An interesting case came before the Small Claims Court last week in Wexford.

The dispute arose in relation to the sale of a Bull. The Bull, a limousine bull was sold by one farmer to another at a mart for €1,220.00. The Bull later turned out to have only one defended testicle.

The Plaintiff sued on the basis that what he had purchased was not a genuine “breeding bull”.

The matter came before the District Judge and made for some interesting, if not, comical, exchanges between the parties. Apparently, the Plaintiff was asked by Judge Buchalla as to whether his claim was that he had not received a perfect specimen. The Plaintiff indicated no and that it was not a genuine breeding bull. The debate then seemed to then circle whether a bull with these characteristics constituted a genuine breeding bull.

The Defendant commented in the case “there are plenty of animals, including Humans out there with one testicle and I am sure they are doing the job!”

The Judge agreed with the Defendant and dismissed the case.

The Small Claims Court deals with commercial disputes between parties where the amounts claimed are relatively modest. In certain cases, they are referred to court for hearing. The system provides a cost effective method by which disputes can be resolved.

Paul W Tracey Solicitors

 December 2010

 A major legal battle between the British creators of the hit TV show

‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’  and Disney’s ABC TV network has

 ended in a payout of over $250million to the show’s creator Paul Smith & his colleagues.

The argument related to royalties claimed as due by Disney to the shows creators.

Barring an appeal the payout will mean a nice ‘pay day’ for the original investors in the show.

It is interesting to note that the UK comedian Jasper Carrott has a stake in the company.

So happy days for everyone expect Disney!

Maybe they should have phoned a friend!!

An unusual case came before the courts in Dublin this week.

The accused a lady in her mid thirties is accused of posting advertisements that offered sex on a classified website on behalf of two unwitting people.

In an interesting closing address her barrister suggested that the DPP Director of public prosecutions should ‘back off’ and likened the actions of his client to those of graffiti on a toilet wall!

The jury will decide whether they agree with his plea or not.

On thing is certain pranks on the internet can have serious consequences for those posting messages or advertisements!

Paul Tracey 08/07/2010

It’s all too easy to take for granted the access we all have to legal advice.

This is in marked contrast to reports that a Syrian lawyer was recently sentenced to a three year period in jail on charges of’ weakening national morale’.

These latest restriction on civil liberties in the region have involved a number of lawyers who oppose government policy being imprisoned.

The jailing of a 79 year old man brings matters to a new level and fears for the life of the lawyer Haitham Maleh who is a recipient of a Dutch Human rights medal award

Calls have been made by a number of international lawyers groups for the release of the campaigner.

Readers are encouraged to find out more about this issue and petition for his release

Paul Tracey Solicitors 04/07/2010

Quite a few actually! We’ve set out a few for your entertainment. Who is your favourite?

The American Bar Association recently tackled the weighty question of which was the best television show about lawyers. After (allegedly) careful deliberations, their answer was “LA Law.”

Here is a list of a few favourites some old some new let us know who your favourite is.

Rumpole.  of the Bailey. Old style English  court encounters it’s best with Leo McKern

Barry Zuckerkorn from Arrested Development. Crazy 24/7!

Kingdom. Not particularly because it is that good a programme, admittedly. Mainly because it is Stephen Fry and he could play a fascist teapot in a skirt and I’d still give him a round of applause because he is lovely.

Kavanagh QC. Staring the late & great John Thaw!

Oliver Babish in West Wing.

Perry Mason: Although I’m thinking of Raymond Burr for those of you who can remember black & white TV dramas!

Glenn Close who played a nasty character in Damages.

Petrocelli. It’s a hair thing!

Denny Crane (Boston Legal). ‘Beam me up Scotty!’ William Shatner in a great comeback role!

Jack McCoy from Law and Order.

Crown Court- almost like a soap  as shown on ITV

LA Law one of the all time favourites

Miranda from Sex and the City, Did you realise she was a lawyer?

Ally McBeal you either loved it or hated it!

Remember Will Truman from Will & Grace!!

Send us your favourite TV lawyer.

Following our recent newsletter I was told of a great song performed by Francis Black called ‘Legal Illegal’ Legal  written by Ewan McColl

See what you think

Every time you pick up a newspaper,
Every time you switch on the T.V.,
You can bet your old boots that at some point you’ll see,
A high ranking Garda or else a T.P.
Calling on all who are meant to be free,
To stand up and defend law and order.

