www.legalitum.co.uk

Insult a prosecutor at your peril

Courtrooms are not known, whether in the UK or worldwide for being venues for hysterical laughter, nor, in many jurisdictions, is there a significant representation of disabled advocates, so a story where these 2 elements overlapped was always likely to be picked up by the worldwide press.

The story revolves around a situation where a well known and highly respected female prosecutor, who also happens to be a dwarf, called a witness in a case. Unfortunately, the witness became overcome with hysteria in court to the point where he started  repeatedly singing songs from Snow White and the seven dwarfs.

Not only was the prosecutor’s case jeopardised but not surprisingly, she too great offence at the insults. In this case, the witness picked on the wrong opponent, the prosecutor in question may be diminutive in size but is known as being a very formidable lawyer and is planning to personally sue the witness.

Times are tough, as we all know, but we came across a story which really is quite shocking. It’s not a UK story but it’s not a third world story either. It’s from the US.

In short, the story from a local US publication concerns the fact that an increasing number of relatives of dead people are refusing to pay for their burial or cremation – this means the local authorities have to deal with the body and are fighting back by suing the relatives in the small claims court.

Presumably the legal action could only be taken against executors or administrators of the deceased’s estate ? Law is different of course in the US but under English law this is the only basis we can see for such a claim, although if we are incorrect, please do let us know.

Follow this link for the story in full. It seems to us to be a sad indictment of not only economic change, but societal and legal change also.

What do you think ?

Useful data from the US on social media

Social media law is becoming an increasingly important area of law impacting on areas such as employment law, defamation, privacy, family law and human rights.

Things are moving very fast, as with all things relating to the new digital world we live in. Trends in the legal interpretation of social media activity in the USA are worth noting for the future of English law in this area.

In a recent US study :-

• 43% of businesses have had issues relating to employee misuse of social media at work
• 30% of businesses surveyed have taken disciplinary action against employees relating to social media use
• Both employers and employees are becoming increasingly aware that social media may be a useful source of evidence in court claims, although most are unclear as to where the lines are drawn in terms of what can be legitimately accessed and used in evidence at court.

Two recent cases from the Inidianma and New York states courts indicate that courts are becoming increasingly receptive to social media activity evidence and in particular that as part of the vital disclosure discovery) obligations on all parties in litigation, it is likely to be legitimate for parties to request social media activity evidence from each other, although again, this is unlikely to be total disclosure and the  extent of disclosure in this area is still a developing area of law worldwide.