The courts have held that a negligent defendant owes a duty of care to both the injured plaintiff and
a) his family
b) Those who helped him
c) the public at large
d) the police
2. volenti non fit injuria means
a) every tort demands compensation
b) the act speaks for itself
c) an intervening act
d) voluntart assumption of risk
3. When the law holds one person liable for the misconduct of another it is called
a) owner’s liability
b) vicarious liability
c) contributory liability
d) inevitable liability
4.The standard care owed to an invitee is
a) Too different to compare to that of a license.
b) the same as that of a licensee
c) lower than that of a licensee
d) higher than that of a licensee.
true of false
5) In a slander case, the plaintiff must prove that what was said is false.
Most of the questions on this post can be found on wikipedia. I would advise you to stop asking people on YA to answer your homework questions.
How to limit the liability risk land
How to limit the liability risk land
The economic uncertainty the recent twelve months has resulted in heavy changes to patterns in Overseas Property Investment. Thanks to the last decade was characterized by short term – visit here now href = "http://commercialrealestate-remax.blogspot.com"> http://commercialrealestate-remax.blogspot.com
Choose yield investments (resulting in destinations like Dubai because of record growth with significant declines privilege bill, followed values), the majority investors are now looking for a long time provide image stability and sustainable growth. In short, meaning that investors are now looking for destinations that inviolable enthusiasm Long-term stability, through sound economic fundamentals, rather than to publish and offer speculation supported. A goal on the criteria of a healthy economic Basic supplies, Brazil, in particular the popular resort spot in the northeast of the country Cestus of Natal.
searched, about 2500 km north of the Country's incomparable city of Sao Paolo, is once again widely recognized as the "destination of choice" for the vacation of the two budget along with international tourists in Brazil. A wonderful warm climate, have combined with the spectacular coastal region the imaginary homeland popular with property developers who see the region by offering substantial Potential for long term investment demand close. plenty of miles of beach embryonic Boodle seek considerable distances on both sides of the capital of Natal, provides investors with unique opportunities to make early use in the development process.
ace of the factors that contribute to the overall legitimacy of the belt to investors and early, this is the overall economic performance of Brazil. In fact, as the expected growth in Brazil, that a report by Goldman Sachs supple Brazil said that they assume to be Lone of the five largest economies universal 2050th This constant future growth through substantial natural resources has underpinned (Brazil include an estimated capital of more oil than Saudi Arabia), served only to the overall compensation of Brazil to foreign to increase investors.
On the back of strong economic performance in Brazil, significant shot from the consideration that the government of the importance of innocent surrounding regions Natal. for support and a strong number of other progressive housing projects for the region will be announced, will be a large number of golf courses also built, designed to increase the overall tourist appeal of the strip. In this scene long essay in the future of tourism Prestige Brazil is the National Tourism Plan in Brazil by the Ministry of Tourism implant placed. This long-term policy plan proved to be a catalyst for a number of investment projects in Brazil, as it strives to achieve its goal to develop the number of foreign visitors to over 9 million.
Increased accessibility has again a central role within the increased attractiveness of the sash played by foreign investors. The international airport next to Prestige Natal, the set, which opened in June 2010 grown to be the eight largest airports in the world, next to today's large number of international airlines opening new routes directly committed in the dominant region. with flights to Natal where between 7-9 hours from most European destinations, the number of visitors from the region will significantly expand in the coming years.
Brazil certainly has the eye of overseas property investors magnetism caught immature years, in addition whereas the round of the last twelve months, a series of stunning saves coastal developments in and around the announcement stated range. Offering sites that are directly at the beach simply unmatched elsewhere, is corporal future, that the demand in the preamble, the property is in involuntary only significantly increase over the impending nine fifty-five years. visit here now href = "http://commercialrealestate-remax.blogspot.com"> http://commercialrealestate-remax.blogspot.com
Many nonprofits are scared off by the high premiums that come with nonprofit liability insurance. Some nonprofits consider foregoing purchasing nonprofit liability insurance as a way to cut costs. Nowadays, nonprofit boards are very likely to be the target of litigation, and must protect themselves at all costs.
Employee Claims Statistics
According to statistics compiled by the Nonprofits Alliance of California, 98% of nonprofit EPLI claims are employee related, and 80% of those cases are related to wrongful termination.