It’s illegal to rip off a payroll,
It’s illegal to hold up a train,
But it’s legal to rip off a million or two,
That comes from the labour that other folk do,
To plunder the many on behalf of the few,
Is a thing that is perfectly legal.

It’s illegal to kill off your landlord
Or to trespass upon his estate
But to charge a high rent for a slum is O.K.
To condemn two adults and three children to stay
In a hovel that’s rotten with damp and decay
It’s a thing that is perfectly legal.

If your job turns you into a zombie
Then it’s legal to feel some despair
But don’t get aggressive and don’t get too smart
For Christ’s sake don’t upset the old applecart
Remember you boss has your interest at heart
And it grieves him to see you unhappy.

If you fashion a bomb in your kitchen,
You’re guilty of breaking the law,
But a bloody great nuclear plant is O.K.,
And plutonium processing hastens the day,
This tight little isle will be blasted away,
Nonetheless it is perfectly legal.

It’s illegal if you are a traveller,
To camp by the side of the road,
But it’s proper and right for the rich and the great,
To live in a mansion or own an estate,
That was got from the people by pillage and rape,
That is what they call a tradition.

It’s illegal to kill off your missus,
Or put poison in your old man’s tea,
But poison the river’s the seas or the skies,
And poison the minds of a nation with lies,
It’s all in the interest of free enterprise,
Nonetheless it’s perfectly legal.

Well it’s legal to sing on the telly,
But make bloody sure that you don’t,
To sing about racists and fascists and creeps,
And those in high places who live off the weak,
And hose who are selling us right up the creek,
The twisters, the takers, the conmen, the fakers,
The whole bloody gang of exploiters.

Check out the song at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkHwkRfsqBQ

Another blogger preferred ‘Divorce’ performed by Dolly Parton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54uYQVaeAcM 

Keep sending your favourites & we’ll compile a top ten! 

Paul Tracey Solicitors 18/03/2010

To do this, a representative of every group came from all over Ireland and recited to St Patrick and his fellows the oral law related to that group. These included the complex and extremely important laws of inheritance. 

Under the direction of the saint these oral laws were then written down and collected into a great body of legal manuscripts called the Senchas Már.  It appears that any oral law which conflicted with the law of the church was replaced by the saintly man himself.

Whatever about the historical accuracy of this theory, it is known that at the time of St. Patrick, strict inheritance laws applied to Irish society whereby each of the sons of a diseased person would receive equal portions of their father’s estate. 

Early Irish law typically did not distinguish between “legitimate” and “illegitimate” children, so all recognised sons would receive their equal share. However, disobedient sons were automatically excluded. In addition, adopted sons could receive a portion of kin land although the amount they could inherit would have to be explicitly stipulated. 

The division of land is somewhat obscure. One suggestion is that it was left to the youngest son divide the land into equal parts. The eldest chose first, followed by the second and so on until the youngest received the remaining land. This was intended so that the division of land would be made equally. 

More rarely, a father might divide the land for his sons in his lifetime. 

While a daughter, if she had brothers, would not normally receive a portion of the inheritance in land, she would inherit movable property. However, should there be no sons, some of the law tracts allowed the daughter to inherit a limited portion. If this happened, there was strong pressure for a woman with land to marry a relative to keep the land within the kin group.

 Following the Norman invasion, areas under Anglo-Norman control were subject to English law and gradually, as the years went by, the oral laws, or the Brehon Laws as they are called, disappeared from Ireland to be replaced by modern  law, including today’s law of inheritance. 

In today’s modern society, we all own something, be it property, car, or whatever and we all want to care for our loved ones after our death. Don’t rely on oral tradition to ensure that your wishes are carried out, make a will. 

Making a will gives legal status as to what you intend to do with your assets or possessions. A will can be straightforward, but more often than not, it can be more complicated than you realise. 

P.W. Tracey Solicitors can help you to draw up a Will. The complexity of your estate will determine the cost. However the average cost of the most common wills is €200 + VAT.  

Before you make an appointment to have you will drawn up it is a good idea to list the questions you would like answered as well as your instructions regarding your money and possessions.  You should also decide how you want your estate divided, as well as your choice of executors and funeral arrangements.

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Top 10 Courtroom Movies of All Time
Courtroom movies hold a special ability to provide mystery, suspense, and a good story that almost always reaches a neatly packaged conclusion, making this genre of movies appealing to a wide variety of audiences. Check out these movie recaps (including plot spoilers!) that span the entire 20th century, with black and white dramas, more modern dramas, and even a comedy and a documentary in the list. While it might not substitute for your training to become a court reporter, it certainly can’t hurt to spend some time watching these courtroom movies to understand the history and popular culture surrounding your chosen field of study.

