Law Intro

2024-06-2501:02 Status: Complete

SECTION 1

The principle of the rule of law:

Common law (the body of law that gradually developed in courts in the English speaking world, based on the judges’ decisions)⇒ the rule of law. This concept implies that everyone should be subject to the same laws and constraints. The importance if that law, is recognized in the Constitution  Act of 1982 (also containing the Canadian Charter of  Rights and Freedoms)

Under the rule of law, legal rules can be applied to anyone thus any breaking of the law, can object any persons involved under punishment.

“If there is any break in the chain of legality, the action is not in accordance with law and may be controlled by the Courts”

Substantive Law is the body of law concerned with rights and obligations.

Procedural Law is the body of law that enforces and defends substantive law.

Treaties are legal agreements between governments and Indigenous people. ⇒ Their rights are protected by section 35 of Canada’s Constitution Act, 1982. (Land titles, rights, land use, land planning, economic development and environmental protection all are protected by this act) These rights are only editable by treaties.

Treaty making power is made through international law. Agreements can either be bilateral (2 parties) of multilateral (multiple parties) (Treaty agreements are made between the government of Canada and specific treaties.)

Private law refers to civil law ⇒ relationship between individuals

Public law refers to to a person’s relationship to the government. Charges files would be filed under The Criminal Code (enacted by the federal Parliament in 1892). E.g. = DUIs

In serious criminal cases, the defendant will undergo a jury trial . Sentenced to pay a fine and or face jail time. (Money paid would go to the state, not the victims family or other related parties.) However the victims family could file a civil-action lawsuit for damages. The plaintiff would be exercising their rights under private law demanding compensation.

Common law (AKA Case law in Canada), Judge-made law

The decision by judges can put defendants under common law. Each time a new situation arises lawyers and judges look to past cases to guide their arguments. In theory, however judges do not make the law, they apply it as it has been in previous cases. These are called precedents, and they allow for predictability of charges faced.

SECTION 2

Deposits:

A deposit is a percentage of the money given to ensure no one else will make that purchase. These payments must eventually be paid in full, if not the sellers are under no legal obligation to return the money.

Returns:

A return is an agreement whereby a seller accepts a purchased item back in exchange for the purchase price, other merchandise or store credit.  = (Returns aren’t a legal obligation)

Contracts:

There are two kinds of contracts:

• Express contracts are agreements in which the terms are specifically laid out orally or in writing.
• Implied contracts are agreements in which the terms are evident from the circumstances and are not stated. Most purchases is are implied contracts. e.g. purchasing fast food, ordering something online.

Validity of contracts:

Element 1:  Offer and acceptance

= It must be a genuine acceptance of a clear and precise offer. (No approximates, maybes or anything of that nature). Offer = a proposal to enter a contract. Acceptance = the clear assent to a definite offer

Element 2: Consideration

There must be consideration on both sides of definite value (not love or anything else abstract).

Element 3: Capacity

The participants of a contract must be eligible to make a contract. Minors, people with mental disabilities and people under the influence cannot legally make any binding contracts. (With some restrictions) This is meant to protect people from accepting unfair deals.

Element 4: Legal purpose

The purpose of a contract cannot break any laws, if it does, breach of contract cannot be taken to court

Element 5: Genuine consent

Protects offers from lying, misrepresentation, intimidation etc.

Simple contracts = all contracts that isn’t a specialty contract

Specialty contracts (contracts under a seal) = must be written out. E.g. mortgages, property deeds and long term leases. These contracts don’t need Element 2: consideration. (A seal is a  marking on a written contract to express serious intent)

Out of court settlement: = When both parties agree to settle any dispute outside the law.

When dealing with minors, the law distinguishes goods as being…

Necessities (food, clothing, medical services, education and shelter) in which a merchant can sell to minors on credit, provided a reasonable price has been charged.

And Non-necessities.

Warrantees and guarantees

A warranty is a promise made by manufacturers/retailers that goods made at a certain standard. Similarly to how contracts can be explicit or implied, warrantees can be implied or explicit.