Employee-related claims are on the climb, and nonprofits need to take notice. These claims can seriously damage nonprofit organizations, and can even totally annihilate them. Here, it’s easy to see the importance of nonprofit insurance.
Chubb Insurance has noted a dramatic increase in the number of employee related claims in the past five years. Chubb has noted that roughly 65% of its claims are employee practice liability claims.
D&O claims include membership issues, misallocation of funds, mismanagement, and fraud.
Protecting Your Nonprofit with a D&O Policy
An Executive Liability policy can group together coverages like D&O and EPLI to indemnify the directors and officers of nonprofit organizations from damages or losses that arise from claims when there organization cannot indemnify. An Employment practices liability policy can cover such claims as wrongful termination, discrimination, and sexual harassment.
Insurance for Non-Profits has a lower rate when it comes to D&O insurance for publicly traded or for profit companies. This is due to the fact that nonprofits have much less liability exposure than for-profit corporations.
Different providers offer different D&O policies with varying coverage. The majority of D&O policies exclusively cover the directors and officers of the organization, but some policies extend coverage to protect employees, consultants, and volunteers.
The EEOC has noted a significant increase in claims in recent years. A slow economy is partially to blame, as people who find themselves out of work often file lawsuits to recover funds lost to unemployment. This is why EPLI insurance is important all types of organizations with employees.
Take Preventative Measures
Robert Hartwig, the chief economist and vice president at the Insurance Information Institute, has stated that “leaders of for-profit and nonprofit companies are at the crosshairs of a lawsuit today.”
There are a few ways that nonprofits can structure their protocols to prevent lawsuits. Here are a few tips:
Detail and establish a firm consensus for procedural issues such as timing of content, notices, access of records, record-keeping, frequency of meetings, scheduling meetings, etc.
All board members need to stay up to date regarding the management of the nonprofit organization. Board meetings should contain comprehensive presentations and documentation that pertains to the issues at hand.
Delegation of responsibility will help alleviate the decision-making traffic jams. Building strong committees can help the board with the decision-making process.
Always consult outside legal advice before making any employment decision.
Avoid conflicts of interest within the board.
Even if a nonprofit follows all of these tips, a lawsuit can threaten the very existence of the organization. As such, it’s especially important to purchase a D&O and EPLI policy that will cover expenses incurred through such litigation.
Evaluate the policies that are available on the market. An executive risk policy can combine D&O, EPLI, Crime, Kidnap & Ransom, Fiduciary Liability, and some Miscellaneous E&O coverage.
My solicitors are dropping the case due to the fact that the company I am making the claim against do not have public liability insurance. Where can I go for help now? I do not have the funds to fund this claim personally. I thought it was illegal for a company to trade without public liability insurance. Any advice? I was badly hurt with hospital stay required and permanent damage and broken bones.
Your current solicitors don’t have your best interests in mind. Does the company have assets? Find another solicitor.
What you need to know about Professional Liability Insurance with David Stark
IT Outsourcing: New Lessons for Customers, Vendors
An IT-related dispute between well-known entities that goes to trial is a rare occurrence, say attorneys Richard Raysman and Peter Brown. But a 10-month trial resulting in a 468-page decision coming out of the U.K. will likely be studied closely by vendors and their customers.
What information do you need to get a Public Liability Quotation
In these times many people say that anybody who undertakes any work for them must be fully covered by a Public Liability Insurance policy before they can start the work or before they will get paid for the job. In this article I am going to go through everything that you need to get a quotation for your Public Liability Insurance needs.
The first thing that you will need is whether you are getting the insurance in your name or yourself trading as a company name, for example Mr Nathan De Bond trading as NDB Building Services. You will also have to inform them whether or not you are a Limited Company as the insurance for that is slightly different to a non-limited company in that if you are a partnership in a limited company you need Employers Liability Insurance whether or not you have any employees.
The next and most important thing is the trade that you want to get covered for doing, for example if you were a builder you would choose general builder (either on just domestic properties or with Non-Domestic properties). This is the most important thing as most insurers will only cover certain trades and may not want to insure anybody that undertakes a high risk trade for example a Tree Surgeon. Whether or not you use any heat within the work that you do will also affect the policy.
