketing tactics from Oxygen Marketing that are proven to work.

Tactic #1 – Localise Your Website

Your website is where your prospects may first encounter your divorce lawyers business, so ensure they know you are based locally. Many local businesses use generic websites that look like they could be anywhere. Use local imagery, ensure your city is in large letters, and include a local map with your location on your home page.

How To Improve Your Family Law Firm’s Ranking On Google Using Local Keywords

Posted on October 20, 2021October 12, 2024

How To Improve Your Family Law Firm's Ranking On Google Using Local Keywords

To help expand the client base of your family law firm via the internet, your website must attract visitors who in turn reach out to you for advice, and ultimately ask you to represent them. If you were to ask for advice from the SEO experts at Perth SEO they will tell you that the most effective way of achieving that aim is to have your website rank high on search engines, especially Google.

The whole point of wanting your website to rank high on Google is that the closer it is to the #1 position for any given search, the more traffic it is going to receive. Presuming that it is ranking for highly relevant keyword searches relating to family law, the more chances there are of that traffic including people looking for a family lawyer.

The point we make about ranking for a relevant keyword is crucial because there is little point in ranking for keywords that are of no relevance to your business, nor which attract traffic not specifically looking for a family lawyer. For example, you might rank for the term, ‘cheap lawyer’, but unless your fees are low and you take on clients for all legal work, then it is of no real benefit to you.

Of the traffic that you receive from that keyword only a fraction of it will be needing a family lawyer, and the rest will be looking for a corporate, criminal, copyright, or employment lawyer, and when they land on your website and realize your law firm is none of these, they will click away immediately, which creates another problem in relation to your ranking.

Drug Tests And Why They Can Play A Significant Role In Family Court Proceedings

Posted on June 16, 2021November 30, 2023

Drug Tests And Why They Can Play A Significant Role In Family Court Proceedings

For anyone who has started a drug rehab program or is about to start, it might be too late to convince your ex-spouse or partner that you are a fit and proper parent who should be allowed visitation or even the opportunity to co-parent. The truth is that it is not up to any parent to decide the legalities or otherwise of whether the other parent should have contact with their children; it is for the family courts to decide.

When the matter of who can or cannot see their children comes before a family court judge, it will be what is in the best interests of the child they will use to determine their decision. This is when your use of drugs, whether it is current or in the past, will likely be brought up in court by the child’s other parent or their family lawyer.

To do so formally, they, or their legal representative, will submit specific documents to the court indicating that they believe the child is at risk with regards to your alleged drug taking. This could include accusations that you leave drugs around your home or that you take drugs in full view of the child.

9 Tips for Growing Your Business

Posted on May 19, 2021January 3, 2022

When you have a business, commercial lawyers are needed to ensure everything you do is legal and watertight, from setting up your business structure through to leases and contracts. But once your business is up and running, it may be that you decide that more growth is necessary to achieve your business goals. Again, legal help may be necessary to ensure everything is done properly and in a way that helps ensure the business has a solid base.

Most businesses, such as web designers need to achieve a certain amount of growth in order to remain successful, and one of the most important ways to do this is to expand your customer base. Even if you have many customers on your books, there will still be some attrition as people move, their needs change or they may decide to try out the competition. So it’s important to spend at least some time in getting more customers.

Here are some tips to help grow your customer base

Understand your customers’ needs so your business can meet them. To do this you can ask for feedback to see if there are any other products or services you could provide them with.

5 Ways to Avoid Health and Legal Issues with Botox

Posted on April 16, 2021October 15, 2024

5 Ways to Avoid Health and Legal Issues with Botox

If you’ve been reading about a few different Botox legal issues in the media, you might be scared about trying these cosmetic injectables for yourself.

While it’s true that some people have had issues with it before, there are often circumstances leading to problems, such as inexperience, no qualifications, and fake products. If you want to reduce the risk of any health and legal issues with Botox, consider doing the following things.

Go to a Consultation

Going to a consultation for Botox is one of the best ways to know if the person you are getting Botox from is legitimate. The authorised nurse practitioner or medical doctor should explain the entire procedure to you in a consultation before you go ahead with it. This can be face to face or via video conference.