Express warranties, commonly known as a guarantee, ensures that customers are eligible for repairs, refunds, replacements or bring legal action to the manufacturer.

Implied warranties:

Merchants in across Canada are obligated to abide by the Sale of Goods Act. This is a provincial act (statue and each province has one) According to the sale of goods act: Sellers have to appropriately title their goods, maintain advertised quality (merchantable quality) and provide alternatives for “poor” product.

Obtaining and using credit:

Credit is money (or goods/services) advanced to another for repayment at a later date.

Advantages =

Disadvantages =

Sources of credit will originate from businesses and institutions (as you are practically lending money).

Young people have trouble using credit as they have no record of repaying loans, and or debts. As people get older, gaining a record, they build a credit rating that’s reflective of their spending tendencies. (A credit bureau is a business they lend information about the credit history of prospective borrowers.)

The second step of the credit application process is an investigation of the applicant by the lender. This is when the lender will likely contact the credit bureau for information (Such as the candidate’s employer, balances and home ownership/other assets).

Evaluating applications will be determined by the 4 Cs = character (financial history), collateral (debts), capital (if you own a house/car etc.) and capacity (legal eligibility)

Defaulting on a loan:

When a loan (a type of contract) isn’t paid/fulfilled, interest payments may be due, legal costs (resulting from actions to collect payment or repayment in respect of the loan), reasonable costs/legal fees incurred by on behalf of a company can all be imposed.

Garnishee wages: to legally withhold all or part of a debtor’s wages each wage period and pay them to the lender until the debt is paid.

Declaring personal bankruptcy:

When people are facing extreme personal financial troubles they can file for personal bankruptcy:

They must follow these steps to do so:

• Communicate with their lender (creditor)(s) their situation
• Consolidate information with the debtors/ combine debts.

Bankruptcy: is a legal situation in which you turn in all of your assets to an official and is protected from further legal proceedings from creditors. Some assets are exempt by law, licensed “trustee in bankruptcy”. Bankruptcy is regulated by the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, meant to prohibit honest debtors to obtain discharge from their debts.  (You will be free of debts, but have all of your assets taken away and have an awful credit rating )

SECTION 3: RENTING A HOME

People living in a home are tenants, usually paying rent to a landlord. The landlord is the person or business that owns the building or a property manager.

In Alberta, a statue called the Residential Tenancies Act outlines the obligations of landlords and tenants.

What should happen	Explanation
The landlord and tenant arrive at a tenancy agreement.	Before moving in, the landlord and tenant should come to an agreement on what type of tenancy (periodic or fixed term) this will be, how much rent is involved and when it’s to be paid, and who will pay for repairs, utilities, and other services.
The tenant leaves a https://vvs-moodle.phrd.ab.ca/mod/glossary/showentry.php?eid=59645&displayformat=dictionary with the landlord.	A security deposit provides the landlord with some financial security if a tenant misses rent payments, damages the premises, or fails to clean-up property after moving out. The maximum amount a landlord may request is the equivalent of one month’s rent.
The tenant and landlord complete an inspection report.	An inspection report describes the condition of the premises when the tenant moves in and moves out. This report protects both the landlord and tenant in that neither party can be held responsible for damages with which that party hasn’t been involved.

Periodic tenancy: a rental agreement running on a week-to-week or month-to-month basis

Fixed-term tenancy: **a rental agreement that begins and ends on specific dates

Security deposit: (commonly called a damage deposit ) an amount of money left by a tenant with a landlord at the beginning of a tenancy to cover any amounts owing when the tenancy ends

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• The plaintiff can seek damages. Damages is the legal term for money paid in order to compensate for a wrong that a person has suffered at another’s hand.
• The plaintiff can seek abatement . This can mean a reduction in rent based on the amount lost because of the landlord’s failure to live up to his or her responsibilities.
• The plaintiff can seek compensation to pay for doing things the landlord was supposed to do.
• The plaintiff can seek termination-an ending of the tenancy.