The next thing that they will ask you is how many years experience you have in the trade and how long you have been trading for. They will also need to know whether this insurance is for yourself only as a self proprietor or whether you have any employees as if you do then you must have Employers Liability Insurance which is a legally compulsory insurance. The amount of cover that you wish to get is also required as there is a choice of 1 million, 2 million and 5 million pounds worth of Public Liability Insurance.
The last set of information that you will be asked is the general set of questions that are asked for any type of insurance that you may be looking to get. Firstly they will need to know your claims history, usually whether or not you’ve had any claims in the last 3 or 5 years, and whether or not you’ve ever been bankrupt or convicted of any criminal convictions other than speeding offences.
Public Liability Insurance Wiki Help with insurance – public liability and employers liability?
I am working on an assigment for Indian Head Massage and I have no clue what insurance, public and employers liablity means or what it involves.
Please could someone explain (don’t copy/paste straight from wiki as this will not help me!!) simply what this means please?
I have been searching the internet for ages now and I do not understand at all
Thanks.
Unlike employers liability insurance which is a required cover by law if you employ any staff, public liability insurance is not compulsory but is usually considered a key cover for companies looking to protect themselves against unexpected claims that can put the future of the business at risk. Public liability insurance should be taken out by any business that deals directly with the public or works away from home at other premises.
Employers liability insurance enables businesses to meet the costs of compensation and legal fees. Employees injured due to an employer’s negligence can still seek compensation even if the business has ceased to trade. Even if you use self-employed staff, unpaid employees or volunteers you may still need employers liability insurance. Always check with your broker or insurer when you take on new staff whatever the criteria
Compare The Meerkat Advert NEW (Compare The Market), Cheap Car Insurance
Credit Rating Agencies – Need for Reform
Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) – Need for Reform
1. Crisis – Spotlight on CRAs
“Credit-rating agencies use their control of information to fool investors into believing that a pig is a cow and a rotten egg is a roasted chicken. Collusion and misrepresentation are not elements of a genuinely free market ” – US Congressman Gary Ackerman
The smooth functioning of global financial markets depends in part upon reliable assessments of investment risks, and CRAs play a significant role in boosting investor confidence in those markets.
The above rhetoric although harsh beckons us to focus our lens on the functioning of credit rating agencies. Recent debacles as enunciated below make it all the more important to scrutinize the claim of CRAs as fair assessors.
i) Sub-Prime Crisis: In the recent sub-prime crisis, CRAs have come under increasing fire for their covert collusion in favorably rating junk CDOs in the sub-prime mortgage business, a crisis which is currently having world-wide implications. To give some background, loan originators were guilty of packaging sub-prime mortgages as securitizations, and marketing them as collateralized debt obligations on the secondary mortgage market. CRAs failed in their duty to warn the financial world of this malpractice through a fair and transparent assessment. Shockingly, they gave favorable ratings to the CDOs for reasons that need to be examined.
ii) Enron and WorldCom: These companies were rated investment grade by Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s three days before they went bankrupt. CRAs were alleged to have favorably rated risky products, and in some instances put these risky products together for a fat fee.
There may be other over-rated Enron’s and WorldComs waiting to go bust. CRAs need to be reformed to enable them pin-point such cancer well-in-advance thereby increasing security in the financial markets.
2. Credit Ratings and CRAs
i) Credit rating: is a structured methodology to rank the creditworthiness of, broadly speaking an entity, or a credit commitment (e.g. a product), or a debt or debt-like security as also of an Issuer of an obligation.
ii) Credit Rating Agency (CRA): is an institution specialized in the job of rating the above. Ratings by CRAs are not recommendations to purchase or sell any security but just an indicator.
Ratings can further be divided into
i) Solicited Rating: where the rating is based on a request say of a bank or company and which also participates in the rating process.
ii) Unsolicited Rating: where rating agencies claim to rate an organisation in the public interest.
CRAs help to achieve economies of scale as they help avoid investments in internal tools and credit analysis. It thereby enables market intermediaries and end investors to focus on their core competencies leaving the complex rating jobs to dependable specialized agencies.
