This has been highlighted by a recent case where an employee at one of the UK’s most famous golf courses has launched a compensation claim after a fall from height workplace accident.

The injured party in the case is Peter McCloy who was once a famous goalkeeper for Rangers FC during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Now aged 64 Peter was working at Turnburry golf course when he fell from a height of 10ft whilst making a repair to a net.

Peter has now requested his personal injury solicitors launch a personal injury claim claiming the Ayrshire Golf Club had ignored health and safety rules and this contributed to his accident. The injury forced McCloy to be taken to hospital and it was discovered that he had suffered a bone broken in the shoulder.

His former employers are disputing the compensation claim, maintaining that it was Peter’s own fault as he was up the ladder on his own without it being footed.

The compensation claim has now been deferred by a court in Edinburgh until next year.

Website terms and conditions template is important to have to protect your rights. The terms and conditions contain legal notices. These notices are available to any visitors that come to your web site. Terms is often added to alert visitors of your website terms and terms of services offered at your website.

Terms often include disclaimers and will often specify to visitors what they should expect while visiting your website. You can find free templates online, which you may customize to fit your needs. Documents online include terms and conditions, terms of service, privacy policy, and so forth.

Generators are available online, which you may use to generate your own terms and conditions. If you decide to create your own, be sure to add important information. Ensure that the information is readable. Add disclaimers as well as limitation of liability statements. Liability statements help to reduce the risks of visitors taking you to court to sue you.

Clauses should be added to help identify any local laws and to help determine disputes under these terms and conditions. An outline of visitor conduct should be displayed to encourage visitors to be fair to others and to discourage inappropriate behaviours.

You should add an outline statement regarding your Intellectual Property (IP) arrangements. Explain what you permit visitors to do or not do. For example, our site prohibits the violation of copyright laws. You may not use, distribute, replicate, sell, or copy any material from our website without written permission. This protects you and your content on your website.

Website terms and conditions template makes it easy to create what you need. Use samples, or download copies of templates online. You can follow the protocol, outline of the documents, and customize the pages to suit your needs. A standard terms and conditions page should contain uses of the website, and encourage the visitors to read and agree. It should include a privacy statement, confidentiality outline, copyright laws, disclaimer, exclusions, clauses, limitations, payment, and other details you think is important for visitors to know.

If you sell products, ensure that you add details about your cancellation policy, terminations of agreements and refund policy, availability, log files, and other information you feel is important for the customers to know. Adding website terms and conditions template to your site will entice visitors to come to your website more frequently, since it demonstrates that you are a professional business. Go online now to find sample, and free templates for your website.

The Chancellor has revealed that the qualification period, which determines how long an employee must have been working for an organisation before they can claim unfair dismissal, will be raised from twelve months to two years from next April.

It is claimed that these changes will give businesses more confidence to expand their workforce, whilst saving almost £6million a year.

Another change to the legislation that Osbourne has announced is the introduction of a tribunal fee, which employees will have to pay in order to launch an unfair dismissal claim and will only get back if they win.

Speaking to the Conservative Party conference currently being held in Manchester, Osbourne said: “I know it’s important to respect employment rights. But we also respect the right of those who spent their whole lives building up a business not to see that achievement destroyed by a vexatious appeal to an unemployment tribunal.

“So we are now going to make it much less risky for businesses to hire people.”

The move has been welcomed by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), with director general John Cridland calling increase of the unfair dismissal qualification period a “very positive step”.

Cridland said: “We have been urging the Government to do everything it can to make it easier for firms to grow and create jobs, and this will give employers, especially smaller ones, more confidence to hire.”

1.       responsible for business premises

2.       an employer or self-employed with business premises

3.       responsible for a part of a dwelling where that part is solely used for business purposes

4.       a charity or voluntary organisation

5.       a contractor with a degree of control over any premises

6.       providing accommodation for paying guests

Failure to comply with this requirement means you have broken the law.

Further information on what you need to do when carrying out a risk assessment is available in the 5-step fire risk assessment checklist below.

