ALWAYS WRITE YOUR CONTRACTS

A contract in legal parlance is an agreement between two or more parties creating obligations that are recognisable,enforceable, and binding on both parties at law.   Simply put, it is an agreement between two parties.
This agreement could be oral or written. For any contract to be valid, certain elements are essential. They are; offer, acceptance, and consideration exchanged for the good/service offered.   Thus, a contract is between an offeror (the party offering a good/ service) and an offeree (the party accepting the good/service).
In accepting the offer, the offeror and offeree usually have different conditions that are considered back and forth before a consensus is reached. These are usually the

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ASSAULT AND BATTERY: A MISDEMEANOR

Battery is the intentional and direct application of force to another person. Assault on the other hand is causing a person reasonable apprehension of the infliction of force or immediate harm upon him. For instance, if Mr. A hits Mr. B with a stick, Mr. A has committed Battery but if Mr. A threatens to hit Mr. B with a stick and Mr. B believes that Mr. A will carry out his threat that will be an Assault.

Though assault and battery are used hand in hand, they are different torts, e.g. to throw water at a person is an assault but if any drops fall upon him it is battery; throwing a stone at someone is an assault, because the person expects the stone will cause him harm but when the stone touches the person, it becomes battery. It does not matter if any harm is done to the person per se.

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ADR: ARBITRATION

Arbitration is a procedure for the settlement of disputes, under which the parties agree to be bound by the decision of an arbitrator whose decision is final and legally binding on both parties. Therefore, where two or more persons agree that a dispute or potential dispute between them shall be decided in a legally binding way by one or more impartial persons of their choice, in a judicial manner, the agreement is called an arbitration agreement.

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POWER OF ATTORNEY

What is a Power of Attorney?

It is an instrument or document which authorizes a person to act for another person as his agent. The person who donates the power is called the “donor” (Principal) while the other person to whom it is donated is called the “donee” (Attorney). The main aim of a Power of Attorney is to satisfy third parties that the agent has the authority of the donor to deal on a subject matter.

Such acts may include representing one in court, receiving or suing for rates and rents or helping to transfer title in a property. A power of attorney does not in itself transfer ownership to the donee rather it is a vehicle by which ownership may be transferred to a 3rd party. For instance, if I donate to Mary a power of attorney to sell my house in New york,

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GARNISHEE PROCEEDINGS

A garnishee proceeding is a judicial process whereby a judgment creditor who is armed with the judgment of a court may recover such debt owed by judgment debtor from a 3rd party who in turn has an obligation to the judgment debtor. For instance, if Mr. A gets a monetary judgment in court against Mr. B and Mr. B has refused to pay, Mr. A can ask the court to help collect Mr. B’s money from Mr. C who in turn owes Mr. B money. The 3rd person indebted to the judgment debtor is called the garnishee while the judgment creditor is also referred to as the garnishor.

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REFORMING THE NIGERIAN BAR by CHIDI ANSLM ODINKALU

The mechanisms for electing the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) are out-dated, scandal-prone and liable to whimsical capture. The question is not whether to change them but how quickly and how deeply. The answer to this is: not soon enough. The pay offs from such reform will be far reaching. They will transform the way we govern our Bar, give the Bar greater legitimacy in monitoring public affairs and ensure better revenues for the NBA. Above all they will herald a more transparent, professional, efficient and fully inclusive Bar.

No one knows how many lawyers there are in Nigeria. We don’t keep good records even of our lawyers. Such inexcusable omissions undermine the credibility of our Bar. There are well over 80,000 lawyers on the Roll of lawyers kept by the Supreme Court.

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LAGOS STATE TRAFFIC LAW 2012

Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN, Governor of Lagos State on 2nd August, 2012, signed into law the new Lagos State Road Traffic law, in view of the old maxim that says “ignorance of the law is no excuse”, it is wise for all Lagosians to know by heart the provisions of this radical law which would revolutionize traffic management in the state.

The Law operates alongside the already existing traditional road traffic rules and offences including driving without due care and attention. The Law empowers LASTMA to demand psychiatric evaluation of any person who drives against the normal flow of traffic or fails to comply with any provision of the law at the offender’s cost, if in the opinion of any LASTMA

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