Consumer
Descriptions, samples and photographs become part of what you bought
A statement made to sell something can end up as a term of the sale, and the difference between a term, a…
· 4 min read
Leela Fernandes
Senior writer, What's Your Case
Leela covers consumer, housing, work and the questions readers actually send in and reads the small print so you do not have to.
18 articles
Housing
A tenancy deposit is money being held, not money being paid
The deposit never stops belonging to the tenant in the ordinary sense, which is why a dispute over one is…
· 4 min read
Work
An employment contract is mostly the terms nobody negotiated
The signed document is one of several sources of the terms governing a job, and the ones that cause trouble…
· 4 min read
Work
Working out whether someone is an employee is a question about reality
Employment status determines which rights exist at all, and in most systems it is decided by how the…
· 4 min read
Work
In a dismissal, the procedure is doing more work than the reason
Many systems ask two separate questions when employment is ended, and employers who are confident about the…
· 4 min read
Work
A restriction on where you work next is judged by how narrow it is
Clauses limiting what someone may do after leaving are treated as exceptions to a general freedom to work…
· 4 min read
Family & Estates
What a will can direct, and what passes outside it entirely
A will governs a smaller share of most estates than people assume, because several common kinds of asset…
· 4 min read
Courts
A limitation period runs quietly and it can end a good claim
Time limits operate independently of merit, they begin without notice, and once one has expired the…
· 4 min read
Family & Estates
Challenging a will means attacking how it was made, not what it says
Disappointment is not a ground; most systems allow a will to be questioned only on defined bases, and a…
· 3 min read
Consumer
The firm you paid usually stays answerable for the people it sent
Subcontracting is normal and mostly harmless, but it confuses customers about who they can pursue — and…
· 4 min read
Work
Whistleblowing protection covers the disclosure, not the disagreement
Systems that shield workers who report wrongdoing draw a narrow line around what counts, and the protection…
· 4 min read
Work
Long-term illness sits where capability and adjustment meet
An employer may eventually be entitled to end employment that cannot be performed, and may simultaneously…
· 4 min read
Family & Estates
A trust splits ownership into two jobs and gives them to different people
The arrangement most estates rely on somewhere works by separating the person who holds property from the…
· 4 min read
Consumer
Consumer is a legal classification, and not everyone buying for themselves fits it
Protective rules generally attach to a defined kind of buyer, and the definition turns on the purpose…
· 4 min read
Consumer
A displayed price is usually an invitation rather than an offer
The moment at which a sale becomes binding is a technical question, and it explains why a mispriced item on…
· 4 min read
Housing
Owning a home with someone else is a structure, and the structure decides the exit
Co-ownership is not one arrangement but several, and which one applies determines what each owner holds…
· 4 min read
Courts
A witness is giving memory, and memory is treated as evidence with known weaknesses
Testimony is produced through a formal process designed around the fact that honest people misremember…
· 4 min read
Courts
What a claim is worth is a separate question from whether it succeeds
Establishing that something went wrong is only half of a civil claim; the other half is proving loss, and…
· 4 min read