October 2016

24 Oct 2016

Jane Collis
Our property is ours to give. This belief forms the foundation of the common law principle of testamentary freedom - that by the terms of your last will & testament, you may leave whatever you choose to whomever you choose. In Bermuda, the Wills Act 1988 enshrines this principle at clause 5(1): “...every person may dispose, by will executed in accordance with this Act, of all real estate and all personal estate owned by him at the time of his death.”. Nevertheless, this freedom was never seen as entirely divorced from the context of family obligation, as was eloquently expressed by Chief Justice Cockburn in his judgment in the case of Banks v Goodfellow (1870) 5 LR QB 549, 563-565:
19:55 / Wills, Trusts & Estates
19 Oct 2016

Agathe Holowatinc
As we near the end of the year, it's good to review the bills that have been tabled and passed in the House of Assembly and Senate. This information can be found on the Bermuda Parliament website at www.parliament.bm. More specifically, House bills going back to 2010 can be viewed here, where 2016 bills are listed here. Senate bills going back to 2010 can be found on this page, where 2016 bills are listed here. Below is a snapshot of both:
18:25 / Bermuda Case Law & Legislation
19 Oct 2016

Jeremy Leese
With effect from 1st October 2016, the governmental departments responsible for the oversight of the aviation and shipping sectors became “quangos” newly titled as the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority and the Bermuda Shipping and Maritime Authority. The aim of granting such status is to boost revenue from the registration of both vessels and aircraft, by making Bermuda more competitive in the global shipping and aviation markets.
17:56 / Bermuda Government / Company & Commercial Law
04 Oct 2016

Jennifer Haworth
The employment tribunal system was established to provide an employee the regime in which to make a formal complaint that their employer has violated the Employment Act 2000 (the “Act”). The process was designed to encourage the parties to settle their differences wherever possible. If the parties cannot reach an agreement and there are reasonable grounds to suggest the employer may have violated the Act, the parties proceed to the Employment Tribunal for a hearing which lacks the sometimes daunting formalities of the courts. The trouble with the process in Bermuda is that over the course of the last several years, the Act has been interpreted in such a way as to limit the role of the Employment Inspectors, pushing many, if not all complaints, through to the Employment Tribunal. This erodes important principles of justice and the pendulum has swung so far toward due process for the employee that parties are no longer on equal footing.
20:44 / Bermuda Government / Labour, Employment & Immigration law / Litigation & Dispute Resolution