1.       Identify the fire hazards

2.       Identify people at risk

3.       Evaluating the risks

4.       Record your findings

5.       Review and revise

If, having completed a fire risk assessment, you need more practical advice or information, you local Fire and Rescue Authority may be able to help. You may feel more comfortable employing a fire safety specialist to help you.

A new 300 million pound court complex has been established and will open in the following weeks of September 2011. The new complex is going to house 11 stories of court offices including 31 courts, three super courts, and provide a venue for multiparty disputes. The building is called the Rolls Building Court Complex. It has been said the new legal building will be a “global legal centre.” Offering legal advice .

The building is designed to handle international legal disputes and those that involve a lot of money. British justice is seen as a global business. The Queen has even been involved in the new building with the inauguration ceremony that will take place. The court has a new electronic filing system which will make it entirely or mostly paperless. It is being tested right now to make certain there are no glitches in the system.

The downside to the large building is the closure of 140 magistrates and county courts around the UK. The move is to help lower costs for the legal budget regarding aid. The building is also meant to be the new location for the chancery division for the high court, commercial court, and admiralty court. It is also meant to be a new technology and construction court. The government hopes they can use the building for high profile disputes in businesses such as pipeline and property disputes that occur around the world. They will also deal with environmental pollution issues, insurance payment issues, and other disagreements over complex issues. The new building was started five years ago with the concept of creating the biggest court in the world for business decisions.

The British court is being promoted as the “gold standard” for international disputes. The message is that the court will handle domestic and international issues with a keen eye and uphold the laws of the world. London is seen as a powerhouse for financial requirements meaning that it is an international financial centre. The fact that the UK and London is trying to become a legal powerhouse is no surprise. Already London has worked to create financial resolutions for disputes. They are just adding to it with the new legal building.

The Rolls Building Courts will be used for arbitration and mediation cases too. With more than 55 consultation suites there is plenty of space for disputes to be resolved by any means necessary as long as it follows the laws in place. The super courts are going to handle tax, finance, trust, and shipping laws. The idea is to have a court that can handle just about everything and be green at the same time with its paperless concept.

Two thirds of the building is glass with Portland stone as the facade. The first four floors cost 70 million pounds alone. There is a basement that has been rented to law firms in London for commercial firms. The CityUK group will also be represented by the building. The legal centre is already causing a bit of a stir.

Sharon Stone has been ordered to pay £144,000 in compensation to a man who was injured while working on her house. The agreement follows legal proceedings, and the original compensation claim involved a considerably higher sum. Stone must, however, now pay worker Peter Krause after his work accident claim was successful.

Krause was installing a sound system in actress Stone’s home when the incident occurred. The worker claims he lost his footing and attempted to steady himself on a lattice fence, but problems arose when that fence gave way.

He asserts that he fell 15 feet into a concealed drop, landing on top of a fence before tumbling into a neighbour’s garden and suffering major personal injuries as a result. These injuries are said to have prevented him from working since.

Stone contested the compensation claim, in which Krause originally sought almost a million pounds in damages.

The proceedings of the trial included the participation of several witnesses including the actress herself, and jurors were shown detailed diagrams of her garden layout. Doctors and State Compensation Witness Fund representatives were also called to give evidence.

Sharon Stone was found guilty of negligence and her fence deemed not up to standards dictated by Los Angeles’ property code. As the fence was not strong enough to hold Mr Krause and prevent his fall, a compensation package was approved.

Los Angeles Superior Court refused to award the original compensation sum sought, which amounted to £930,000, but did order Stone to pay £144,000 to Krause who, it was revealed during the trial, had not worked since the event and had suffered internal injuries as a result of the fall. The amount awarded was deemed reasonable to account for pain and loss of earnings.

Neither Peter Krause nor Sharon Stone have been available for comment since the decision.

