What's Your Case — How the everyday law actually works

Faulty goods, refunds, contracts and the rights attached to a purchase.

1. Most contracts are made long before anything is signed
2. A warranty is a promise about time, not about quality
3. Changing your mind and being sold something faulty are different arguments
4. Descriptions, samples and photographs become part of what you bought
5. A service is judged on the care taken, not only on the result
6. A signature does not rescue a term the law will not enforce

Tenancies, deposits, repairs and the obligations running both ways.

1. A tenancy deposit is money being held, not money being paid
2. The condition report at move-in decides the argument at move-out
3. Repairing obligations divide a home into parts, and the division is the point
4. A landlord’s right to enter is narrower than most people expect
5. Ending a tenancy is a sequence, and skipping a step usually restarts it
6. Quiet enjoyment has very little to do with noise

Contracts, notice, dismissal and what an employment relationship contains.

1. An employment contract is mostly the terms nobody negotiated
2. What a notice period is actually buying for each side
3. Working out whether someone is an employee is a question about reality
4. In a dismissal, the procedure is doing more work than the reason
5. A restriction on where you work next is judged by how narrow it is
6. Discrimination is a legal category, not a description of rudeness

Wills, probate and the arrangements people put off making.

1. What a will can direct, and what passes outside it entirely
2. Dying without a will hands the decision to a default order
3. Probate is permission to act, not a hearing about the estate
4. An executor holds property for other people, and that changes everything
5. Will witnesses are chosen for what they do not receive
6. A power of attorney is authority to act, and it ends when the giver dies

What a claim involves, how long it takes, and what it costs to bring.

1. The real cost of a small claim is counted in hours
2. Evidence is not the same thing as being right
3. A limitation period runs quietly and it can end a good claim
4. Most disputes settle, and the process is built to make that happen
5. The months between starting a claim and standing up in a hearing
6. Winning a case and being paid are two separate projects