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Sometimes the period between notice and eviction can be shortened. For instance, if a tenant has committed a “substantial breach ” of his or her obligations as a tenant, 14 days is all that required. A substantial breach might involve :

• not keeping the premises adequately clean
• failure to pay the rent
• being inconsiderate of other tenants (such as having loud parties at night)
• conducting illegal businesses or causing danger to others
• not looking after the rented accommodation in a reasonable fashion

However, even the 14-day period can be shortened if the situation is extreme. If, for example, a tenant causes extensive damage or actually assaults other tenants or the landlord, he or she can be evicted on a 24-hour notice.

a landlord can enter the premises under only three conditions:

• if the landlord has good reason to believe there’s an emergency
• if the landlord has good reason to believe that the tenant has abandoned the premises
• after giving 24 hours’ notice in advance in order to
  • do repairs
  • inspect for damage
  • show the premises to prospective buyers or renter

In the last case, the notice must

• be in writing
• be signed
• state the reason for the entry
• state the time and date of the entry

The Residential Tenancies Act does, however, limit the number of rent raises to two per year . In addition, the Act stipulates that the landlord must give the tenant written notice of the increase

The amount of time that must elapse between the notice being given and the increase taking effect is also laid out, though it varies depending on the type of tenancy. Here are the stipulated time frames:

• for a weekly tenancy, at least 12 weeks’ notice
• for a monthly tenancy at least three months’ notice
• for any other type of periodic tenancy, at least 90 days’ notice

Leasing a home

Every lease should specify the following information:

• the period during which the premises are to be rented
• a statement to the effect that the lessee is granted exclusive possession during this period
• the address of the property
• the amount of rent to be paid during the tenancy

Lease: a contract between a landlord and tenant for the rental of a property

Lessor: the landlord in a leasing arrangement

Lessee: the tenant in a leasing arrangement

How a Lease Affects a Lessee

Advantages

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Disadvantages

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You’ve been told that if you sign a lease you’re locking yourself into a contract. In reality, landlords will often let tenants break a lease if they give enough notice to allow the landlord to find new tenants. So if you ever want to break a lease, probably the first think to do is to talk with your landlord. If this doesn’t work, two other ways of getting around a lease you no longer want are to assign the lease or to sublet the property.

If a tenant assigns a lease to another party, that party becomes the lessee and must pay the rent to the landlord and be responsible for all the other obligations of a lessee.

By contrast, if a tenant sublets the property, or part of it, to a third party , that original tenant remains the lessee, but now he or she is the landlord to the third party. In either case, though, it’s important to be aware that ultimately the original lessee is responsible for the lease. So if the third party fails to pay the rent or damages the premises, the original tenant is liable to pay what’s owing.

Assigning: to turn a lease over to another person who will become the new tenant and pay rent to the landlord

Subletting: as a tenant, to rent a property (or part of it) to a third party who will pay rent to you

You can’t assign a lease or sublet a property without the permission of the lessor (landlord), but he or she can’t normally refuse permission unless there’s a good reason.

Subletting is more common that assigning; one reason is that you can sublet for just a short while-when you’re on vacation for two or three months, for example-and resume occupancy yourself when you get home.

Sharing accommodation

One way is for each person to join in the rental relationship with the landlord. If there’s a lease involved, a joint tenancy is created. In this situation, all the tenants are responsible together for paying rent and keeping up the property. If one of them defaults, the others must come up with the amount he or she was to pay.

The other way is for only one person to enter the relationship. This person becomes the official tenant, and he or she alone shoulders the usual legal responsibilities of a tenant. This person must, in turn, collect rent money from those sharing the accommodation.

SECTION 4: PROTECTING WORKER’S RIGHTS

Labour strikes: Are the most viable way of getting employers to meet the demands of their workers. An organized group of workers who demand change is a union.