Before this consultation happens, write down any questions you have and ask about risks and complications. The more you know, the more confident you can be.

Look For Registration Information

For someone to legally give Botox injections, they have to be registered. Check out the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency’s website to determine if the person administering it is legally allowed to do so.

Once you’ve identified the registration information you’re looking for, you can ask about their experience levels. Most medical professionals won’t be offended if you ask them how many years they have been performing cosmetic injections.

Why You Need Commercial Lawyers When in Business

Posted on March 22, 2021October 15, 2024

Whether you are starting up a new digital marketing or running one that is well-established, you will need the assistance of commercial lawyers for a great many things. For one thing, your business must be compliant in all ways with the law for tax and other purposes or you risk heavy fines or even being shut down. And if you don’t heed the law in every business matter you risk compromising your business which can easily mean facing a lawsuit of some kind from employees or clients.

Here is how lawyers can help people in business: –

They can make sure your business is set up properly with the right structure and can help you dissolve it when the time comes.
Lawyers can prepare contracts to ensure the terms and conditions are suitable for you and your clients and that the due diligence standards are met.
They can help settle business disputes and avoid litigation. They can help you though litigation if it occurs.

How to Protect Your Small Business Against an Unfair Dismissal Claim

Posted on February 1, 2021October 12, 2024

Unfair-Dismissal-Claim

No small business wants to have its reputation dragged through the mud due to an unfair dismissal claim against it, whether or not it has employment lawyers on hand. However, for example, when you have a business, there will always be employees who don’t do the work you expect of them or who fail to give the value you wanted for your business in some other regard. What can you do?

Rather than risk putting your business at risk of a lawsuit for unfair dismissal, it is wise to protect it in the following ways: –

Make sure you understand what unfair dismissal is in a legal sense.
Have employment contracts that are fair and just, with all the fine details needed to protect your business.
Have carefully detailed procedures and processes in place for your human resources. Many employers seem to focus entirely on other components of their business to the detriment of the human side. Remember, you can’t run your business without staff.
Prevent and manage problems by open communications at all times. Not all employees understand fully what is expected of them. You should have fully detailed role descriptions and make sure your employees read them.
Encourage an open-door policy to get feedback from your staff and make sure they know there will be no retribution from anyone if they bring their complaints to you.
Always be fair, honest and upfront with your staff.

Five Benefits of Employing a Family Lawyer When Working Through a Divorce

Posted on September 22, 2020July 31, 2023

Employing a Family Lawyer

Working through a divorce can be a long, complicated, and emotional process, especially if you’re separating from a long-term partner due to a broken-down relationship. Court proceedings often involve asset separation and child custody disputes, which can have major financial implications.

Because of this, we highly recommend hiring experienced family lawyers to help you work through your divorce. They can advise you on various legal matters, helping ensure the best possible outcome for you and your family.

Below are our top five benefits of hiring a family lawyer to help you work through your divorce.

You Will Be Able to Take Advantage of the Law

If you work with a reliable, highly-experienced family lawyer, you can harness the law to your benefit. Things like court proceedings and asset separation can be difficult and more complicated, and having a lawyer by your side will help ensure you’re doing the right thing.

On top of this, a good lawyer can help you when you’re preparing your divorce case. Things as simple as keeping basic records can have huge implications if you end up in court, and your lawyer will ensure you’ve got your bases covered.

What is Meant by “Unfair”, “Unlawful” and ‘Wrongful” Dismissal?

Posted on May 2, 2020October 12, 2024

unlawful-dismissal

Australian employees receive a high level of protection from employment laws. These include protection against unlawful, wrongful and unfair dismissal. And, although you might not realise it, these are quite different.

Before you make a dismissal case against a former employer, you need to determine what sort of case you need to make. This can be difficult without legal advice, so we’d recommend speaking with an employment lawyer if you need more information. As well as this, we’ve provided a quick outline of the main types of illegal dismissal, with the aim of giving you a solid knowledge base to start with.

What Is Unfair Dismissal?

To start with, let’s look at unfair dismissal. To keep things simple, unfair dismissal refers to the termination of employment without good reason or in an unfair or harsh manner. This could include:

Being fired because something unrelated to your job and workplace, including personal issues.
Being dismissed unexpectedly without being told why.
Having your employment terminated due to performance or workplace issues that you haven’t been given the chance to fix.

