If you struggle to read this article or do not see the images, click here.

 

 

 

 

Judy Marais will be leaving dwp at the end of May and we wish to thank her for all her hard word and dedication over the past 2 and a half years at dwp. We will miss you! Godspeed Judy!

 

| hola nuevo héroe! |

 

We are pleased to welcome Hannes van Zyl as a new associate to dwp's litigation team, starting 1 June. Hannes completed his BA and LLB degrees at Stellenbosch and is an admitted attorney and conveyancer.

 

 

| in short |

| planning on taking a cruise? think twice!|

 

The staff of popular cruise liner company Princess Cruises may be causing the company more trouble than its worth, with a litany of litigation being unleashed against the company as a direct result of what many are crying ‘negligence’ on behalf of its’ crew.

 

What started out as a 10-day leisurely trip to the Caribbean turned out to be a ‘fear-factor’ type experience for many.

>>> Read further (full article)

 

 

When assessing notions of responsible consumer behaviour and the prohibition of unfair marketing and business practices – most of us are left in the dark. Thankfully the third draft of the Consumer Protection Bill sheds a degree of light upon this perplexity. If passed by Parliament and signed by the President this Bill could lead to some serious changes, the most obvious being the introduction of strict liability for traders (which include manufacturers, suppliers and distributors) when damage is caused by the malfunction of their product, thus changing the common law as it stands.

>>> Read further (full article)

 

 

Die onlangse krisis in die voorsiening van elektrisiteit het elke Suid Afrikaner die laaste paar maande in ‘n mindere of meerdere mate geraak en sonder om onsself as doemprofete voor te doen, twyfel ons of daar lig aan die einde van die tonnel is.

 

Met geen onmiddelike korttermyn oplssing tot die probleem nie, is dit duidelik dat dit net ‘n kwessie van tyd is voordat die manier waarop ons tans elektrisiteit benut onderworpe sal word aan ‘n groter mate van regulering.

 

>>> Lees verder (volledige artikel)

 

 

| nowheresville |

| nobody said anything about neighbourly love |

At some stage one is bound to encounter the impossible neighbour, he either finds fault in the most minuscule of details or is completely in-considerate. While the best first option is to approach this un-reasonable neighbour armed with a bottle of a wine and an attitude to try sort things out amicably, sometimes this is just not possible and one is forced to look for alternative remedies. While it may be an expensive route, one may find a remedy in nuisance law.

 

>>> Read further (full article)

 

 

| br!ghtshark |

| google being sued for copyright infringement |

 

Back in 2006 a bunch of Belgian news publishers (Copiepresse) successfully sued Google to stop the Google News Service from publishing the headlines from the Belgian newspapers.

 

The publishers were particularly upset at the fact that one was able to still read the headlines and first couple of sentences from Google’s site long after the news was moved behind the pay-for-use section of the various newspapers’ sites. The Belgian Court, where the case was heard, ruled in essence that Google was infringing on the publishers’ copyright by caching the news on its own servers. Google was thus ordered to remove all the material from its site, as well as pay a fine of €25′000 for each day that the copyright was infringed (coming to some €3.5m!).

 

In essence this case was about advertising revenue - Google’s main source of income. The publishers of course were also interested in the advertising revenue which could be earned on their own sites and which they lost out to since users were now not clicking through to the publishers’ newspaper sites. It seems however that the publishers forgot that many people came to their sites through Google - something they very quickly realised when Google (after losing the case) went ahead and removed all links to the various newspaper sites together with the offending material.

 

>>> Read further (full article)

 

| rollonfriday |

| lawyer sanctioned for potted plant rudeness |

A US judge has ordered an ill-mannered lawyer to write an article on civility and professionalism for the Oklahoma Bar Journal.

 

Attorney Gerard Pignato was defending an insurance company when the judge took him to task for uncivilised behaviour towards the opposing counsel. Pignato sent several rather strongly worded letters to the plaintiff's lawyer questioning his abilities and including such gems as: "Your self-serving comments are putting me to sleep", "Can you not say anything in a page or less?" and "Be like a potted plant and sit quietly in the corner."

  

Nice.

 

As a result Pignato was ordered to write the article warning young lawyers of the dangers of unprofessional behaviour - and including an explanation of why he was writing it. The judge has given him six months to get it published - RollOnFriday would be happy to oblige.

 

(This section is made possible courtesy of RollOnFriday.com, visit them at www.rollonfriday.com)

 

 

| admin stuff |

|as boring as the small print |

If you have any questions, comments, want to know some more on any of these topics or want to suggest a topic for discussion, please drop us a shout at info@dwp.co.za.

 

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Disclaimer: None of the information in this newsletter should be taken as professional advice. Unfortunately human error does sometimes creep in and the printers devil also does not always keep away from the door. We can therefore not accept any responsibility for any of the content of this newsletter without you coming to see us first so that we can take proper instructions from you about your circumstances and apply the necessary legal points to your problem.

| contact us |

delport ward & pienaar

attorneys, notaries &  conveyancers
1st floor - cornerstone house

16 loop street

cape town

8001

 

telephone, cape town
+27-21-419.3733

 

telefax, general
+27-21-419.3743

 

telefax, conveyancing
+27-21-425.6782

 

telefax, collections dept
+27-21-421.6625

 

telephone, london
+44-20-8133.0337

 

telephone, washington dc
+1-202-657.6733

 

telephone, hong kong
+852-8139.7374

 

| info@dwp.co.za |

 

 

1st floor - cornerstone house, 16 loop street, cape town | docex 600, cpt | t, +27-21-4193733 | f, +27-21-4193743

info@dwp.co.za | www.dwp.co.za