Some laws that protect workers’ rights in Alberta include:

• The Employment Standards code:
• The Workers’ Compensation Act:
• The Occupational Health and Safety Act:

The Canada labour act is a federal statue thus only applies to employees of the federal government, crown corporations and industries connecting provinces (e.g. pipelines and railways)

The Employment Standards Branch of Alberta Human Resources and Employment have created a number of rights and obligations that workers and employers must abide by.  They cover:

• Wages
• Holidays and Holiday pay
• Hours of work and overtime pay
• Terminating employment
• Vacations and vacation pay
• Parental benefits

Human rights and hiring process:

Employers must:

• hire and promote the most suitable candidates for specific positions
• consider job-related qualifications and experience
• establish measurable standards for evaluating job performance
• set employment terms that conform with the minimum standards specified by law
• establish salary or wages scales, either independently or through negotiation

Job advertisements

Employers must be careful how they present their ads, and to not discriminate against a qualified person because of their gender, religion, age , race or any other personal factor. Alberta’s Human Rights Citizenship and Multiculturalism act prevents discriminatory practices of this sort. (Key word is qualified and Subsection 1 of this Act addresses this)

The same applies to job application forms and to interviews (when questioning character, some leeway is allowed). For example, if a physically disabled person was rejected simply because the owner didn’t want to make some simple and inexpensive modification to the way things were done, the candidate might have grounds for a complaint. Employers, you’ll recall, have a duty to accommodate. In assessing undue hardship, courts give consideration to factors like cost, outside sources of funding, and any health and safety requirements.

Duty to accommodate: the legal requirement of an employer to take reasonable steps to accommodate the needs of employees or potential employees so as not to discriminate unfairly against certain groups.

Employers aren’t allowed to force applicants to undergo medical examinations or ask for any personal medical information. This can only be done once an employment offer has been made. Then the employer is forced to accommodate the needs of the employee in question.

Affirmative-Action Programs

Broadly speaking, these are policies businesses can adopt whereby they try to give preference in hiring to minority groups who are under-represented in that area of work and considered disadvantaged in getting jobs within it. As you’ve seen, questions on job applications concerning things like gender, race, and so on are normally forbidden; however, if these questions are asked as part of an affirmative-action program, such questions are sometimes allowed. Such a question might be phrased like the following one:

Andruchow & Associates has an affirmative-action policy in place whereby candidates from the following groups will be given preference over others if qualifications are similar. Do you wish to be considered in one or more of the following categories?

• Female
• Aboriginal
• Physically disabled
• Member of an ethnic minority

Affirmative-action program: ****a program offered by an employer, a learning institution, or some other body designed to increase the number of people in the organization belonging to specific groups where traditionally those groups have been underrepresented and considered disadvantaged.

Rights and responsibilities on the job

Like employers, employees have responsibilities. According to the common law, an employee has a responsibility to

• be punctual and take only permitted leaves of absence
• obey orders as long as they’re legal and not unreasonable
• be loyal, honest, and competent

A business will often have a code of ethics that it wants its employees to follow. In addition, there may also be a dress code and a code of conduct; these may be included in a contract of employment. If so, violation of these codes may be considered grounds for an official reprimand or even dismissal.

Some employment contracts contain what’s called a non-competition clause(or a restrictive covenant). Under clauses of this sort, an employee agrees not to set up a competing business within a certain geographic area for a stipulated length of time should his or her job with the current employer come to an end.

Clauses like this are included to make sure a person doesn’t come to work for someone just long enough to learn the business and then set up a competing business down the street. Employees who sign non-competition clauses undertake the responsibility to abide by them, though such clauses are always subject to review by the courts to make sure they don’t restrict the employees’ rights unfairly.

Non-competition clause: a clause in an employment contract designed to limit competition, usually by restricting where and when an employee may work after leaving the current employer

Sexual harassment is a work-site problem you’re probably well aware of. Alberta’s Human Rights and Citizenship commission considers harassment on the basis of gender to be a violation of the Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act.

Another sort of harassment, sometimes called quid pro quo harassment(from the Latin meaning “something for something”), occurs when a boss uses his or her power to get favours from employees-often sexual favours.

Harassment: unwelcome behaviour toward another (who is often in a subordinate position)

Quid pro quo harassment: employment harassment that involves a person in a position of authority demanding favours in return for fair or preferential treatment.