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As you can imagine, the scope of unfair dismissals is wide, and each case is therefore treated on an individual basis by the Australian Fair Work Commission.

What Is Spousal Maintenance and Do I Have to Be Worried About It?

Posted on January 22, 2020June 18, 2024

Spousal Maintenance

In Australia, divorces and serious separations are governed by a comprehensive selection of laws. In general, the courts will strive to deliver a fair deliberation on divorce cases, which can sometimes involve one partner being responsible for the support of the other.

This is called spousal maintenance, and it’s something you absolutely need to understand if you’re working through a separation. In the rest of this article, we’re going to look at everything you need to know about this complicated legal topic.

What Is Spousal Maintenance?

To keep things simple, spousal maintenance is designed to ensure both parties are able to maintain a comfortable living situation following a divorce. It can be paid in a number of forms, including:

As a one-off lump sum payment as ordered by the court.
As regular weekly or fortnightly payments.
As bill or amenity payments covering periodic costs.
By providing certain items or things the other party needs to live.

As you can imagine, spousal maintenance cases can become extremely complicated. Because of this, it’s best to talk to a family lawyer about the subject if you’re unsure about anything or need long-term legal advice.

Business Advice

How Can A Competent Accountant Save You Money?

Posted on May 7, 2019October 12, 2024

Competent Accountant

For a lot of people, tax time is the most stressful time of the year. Although professional accountants can make tax time easier, a lot of people see them as too expensive to use. But are they really?

In reality, accountants will probably end up saving you money, especially if they are good ones. They will be able to draw on their experience to maximise your tax return by maximising your tax deductions and minimising your taxable income. If you used to think that accountants were too expensive to use, then keep reading. Below are just a few of the ways that a decent accountant can help you save money, making sure you don’t pay more tax than you have to:

They will save you time:

It doesn’t matter whether you only use an accountant once per year, to lodge your tax return, or if you use them throughout the year – in both cases, they will save you a lot of time. Most accountants will be able to work faster than you can when it comes to sorting out your finances. Although they may charge a relatively high hourly rate, they will probably save you a lot more hours than they actually take.

This will free you up to spend more time on the day to day running of your business. It will help lower your stress levels, which can make you more productive in your daily life. Using a decent accountant will indirectly save you money by saving you time.

Protect your Business from Costly Litigation

Posted on February 6, 2018October 12, 2024

Costly Litigation

Ensure that you have a Well-Structured Business Agreement in Place

Proper documentation and can detailed business contracts are extremely helpful when the business runs into trouble or when disputes arise. Seeking legal advice from experienced commercial lawyers right at the beginning of the process paves the way for efficient and methodical dispute resolution. Commercial dispute resolution often involves consideration of multiple factors such as documentation, consideration of rights and responsibilities of all parties and a sound knowledge of the Australian commercial law.

Corporate lawyers are trained to examine various aspects of the problem and offer solutions that are legally valid.

It’s important to understand that everything that the business does by way of transactions should fall within the framework of the terms and conditions contained in the agreement. Poorly worded, vulnerable or legally invalid business agreements can put your business at risk and expose to increased risk of litigation. A detailed and comprehensive business contract helps reduce the likelihood of risks and liability and also provides for improved evaluation of the facts. In the absence of a business agreement, the facts are open to misinterpretation thus leading to subsequent confusion, delay and prolonged stress.

Anxious about a Traffic Infringement Notice?

Posted on September 3, 2017October 12, 2024

Traffic Infringement Notice

Competent Experts can help you Dispute the Fine or Explore legal Alternatives

An infringement notice is sent to the offender through post, email or by means of a ticket issued to the individual. Seeking the advice of experienced criminal lawyers can help you dispute the fine or penalty imposed by the court. An infringement notice will usually be sent to the person under whose name the vehicle is registered. In case the vehicle is under joint ownership, the notice will be sent to the person listed first on the registration form. Infringement notices are usually issued for traffic offences that include illegal parking, speeding or toll evasion.

An infringement notice will typically contain a number of details including date and time of the offence, location of the offence, the legal speed limit as well as the detected speed limit of your vehicle (in case of speeding violations) and the number of licence demerits expected to be added to your driving history.

