Facebook and the law: Part 1

Facebook and the Law: Part 1

Facebook has become a part of daily life for millions of people over the last few years. It’s only natural then that it would start to become more and more relevant to the legal world too. In what way is this happening?

1.                  “Anything you say (online) may be used as evidence against you in a court of law”. We need to be really careful about what we say and post online. Note the case earlier this year of the taxi driver who posted a video of someone leaving his taxi without paying. A novel idea in itself of trying to get people to pay their debts in difficult times. But some bright spark incorrectly identified the non-payer, paving the way for days of litigation in the High Court, with multiple defendants all having to pay large legal teams to show why they weren’t at fault. As Mr. Justice Peart said, the combined costs of the legal team would have bought a very decent house in any part of the country. (Nice work if you can get it!). See McKeogh –v- John Doe 1 & Others [2012] IEHC 95.

2.                  If you’re already involved in legal proceedings, facebook can be used to prove or disprove your claims. So if you’re claiming that you are seriously injured and unable to work, but the photos on your facebook page show that you’ve been living it up recently, don’t expect a great day in court. And do expect that someone will be looking!

3.                  Are you allowed to use facebook at work? Does your employer have a policy for internet / social media use? If they do, do you know about it? You could be at risk of disciplinary action. Or maybe as an employer you're sick of employees spending your time on social media sites and want to know what you can do about it. Maybe you want employees to spend more time on social media sites (if they’re promoting your business that is).

This is just a brief observation of the way facebook has reached into our legal lives. More to follow shortly.

Maria O’ Donovan, Associate Solicitor

Wolfe & Co., Market Street, Skibbereen, Co. Cork

Maria.odonovan@wolfe.ie
See www.wolfe.ie for more information

Frustrated solicitor!

This morning was another example of how frustrating our Court system can be! Having spent 3 years preparing a case for trial I was eventually given a scheduled hearing date for this week. The case is not a local one so travel arrangements had to be made, both for me and for my clients who would be coming from the UK. At the last minute, the other party requested an adjournment, saying that he had a hospital appointment for the same day. As the case had not been listed for hearing before I could jump up and down and object about delaying tactics as much as I like, the chances are a request for an adjournment will be granted.

While I wouldn’t begrudge anyone a visit to their doctor – hospital waiting lists are another frustration of modern life in Ireland – that it fell on the same day as the trial date was annoying to say the least. It doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable to think that if a case can’t go ahead on a Tuesday, maybe it could be dealt with on another day in the same week. Not in our system – an adjournment means that your case gets put back to the next list. In a rural court venue, the next list could be six months later.

In my case I suppose I’m lucky. The case should be dealt with at the end of January. But - can I guarantee this for my clients? No. Can I tell them to book their flights (again) for a specified date? No, as I won’t know what date the case will be listed for again until probably mid-January. The best I can tell them is that I hope the case will be listed in January, and I hope that no further requests for adjournments are made. How satisfactory is this?

Maria O’ Donovan

Wolfe & Co. Solicitors, Market Street, Skibbereen, Co. Cork

Maria.odonovan@wolfe.ie

Squatters Rights

Adverse Possession – the main points

On the topic of our recent Facebook post here is a brief summary of the main points that apply in a case of adverse possession, or “squatters rights”.

• 12 year period needed to establish legal title.
• There must be physical possession of the property.
• There must not be permission to be on the property from the legal owner at any stage.
• There can’t be any secrecy about the possession or occupation – use of the property must be open and visible.
• If you are the property owner, and someone has entered onto your land, you should try to have them sign an agreement, or otherwise carry out some act to show your ownership.
• If you are the person claiming squatters rights, and you have had 12 years unbroken occupation, then you should make an application to the Land Registry to have the title transferred to you. 

Wolfe & Co. Solicitors

Market Street

Skibbereen

Co. Cork

Tel: 028 21177

Email: info@wolfe.ie

Will the recent European Court ruling lead to new rights for Irish-born non-nationals?

Yesterday the European Court of Justice made a ruling which allows Colombian national parents to reside in Belgium with their Belgian born children.

The Irish government submitted a written observation to the European Court and appear to have been fearful of an opening of the “floodgates” in claims that Irish-born children and their families should have a right to reside in Ireland.

The case before the European Court concerned a Colombian national, Mr. Zambrano. He and his wife had fled Colombia after a series of assaults and threats by militia, and after his three-week old son was kidnapped for a week. Mr. Zambrano, his wife and son moved to Belgium and requested asylum. His request was refused, but the Belgian government did not order his deportation due to the serious risk to him and his family in Colombia. He subsequently began working in Belgium, paying social security, and he and his wife had two more children. Under Belgian law, these two Belgian-born children obtained Belgian nationality.

Here is the difference between Belgian law and Irish law. In 2004, the Irish people voted to restrict the right to acquire Irish citizenship in a referendum. After that the government introduced legislation which set out certain criteria which must apply before an Irish-born child is granted Irish citizenship. If Mr. Zambrano had moved to Ireland with his wife and child, he would have had to have resided in Ireland for 3 years out of 4 before the birth of the child. If that were not the case, and his children were not entitled under Irish law to become Irish citizens, then there would be no right for Mr. Zambrano and his wife to live in Ireland.

The European Court has held that as the Zambrano children are Belgian citizens in accordance with Belgian law, they are entitled to a right of residence in Belgium. As they are obviously not able to look after themselves, they are therefore entitled to have their non-national parents live in Belgium with them to ensure that their rights are upheld.

Although reading the headlines about the case might make one think that this will change the situation that applies in Ireland, it seems to me that the ruling won’t give much comfort to non-nationals attempting to claim a right of residence in Ireland through their children unless Irish national law changes.

Maria O’ Donovan is a solicitor in Wolfe & Co. Solicitors, Market Street, Skibbereen, Co. Cork. Visit their website at www.wolfe.ie

Wolfe & Co

Wolfe & Co. Solicitors, Market Skibbereen have just created their first blog!  Keep an eye out for more updates.