1.The Paradine Case (1947). Alfred Hitchcock directed this film that stars Gregory Peck as a barrister hired to defend Mrs. Paradine when she is accused of killing her wealthy, older husband. The barrister, happily married, begins to fall for the alluring Mrs. Paradine as he gets deeper into the case. The trial focuses on whether Mrs. Paradine or Mr. Paradine’s valet killed the man. During a particularly rough line of questioning by the barrister, the valet confesses to an affair with Mrs. Paradine. He leaves the courtroom and later kills himself. Upon learning of the death, Mrs. Paradine confesses to killing her husband, her love for the valet, and her hatred for the barrister, who she feels killed her lover. The barrister must then come to terms with how he handled the case and himself.
2.12 Angry Men (1957). A teenage boy is put on trial for killing his father. When the twelve men on the jury begin deliberation, what initially seemed an easy guilty verdict suddenly becomes much more complex when one juror (played by Henry Fonda) asks the other jurors to look closely at the facts of the trial. What results is a study in humanity as each of the jurors faces his own prejudices, emotions, and histories in a search for the truth.
3.Witness for the Prosecution (1958). This stunning movie was adapted from a play written by the master mystery writer, Agatha Christie. Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich play Leonard and Christine Vole. Leonard is accused of killing a rich woman who left him a substantial amount of money. Leonard’s trial is full of twists and turns as his attorney fights to clear his name. When it appears that Christine has set Leonard up for murder and Leonard is cleared, the plot twists again.
4.Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). Based on a real trial that took place in 1947, this powerful movie stars Spencer Tracy as an American judge determined to understand the truth at the heart of the case that has four German judges accused of human atrocities under the Nazi regime. Tracy’s search for the truth reveals heartache and emotional blindness. Eventually the truth is revealed when one of the judges on trial describes the reasons he and so many others followed along with such horrific acts. When this movie was released in 1961, all four judges on whom the movie was based were already released from prison.
5.To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Based on the novel by Harper Lee, Gregory Peck stars as an attorney in a small southern town who is selected to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman. The story is told through the attorney’s young daughter, Scout. The trial and the events leading up to the trial depict both the rampant racism in the town as well as the beauty of humanity glimpsed between the other. While the trial does not end with justice being served, the movie ends with hope for the future as seen through Scout.
6.The Verdict (1982). Paul Newman plays a lawyer who has turned to alcohol and shunned his career after his attempt to uphold justice was turned against him and he lost his partnership in a successful firm. A friend throws an easy medical malpractice case to him that is sure to settle out of court. When Newman’s character looks over the case, however, he feels it should go to trial. What follows is a study of the lawyer’s rebuilding his life and career in the face of both obstacles and infidelity as he wins the case for the family of a young mother left in a vegetative state.
7.A Few Good Men (1992). Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore star in this movie directed by Rob Reiner. Cruise plays an inexperienced lawyer for the Marines who defends two Marines accused of murdering a fellow Marine. The court case uncovers intense hazing that occurred under orders of the commanding officer and pits the green lawyer against a seasoned Colonel who verbally spar over what it means to have honor and to be a Marine. The lawyer wins the case, but the two he was defending are dishonorably discharged.
8.My Cousin Vinny (1992). In a genre heavy with drama, this movie stands out as being both an excellent courtroom movie that is also a comedy. When two young men are accused of a murder they did not commit as they were passing through a small southern town, they hire the only lawyer they know and can afford–a cousin from Brooklyn who has only been a lawyer for a few weeks. The neophyte lawyer with his Brooklyn ways learns important lessons in courtroom etiquette as he bumbles his way through in a veteran judge’s well-oiled courtroom, culminating in the acquittal of the two young men.
9.Philadelphia (1993). Based on a true story of the first AIDS discrimination case taken to court, Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington star in this movie that tells the story of an important lawyer at the largest law firm in Philadelphia who is fired from his position when it is discovered that he has AIDS. When the lawyer can find no one to represent him against the firm, he begins preparation to defend himself. A homophobic lawyer steps up to take the case and the two men take on and win the discrimination suit.
10.Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996). The only documentary in this list, this movie details the trial of three teenage boys in Arkansas who are accused of killing three 8 year-olds. With real courtroom footage and interviews with suspects and others involved in the case, this movie documents a trial that even after its conclusion left many wondering about the effectiveness of the judicial system.
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