Read on for some important facts about traffic infringement notices issued under Australian law:

The recipient should take appropriate action regarding the infringement notice within a period of 28 days.
You may choose to pay the fine in full. In this case, the demerits related to the offence will be appended to your driver’s licence history.

What Happens if Your Company is Insolvent?

Posted on April 27, 2017October 12, 2024

insolvency

Insolvency in a business can happen for many reasons – a downturn in the economy, poor management or fraud being just some of them. Some of the signs that financial difficulties are lurking in your business are poor cash flow, ongoing losses and creditors still being unpaid outside of normal trading terms. If you even suspect your business is losing ground financially it is imperative to act quickly in order to save it, and first call of action should be to find some legal advice and a lawyer.

To do this, Lawyers Perth advise that the first thing that should be done is to consult with competent commercial lawyers to make sure your company is indeed, heading towards financial disaster. It is wise to take business advice from business experts and implement it as quickly as possible in order to save your business. This advice could be anything from cost cutting measures through to restructuring the business, all depending on the state of the finances and type of business structure already in place.

But what happens if this is not enough and your business becomes insolvent?

Do not allow the company to incur any more debt.
Do not continue to trade.
Check out your options for restructuring, refinancing or getting more equity.
If these are not advisable, you will need to appoint an administrator or liquidator.

An administrator will work in the company to see if it can be saved in any way. If it can, well and good. If it cannot be saved, an administrator’s job is to see that the creditors get a better deal that they would if the company went straight into liquidation.

How to Handle Unfair Dismissal

Posted on February 28, 2017October 12, 2024

How to Handle Unfair Dismissal

If you have recently lost your job and don’t know why, or think that you’ve been dismissed unfairly, there are things you can do about it. You may want to consult employment lawyers who will be able to tell you if you have any hope of getting your job back or of being compensated for wrongful dismissal.

What is unfair dismissal

It is important to understand exactly what unfair dismissal is. The definition may be different depending on what Australian state you are in. In Western Australia unfair dismissal is said to occur when an employee’s dismissal is oppressive, harsh or unfair. An example of this would be when there was no cause for the dismissal, or if the reason for the dismissal was not sufficient to have that result.

It could be that the employee was alleged to have performed poorly, accused of some misconduct, or that dismissal was inappropriate to the offence. Or it could be that the employee was given no chance to explain their alleged action or to prove it was false.

Who can make a claim for unfair dismissal?

In Western Australia, you have to make a legal claim through Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission (WAIRC). The person who can make a claim must:

Have been employed under the state system
Have earned less than $155,800 per year if not employed under an award
Have been dismissed or forced to resign

What happens then?

Legal advisors will advise you to make a claim within 28 days if possible. It costs $50 to lodge a complaint and you will have to provide certain documents. The WAIRC will look into the claim and if they are satisfied you have a case, will set a date for a conciliation conference. This potentially avoids going to court, a lengthy and costly procedure.

The meetings are usually held in Perth or at certain regional centres and each person has to meet their own costs to get there. Notification of dates and times will be given via snail mail, or in the case of urgency, by telephone or email.

How to Keep on Top of Employment Issues

Posted on November 28, 2016October 12, 2024

Keep on Top of Employment Issues

Once, employees had no recourse for anything that happened to them in their workplace, whether it was an accident or some kind of unfair treatment from their employers. These days things are different. If something goes wrong that seems impossible to fix, you can quickly consult with employment lawyers and find out what your rights are and what the best way is to go about rectifying your situation.

Simply knowing what your rights are goes a long way towards ensuring you are treated properly, paid the right wage and are given safe and comfortable working conditions. While many Australian employees do know a lot about their rights, some do not for various reasons. Even lack of experience can lead them to suffering injustice unnecessarily.

Then there are people from other countries who work here and may not know what they are entitled to as employees. They don’t fully understand the language, so even if they have an internet connection and know how to do research, reading it does not always explain the answer to their problem in a way they can understand.

This enables unscrupulous employees to make things more to their own advantage and be unfair to their employees, even to the extent of going outside the law in some cases. In other cases it may simply be a matter of carelessness or miscommunication that has caused the problem.