Many business people may feel that they have strong drafting skills but lawyers and solicitors don’t spend many years studying for no reason. The reality is that the law is often complicated. The arrangement  that you want to cover in your contract may be simple. Such as maybe a supply contract may be very straight forward but the law surrounding it may not. A good example is consumer related contracts. The law in most countries implies certain statutory provisions into the contract. If you are not aware of these statutory provisions you will not understand what effect they have on the contract you are looking to put in place. For this reason it makes great sense to buy a legal document template from a reputable online legal retailer rather than try and draft the contract yourself.

Free Legal Templates

There are many free legal templates available online but the problem here is that you do not know if the quality of them is any good. This brings us to a good tip. try to buy your documents from an online retailer that allows you to preview the template before you buy. Most online legal document template retailers will allow you to see at least part of the document if they are any good. Be wary of free sites though as you do not know if the contract template will be up to date and covers all of the law that is applicable at the time.

If you do buy a legal template online and it relates for a high value contract then it is very sensible to get a professional legal adviser to have a quick look over the contract. Since the contract will have been drafted from an up to date template you should not have to pay the adviser too much and you will still get a very affordable legal document. In fact the cost even with a professional legal adviser is going to be a fraction of what you would have paid a lawyer if you had just got in touch and asked them to draft you a contract.

Many office injuries occur as a result of slipping or tripping.  Wet surfaces and objects placed on the floor can cause obstruction and could potentially cause accidents. Boxes, packages, stationary and anything else commonly found in the office should be put away in its proper place to avoid unnecessary injuries. Loose wires are also hazardous. Unless they are kept hidden away neatly, they can be easily tripped over.

Even in the office, heavy lifting is often required. Big deliveries of stationary and other items can be heavy and as such should be lifted correctly in order to avoid injury. Stand shoulder width apart and lift with your knees; never over-exert your back when lifting. Big boxes can be awkward to lift, so you should always seek help before tackling it.

Sitting in a bad position can have serious long-term effects. Maintain a good posture when sat down to avoid back injury. Try to avoid slouching at all costs and take regular breaks from your desk if possible.

As with any working environment, you should use common sense to make sure you and those around you aren’t at risk. Regular safety checks should be made to ensure that high safety standards are met.

The Right to Receive Your Item.

Maybe the seller never sent the item, or maybe it got lost in the post. Whatever happened, you paid for the item. If it doesnt arrive in the post as described, you have the right to a replacement or a refund, whether its the sellers fault or not.

The fact that you bought something on eBay doesnt mean that you dont have the exact same rights that you would have if you bought it in a shop (these rights are pretty much the same all over the world). Plus, under eBays rules, the seller isnt allowed to change their mind about selling you the item: once the auction ends, it becomes a contract you must buy and they must sell, or face eBays penalties.

The Right for Your Item to Be as Described in the Auction.

Sometimes sellers dont wrap items properly, and so they get broken. Occasionally they write descriptions that are misleading or just plain wrong to begin with, leaving out vital details that would have caused you to change your mind about buying. If this happens to you, you again have the right to a replacement or a refund.

So How Do I Use My Rights?

First, you should take it up with the seller most will be responsive, as do not want to have their reputation damaged when an upset buyer leaves negative feedback for all their future buyers to see. If that doesnt work, report them to eBay.

While eBay dont have many people handling complaints, they do have a relatively effective set of automatic process to handle common problems buyers and sellers have with one another.

Finally, if that doesnt work, then you should seek advice from consumer groups in your country, and as a last resort from the police. You should never have to get this far, though: problems on eBay that cant be resolved easily are extremely rare.

Dont Be Too Quick.

Remember not to get too annoyed and be unfair to the seller: nice sellers have agreed to give me refunds for undelivered items, only for me to find out a few weeks later that they were being held for me at the post office! Always try your best to communicate and think of everything that might have gone wrong: eBay works best when buyers and sellers sort out their problems together, instead of reporting each other to the authorities straight away.

More often that not receiving what they paid for, buyers have an altogether different problem: they knew what they were paying for, but didnt realise that what they were paying for was overpriced, low quality or a scam. The next email will give you a list of tips on how to avoid being ripped off on eBay.