Poisoned work environment: employment environment in which one person is subjected to hostility and rejection by coworkers because of some perceived difference

Wrongful dismissalis the legal term used when an employee is let go by his or her employer without receiving proper notice or when some other aspect of employment law is broken. If an employee takes a former employer to court for wrongful dismissal, the court will usually look for two factors:

• First, the court checks to see if “reasonable notice” was given. This means essentially that the Employment Standards Code was followed, but sometimes the court will decide for itself what “reasonable notice” is. At the very minimum it must live up to the terms stipulated in the statute; but if an employee has worked for a company for many years, or had a position of responsibility-or if there are other factors in play-the court may decide that even more notice should have been given. The courts tend to regard the Code as only outlining the minimum standards that must be met.
• Second, the court looks to see if there was “just cause” to dismiss the worker. If, for example, an employee were stealing from the company, regularly coming to work drunk, or always insolent and unwilling to carry out orders, the court might decide that the normal notice wasn’t necessary.

Wrongful dismissal**:** the termination of employment by an employer either without just cause or without giving reasonable notice

The Employees Standard Act contains basic rules about people employing ad working. = Most employees are covered by provincial legislation. (When joining a union, you may not be supported by this act)

Constructive dismissalis not defined in the Act per se; however, “employee quit” is accepted in the constructive dismissal. Its concept is relevant when determining employee’s entitlement for:

• notice of termination or pay in lieu of notice and
• severance pay entitlements

For the employee to be entitled to termination and severance pay in constructive dismissal, the “quit” must be due to unilateral change in a fundamental term of employment by the employer. The change must be very much to the employee’s disadvantage.

The Act provides minimum standards of protection. Except in certain cases-such as pregnancy leave, reprisal etc., the Act does not give job security protection. Otherwise, the only thing an employee is entitled to is notice of termination and/or severance pay.

The Act does not require the employer to provide cause or reason for the change in the contract of employment as long as the proper notice is given for dismissal or change. Sometimes the notice for change can serve as a notice of termination.

Constructive dismissal can occur in the following situations:

• Ultimatum to resign or else be dismissed.
• Harassment to the degree that further employment becomes intolerable or dangerous.
• Breach or repudiation of fundamental contract by employer.
• Anticipatory breach of fundamental term by employer.
• Unilateral and significant changes to the employment contract.

Employment insurance:

Unemployed Canadian workers have been collecting government payments since 1942 from employment insurance, often called simply EI. Basically, the system works like this: workers and their employers both make monthly contributions into an employment-insurance fund; then, if the workers get laid off after having worked a minimum length of time, they can collect money from this fund as they search for another job.

Employment insurance**:** a system whereby working people make regular financial contributions to create a pool of money from which contributors can withdraw if they lose their jobs.

To figure out how much you can claim in EI benefits, the government takes your average earnings in the 26 weeks just prior to your job loss and a mathematic calculation is then done. Then you will start receiving regular cheques, but this is not meant to support you in a life of idleness or laziness. If you have lost your job, the government expects you to be actively looking for another and to take a reasonable job offer when it comes along. They will monitor you closely; and if they find out you’re not really trying to go back to work, your benefits will likely be cut off.

If you lose your job, you should apply for employment insurance payments right away. There is a a two-week waiting period for which no benefits are paid, and then it will likely be another few weeks before cheques begin to arrive.

Workers compensation:

When damages have been inflicted upon an employee in their workplace, they have a right to seek worker’s compensation. Most Alberta employees are covered by the Workers’ Compensation program. If one of these employees is hurt on the job, that employee can collect from a fund until he or she can return to work. The fund is paid for completely by employers.

The amount of compensation you get depends on how badly you are hurt. If you are totally disabled, you can get 90 percent of your usual earnings. If you can still do some work, the Workers’ Compensation Board will determine how much you will receive.

If you are killed in an accident on the job and you have a spouse who’s financially dependent on you, your spouse will get what you would have received if you had been totally disabled.

As with EI, you must report an injury on the job immediately.