There is simply no way to prove an e-mail document was delivered such as there is by requiring a signed receipt for snail mail. As e-mail becomes less and less reliable, due mainly to the volume of spam and the resulting filters set up to deal with it, I would guess e-mail may eventually have to be abandoned for delivery of legal documents.
"Two peoples separated by a common language..." ;-) TTBOMK in England if you intend to sue someone you have to post a bond ensuring that if you lose the defendant's expenses are paid. I am beginning to think that might be a good method for reducing the number of frivolous suits here.
I'm sincerely sorry, I seem to have missed the previous message about your domestic situation. I have been on both ends of that situation, taking into our home my elderly father and later my in-laws when they were no longer able to live independently and also later caring for an ill husband . However, it worries me that your health providers are so far away, that seems dangerous to me.
As I understand it, there is no professional prosecutor, either. The court maintains a list of barristers, and the next one on the list is appointed to prosecute. Should the defendant be acquitted, his (or her) expenses are paid by "the Crown." Unlike here, where a wrongly accused person may not be convicted, but will be bankrupted.
Unfoprtunately we do not share the same legal system. Though yours was based on ours, they are not the same. For goodness sake, the Scots and English systems are not the same even! :D
In the UK fax is legal, email is not. Email is to easy to change after the event...
I agree that there's a lot of difficult jargon but it's not necessary to understand it - I don't and when people start using it I just switch off and say, "SHOW ME - no need to talk!"
Teri, Are the rag dolls going to be for sale or even the patterns? If so, I would like to get either; I love rag dolls and since within the past year, some nieces/nephews have had baby girls, and now I'm expecting a new DGD in December; they would make perfect and unusual gifts. Emily
I have one pattern and instructions ready. It's a 6-1/2-inch doll called Hitty and Her Friends, based on the Wells and Jeffers book about a wooden doll and her adventures, mostly during the nineteenth century. It's called, Hitty, Her First Hundred Years. I've tried to make the clothing for the various periods of the doll's "life." They have hats and bonnets, as well as underwear and dresses. The shoes are painted on, as my clumsy fingers can't make 1/2-inch shoes! I've also included a tiny patchwork puppy as a toy. I don't anticipate selling the dolls, but you can e-mail me privately about the pattern. Please use my yahoo address--I never think to look at g-mail. snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com Thanks for asking.
You're confusing "service" with transmission/delivery. Court rules require only certain documents to be served (i.e. put into someone's hand by an official, or in some cases via certified mail), but these are really only the Summons & Complaint and a Notice of Motion to Dismiss. And if both parties agree, they can waive service and accept delivery by any means. These are the only litigation documents requiring proof of service.
All other documents can be transmitted/delivered by any means, and are in every law firm that I know of. Briefs, Deeds, Mortgages, Releases and such are all sent as email attachments.
This is the one and only substantive difference between the UK law and US law (FWIW, all of the other differences mentioned in subsequent posts in this thread are minor *procedural* issues, and such differences exist among the states, not just between the UK & US). Our founding fathers discussed this in great detail when our legal system was being founded, and decided that the English rule would deny access to the Courts for the poor, and so our "each pays their own way" rule was born!
Our difference of opinion is that you are defining "legal system" as a layperson does, and I as a lawyer. And in comparison to the rest of the world, our systems are virtually the same.
Most of the former English colonies are what are called "English Common Law" jurisdictions, which is in direct opposition to the rest of the world's legal systems (called "civil law" jurisdictions), which are markedly different.
Without going into great detail, the two most important components of Common Law are "stare decisis" and trial by jury (which needs no explanation). Stare Decisis is the notion that prior court decisions must be recognized as precedent. The doctrine that case holdings have binding precedential value is not valid within most "civil law" jurisdictions (e.g Europe and Asia), nor are jury trials used. Almost all of England's former colonies all share the same basic tenets of Contract, Torts, Criminal and Property law including stare decisis and trial by jury, and each cites the other country's cases in their briefs on a regular basis where they are recognized by the courts. The differences between UK and US law are generally procedural, not substantive, (kind of like the differences between the states here in the US) and I'll bet that the difference between Scottish and English law is akin to the difference between New York and New Jersey law: procedural, not substantive.
Our legal systems are so close that UK and US lawyers can be admitted in each other's jurisdictions; I personally know US lawyers who have appeared in the UK courts. An Indian, Hong Kong, US, UK, Aussie (etc) lawyer can learn the others system in a matter of weeks. The downside of this is unemployment among US lawyers: last year, over $100 million of legal services was outsourced to India. Seems that you guys set up such rigorous curriculums in Indian law schools that they turn out top-notch lawyers who are willing to work for Wal-Mart wages!
Sorry, but I don't understand what you mean to say by "legal". If you mean that faxing constitutes "service", I find that quite odd, because service must be personal (i.e. a sheriff/constable puts the papers in the served party's hand) or by certified mail (the kind that you sign for). Faxes and email do not constitute service, because both can be compromised easily. For documents not requiring service (i.e
99% of documents) email is on an everyday basis here in the US, and there are few complaints, if any. As I said, we even file pleadings with the courts electronically, and I'll bet that is the case in the UK too.
Oh, no! Quite a lot of the actual laws are very different, and the way they are dealth with by the courts is quite different. Remember, though the Act of Union unified the crowns of Englan and Scotland in 1707, the two legal systems have run in parallel. Acts of Parialment made at Westminster have to be ratified in Scotland by the courts. There are significant differences in court proceedure, the officers of the court and their jurisdiction, and in the the way things are presented in court.
There are also significant differences in commercial and property law, laws of contract, and all sorts of others. Just buying a house in Scotland is significantly different from doing so over the border. The legal system there is closer to the French system than the English one.
Then we get to criminal law, and the verdict of Not Proven... This is a good one! No clean cut Guilty or Not Guilty for us wily Scots!
And their educational systems are based on ours, too... Oh, that's another thing that's subtly different in Scotland! :)
Accepted in court as a legally binding document. Email is regarded almost as heresay evidence, and has to be traced forensically to be accepted as fact.
Oh, things like that get filed electronically, but for something to be accepted as a binding contract, you need hard copy. I can email my contract for dressmaking to my clients, but they must print off two coppies and get both signed by both of us for it to be a valid, legal contract. I cannot scan and email a signed copy and expect it to be legally binding, but I CAN with a faxed document. I know it sounds daft, but that's the way it is. The same goes for all documents requiring any type of legal recognition. And ONLY the original hard copies of such things as birth certificates, marriage certificates, driving licences (ours now come as a paper document plus a photo card), university degree certificates, and death certificates are acceptable as legal proof of their existance for some things. If you lose one in something like a hurricane or a house fire (heaven forfend!), you have the devil of a job replacing it!
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