current legal issues in the news

Legal changes would require explanation for questionable wealth in BC

26/03/2025despair

VICTORIA — People or companies in British Columbia will need to explain how they obtained their cash, fancy homes, cars and luxury goods if there’s a suspicion they came from criminal activity.

The provincial government has tabled changes to its Civil Forfeiture Act that would allow for the creation of unexplained wealth orders to help prevent money laundering by those who hide their assets in goods or through

What three luxury homes reveal about who owns UK property

11/09/2024despair

Stylised graphic showing Beechwood House, Lubov Chernukhin and Alisher Usmanov

Owners of around 50,000 UK properties held by foreign companies remain hidden from public view, despite new transparency laws.

The Register of Overseas Entities, launched in August 2022, was meant to reveal who ultimately owns UK property.

But analysis by BBC News and Transparency International found that almost half of the firms required to declare who was behind them failed to do so.

Labor MP Margaret Hodge said the legislation was not “fit for purpose”.

A UK government spokesperson said the register has been an “invaluable source of information for

Florida Supreme Court weighs dispute over death penalty law change

21/06/2023despair

After Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature this spring eliminated a requirement for unanimous jury recommendations before death sentences can be imposed, the Florida Supreme Court said Tuesday it will decide whether the new law should apply to resentancing proceedings for two men convicted of committing murders in 1997.

The Supreme Court issued stays in the Wakulla County cases of Jason Looney and Guerry Hertz after their attorneys appealed a decision by Circuit Judge J. Layne Smith that would allow the new law to apply. The law allows death sentences to be imposed based on the recommendations of eight of

Workplace Bullying vs Reasonable Management Action: Firmness does not mean Harshness

18/06/2023despair

[An] instruction is not the same thing as a disciplinary measure, and firmness does not equate to harshness.

Deputy President Alan Colman
Trainor v Council for Christian Education in Schools and others [2023] FWC 1272 (30 May 2023)

People managers are constantly dealing with ever evolving deadlines, targets and expectations. An area of constant concern is people and especially when it comes to courageous or difficult conversations. If an employee is performing poorly, engaging with misconduct or just doing inappropriate behavior, the line between what is reasonable management action versus workplace bullying can seem to be blurred. A recent case

Prosecutors fight to keep Trump trial in state court

05/06/2023despair

NEW YORK –

Ten months before Donald Trump is scheduled to stand trial in his historic New York City criminal case, Manhattan prosecutors are turning the former president’s words against him in a tug of war over precisely where he will be tried.

Trump’s lawyers have spent weeks angling to have the hush money case moved to federal court. The Manhattan district attorney’s office responded Tuesday that the case should remain in the state court where it originated, citing old Trump tweets that they say undermine his lawyers’ jurisdictional challenge.

Trump, a Republican, pleaded not guilty in state court last

Inside the movement to ban caste discrimination across the US

03/06/2023despair

Some South Asians, many miles away from their homes, say they are suffering from experiences with discrimination that date back thousands of years.

From job rejections to unsupported marriages, they claim that severe harassment from the caste system crossed over into America and has gone unchecked.

“When we talk about our personal experience, people don’t believe me,” Prem Paariyar, a Nepalese immigrant who said he was discriminated against because of his caste both back home and in the US, told ABC News Live. “Not just my experience, our experience.”

PHOTO: Prem Paariyar, an anti-caste activist, speaks with ABC News. — Prem Paariyar, an anti-caste activist, speaks with ABC News.
ABC News

Foreign lawyers are restricted from working on national security cases in Hong Kong – National

13/05/2023despair

Hong Kong’s legislature passed a legal amendment on Wednesday to prevent foreign lawyers working on national security cases, a restriction critics say will undermine fair trials and the right of defendants to choose their lawyers.

The amendment enshrines in law a ruling from China’s top lawmaking body last December that Hong Kong courts must get the approval of the city’s leader before admitting a foreign lawyer without Hong Kong qualifications for national security cases.

The use of foreign lawyers by both prosecutors and defense has long been part of the rule of law traditions in the former British colony and

MPs pass bill to expose use of child labour, forced labour

09/05/2023despair

OTTAWA –

A bill that aims to expose the use of child labor and forced labor around the world passed the House of Commons on Wednesday.

The new law will require Canadian companies and government departments to scrutinize their supply chains and file public reports on their efforts to improve labor practices.

The intent is to ensure none of their products or components are made by children in sweatshops in other countries, or by people forced to work excessive hours.

Businesses that don’t comply could face fines of up to $250,000 for failing to report, and the bill allows for