3. CRAs of note
Agencies that assign credit ratings for corporations include
A. M. Best (U.S.)
Baycorp Advantage (Australia)
Dominion Bond Rating Service (Canada)
Fitch Ratings (U.S.)
Moody’s (U.S.)
Standard & Poor’s (U.S.)
Pacific Credit Rating (Peru)
4. CRAs – Power and Influence
Various market participants that use and/or are affected by credit ratings are as follows
a) Issuers: A good credit rating improves the marketability of issuers as also pricing which in turn satisfies investors, lenders or other interested counterparties.
b) Buy-Side Firms : Buy side firms such as mutual funds, pension funds and insurance companies use credit ratings as one of several important inputs to their own internal credit assessments and investment analysis which helps them identify pricing discrepancies, the riskiness of the security, regulatory compliance requiring them to park funds in investment grade assets etc. Many restrict their funds to higher ratings which makes them more attractive to risk-averse investors.
c) Sell-Side Firms : Like buy-side firms many sell side firms like broker-dealers use ratings for risk management and trading purposes.
d) Regulators: Regulators mandate usage of credit ratings in various forms for e.g. The Basel Committee on banking supervision allowed banks to use external credit ratings to determine capital allocation. Or to quote another example, restrictions are placed on civil service or public employee pension funds by local or national governments.
e) Tax Payers and Investors: Depending on the direction of the change in value, credit rating changes can benefit or harm investors in securities through erosion of value and it also affects taxpayers through the cost of government debt.
f) Private Contracts: Ratings have known to significantly affect the balance of power between contracting parties as the rating is inadvertently applied to the organisation as a whole and not just to its debts.
Rating downgrade – A Death spiral:
A rating downgrade can be a vicious cycle. Let us visualise this in steps. First a rating downgrade happens. Banks now want full repayment anticipating bankruptcy. Company may not be in a position to pay leading to a further rating downgrade. This initiates a death spiral leading to the companys’ ultimate collapse and closure.
Enron faced this spiral where a loan clause stipulated full repayment in the event of a downgrade. When downgrade did take place, this clause added to the financial woes of Enron pushing it into deep financial trouble.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company is another case in point which was pressurised by aggrieved counterparties and lenders demanding repayment thanks to a rating downgrade. PG&E was unable to raise funds to repay its short term obligations which aggravated its slide into the death spiral.
5. CRAs as victims
CRAs face the following challenges
a) Inadequate Information: One complaint which CRAs have is their inability to access accurate and reliable information from issuers. CRAs cry that issuers deliberately withhold information not found in the public domain for instance undisclosed contingencies which may adversely affect the issuers’ liquidity.
b) System of compensation: CRAs act on behalf of investors but they are in most cases paid by the issuers. There lies a potential for conflict of interest. As rating agencies are paid by those they rate and not by the investor, the market view is that they are under pressure to give their clients a favourable rating – else the client will move to another obliging agency. CRAs are plagued by conflicts of interest that might inhibit them from providing accurate and honest ratings. There are conflicting noises with some CRAs admitting that if they depend on investors for compensation, they would go out of business. Others strongly deny conflicts of interest defending that fees received from individual issuers are a very small percentage of their total revenues so that no single issuer has any material influence with a rating agency.
c) Market Pressure : Allegations that ratings are expediency and not logic-based and that they would resort to unfair practices due to the inherent conflict of interest are dismissed by CRAs as malicious because the rating business is reputation based and incorrect ratings may lower the standing of the agency in the market. In short reputational concerns are sufficient to ensure that they exercise appropriate levels of diligence in the ratings process.
d) Ratings over-emphasised: Allegations float that CRAs actively promote an over-emphasis of their ratings and encourage corporations to do like-wise. CRAs counter saying that credit ratings are used out of context through no fault of their own. They are applied to the organizations per se and not just the organizations’ debts. A favourable credit rating is unfortunately used by companies as seals of approval for marketing purposes of unrelated products. A user needs to bear in mind that the rating was provided against the stricter scope of the investment being rated.
6. CRAs as Perpetrators
a) Arbitrary adjustments without accountability or transparency: CRAs can downgrade and upgrade and can cite lack of information from the rated party, or on the product as a possible defence. Unclear reasons for downgrade may adversely affect the issuer, as the market would assume that the agency is privy to certain information which is not in the public domain. This may render the issuers security volatile due to speculation.
Sometimes eextraneous considerations determine when an adjustment would occur. Credit rating agencies do not downgrade companies when they ought to. For example, Enron’s rating remained at investment grade four days before the company went bankrupt, despite the fact that credit rating agencies had been aware of the company’s problems for months.
b) Due diligence not performed: There are certain glaring inconsistencies which CRAs are reluctant to resolve due to the conflicts of interest as mentioned above. For instance if we focus on Moody’s ratings we find the following inconsistencies.
All three of the above have the same capital allocation forcing banks to move towards riskier investments.
c) Cozying up to management: Business logic has compelled CRAs to develop close bonds with the management of companies being rated and allowing this relationship to affect the rating process. They were found to act as advisors to companies’ pre-rating activities and suggesting measures which would have beneficial effects on the companys’ rating. Exactly on the other extreme are agencies which are accused of unilaterally adjusting the ratings while denying a company an opportunity to explain its actions.
e) Creating High Barriers to entry : Agencies are sometimes accused of being oligopolists, because barriers to market entry are high and rating agency business is itself reputation-based (and the finance industry pays little attention to a rating that is not widely recognized). All agencies consistently reap high profits (Moody’s for instance is greater than 50% gross margin), which indicate monopolistic pricing.
f) Promoting Ancillary Businesses: CRAs have developed ancillary businesses like pre-rating assessment and corporate consulting services to complement their core ratings business. Issuers may be forced to purchase the ancillary service in lieu of a favorable rating. To compound it all, except for Moody’s all other CRAs are privately held and their financial results do not separate revenues from their ancillary businesses.
7. Some Recommendations
a) Public Disclosures: The extent and the quality of the disclosures in the financial statements and the balance sheets need to be improved. More importantly the management discussion and analysis should require disclosure of off-balance sheet arrangements, contractual obligations and contingent liabilities and commitments. Shortening the time period between the end of issuers’ quarter or fiscal year and the date of submission of the quarterly or annual report will enable CRAs to obtain information early. These measures will improve the ability of CRAs to rate issuers. If CRAs conclude that important information is unavailable, or an issuer is less than forthcoming, the agency may lower a rating, refuse to issue a rating or even withdraw an existing rating.
b) Due Diligence and competency of CRAs Analysts: Analysts should not rely solely on the words of the management but also perform their own due diligence by scrutinising various public filings, probing opaque disclosures, reviewing proxy statements etc. There needs to be a tighter (or broader) qualification to be a rating agency employee.
c) Abolition of Barriers to Entry: Increase in the number of players may not completely curtail the oligopolistic powers of the well-entrenched few but at best it would keep them on their toes by subjecting them to some level of competition and allowing market forces to determine which rating truly reflects the financial market best.
d) Rating Cost: As far as possible, the rating cost needs to be published. If revealing such sensitive information raises issues of commercial confidence, then the agencies must at least be subject to intense financial regulation. The analyst compensation should be merit-based based on the demonstrated accuracy of their ratings and not on issuer fees.
e) Transparent rating Process: The agencies must make public the basis for their ratings including performance measurement statistics historical downgrades and default rates. This will protect investors and enhance the reliability of credit ratings. The regulators should oblige CRAs to disclose their procedures and methodologies for assigning ratings. The rating agencies should conduct an internal audit of their rating methodologies.
f) Ancillary Business to be independent: Although the ancillary business is a small part of the total revenue, CRAs still need to establish extensive policies and procedures to firewall ratings from the ancillary business. Separate staff and not the rating analysts should be employed for marketing the ancillary business.
g) Risk Disclosure: Rating agencies should disclose material risks they uncover during the risk rating process or any risk that seems to be inadequately addressed in public disclosures, to the concerned regulatory authority for further action. CRAs need to be more proactive and conduct formal audits of issuer information to search for fraud not just restricting their role to assessing credit-worthiness of issuers. Rating triggers (for instance full loan repayment in the event of a downgrade) should be discouraged wherever possible and should be disclosed if it exists.
These measures if implemented can improve market confidence in CRAs, and their ratings may become a key tool for boosting investor confidence by enhancing the security of the financial markets in the broadest sense.
