In Canada the possession and trafficking of substances like drugs and other controlled substances is a subject of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. It was passed in 1996 and repeals the Narcotic Control Act and Parts III and IV of the Food and Drug Act. This Act provides that “The Governor in Council may, by order, amend any of Schedules I to VIII by adding to them or deleting from them any item or portion of an item, where the Governor in Council deems the amendment to be necessary in the public interest.” The complete list of drugs scheduled in Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act is divided into eight schedules depending on the type of the drug and two Classes of precursors. Each schedule has a different penalty for possession.

Schedule I contains the heaviest drugs: opium poppy derivatives like Opium, Heroin, Codeine, Morphine, etc.; Coca and derivatives the most popular is Cocaine; Amidones (Methadone and similar compounds); Methamphetamine and Ketamine. Schedule II is for Cannabis and derivatives. Schedule III is for mostly chemically obtained drugs like Amphetamines (excluding Methamphetamine), Ritalin, Some Barbiturates, LSD and Mescaline. Schedule IV is for anabolic steroids and most of the barbiturates. Schedule V holds Propylhexedrine. Schedule VI is for precursors, which are used for producing drugs. This Schedule is divided into two classes Class A is for Ephedrine Lysergic Acid, Class B holds substances like Sulfuric Acid, Acetone and Ethyl Ether. Schedules VII and specify the amounts of Hashish and Cannabis. For Schedules VII it is 3kg Hashish or 3kg Cannabis, for Schedule VIII - 1g Hashish or 30g Cannabis.

The penalty for possession of controlled substance is treated different depending on the type of offence. If the possession is treated as an indictable offence, the penalties will be following.  We highly recommend finding a lawyer shall you find your self in such situation.  Canadian Lawyers have represented many clients facing criminal charges.  A Canadian Lawyer therefore has the expertise and most importantly has the experience to help you.  Lawyerahead.ca has the most comprehensive information on a lawyer.  Call few lawyers, talk to them, and ask how best they can help. 

Schedule I: Maximum 7 years imprisonment

Schedule II : Maximum 5 years imprisonment (if the amounts are exceeding amounts set in Schedule VIII)

Schedule III: Maximum 3 years imprisonment

In case of Schedule IV, it is not an offence to possess a Schedule IV substance for personal use, but Subsection (2) of Section (4) of the CDSA states that “no person shall seek or obtain a substance or authorization from a practitioner to obtain a substance in schedules I through IV.” Subsection (7) then states that it is an indictable offence to contravene subsection (2). Therefore, it is an indictable offence to attempt to acquire a Schedule IV substance but not an offence for possession. Section 5 provides that possession for the purpose of trafficking of a Schedule IV substance is an offence.

If the possession is treated as a summary conviction offence, the penalties will be: maximum $1000 fine for first offence and/or maximum 6 months imprisonment and maximum $2000 fine for subsequent offence and/or maximum 1 year imprisonment. In case the amounts of Hashish or Cannabis do not exceed the amounts set in Schedule VIII, a maximum fine of $1000 and/or maximum 6 months imprisonment is the only punishment for the arrested person.

As with any criminal case, we highly recommend consulting a lawyer.  People even dip into their savings to get the best represenation they can because it does affect your future and puts you at a disadvantage..

Counterfeit product can be defined as imitation of a real product that violates the production monopoly held by either a state or corporation. Counterfeit also describes the forgeries of currency and documents, and imitations of things like clothing, software, pharmaceuticals, watches, electronics, and even company logos and brands. Counterfeit can be divided into three types: counterfeiting of money, counterfeiting of documents and counterfeiting of consumer goods.

Counterfeiting of money

The counterfeiting of money is when a person or a company is producing currency without a legal sanction of the state or government. It is the most serious violation of all the three types. While this type of fraud is often used in popular culture, it actually has the worst effect on real life. Counterfeit money usually leads to more global problems like reduction of the value of real money, increase of prices due to increase of the money supply, decreasing of acceptability of the money and also forces companies to increase prices, because they are usually not reimbursed for receiving fake money . That’s why governments view this violation as a very serious threat for the economic stability of the country and for a long time the counterfeiters were punished by death.  If you are facing a similar situation consult a lawyer and see if they can help you. Lawyerahead.ca has the most comprehensive information on a lawyer, visit the site and call few lawyers and talk to them about your problem, see how best they can help you with their experience. 

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Counterfeiting of documents

The counterfeiting of documents is often called forgery. It is a process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents, with the intent to deceive a company or a person. It is related to fraud, the crime of deceiving other using objects obtained through forgery. The documents obtained in the result of forgery are called false documents. The forgery of false documents can have various goals from faking the taxes to spreading false information about someone. The punishment also varies depending on the type of case.  Take action on this too if you are in a similar situation.  Having a criminal background can be devestating for your future and best to talk to lawyer and see if he or she has the experience to help you.

Counterfeiting of consumer goods

Today globalization has a big influence on the counterfeit manufacturing. The exact numbers of counterfeiting consumer goods can’t even be calculated. Very often the fake products are produced on the same factory with the original ones, without informing the patent holder. The counterfeiting of consumer goods is in some cases is a very dangerous type of producing fake goods. The most dangerous in this case are food and medical products. If these products are manufactured without license and any production standards can lead to health problems and even deaths. In some cases food products even contain a mix of cheaper ingredients instead of the proper ingredients. Also if electronics or machinery is produced by not corresponding to the production and safety norms, it can lead to accidents.

Apart from the legal means of punishing the manufacturers who produce the counterfeit goods, the manufacturers of the original products also change the production schemes for distributing parts of the product to various factories. It makes cloning of the products that much more harder, but it is also more risky because if one of the factories fails to deliver the ordered parts, the whole batch will be incomplete and the production process will be stopped. Also lots of manufacturers of expensive goods protect their good with additional serial numbers or holograms.  It is always safe to find a lawyer and to consult them if you are ever in a situation as such.

Very often people overlook how serious an issue can be how devastating it can be to a family.  Injuries or Deaths at work are considered to be usual tragedies in every day life.  The 28 of April in Canada is the official National Day of Morning and commemorate workers who were killed, injured or suffered illness because of these workplace related accidents and hazards.

Basing on the world reports of the International Labour Organization (ILO), each year work takes lives of more than 2 million women and men who die of work - related accidents or diseases.  In fact, work actually kills more people than wars.  The number of accidents at work is approximately 270 million per year and about 160 million workers fall victim to work-related illnesses.  Thinks like hazardous substances kill about 440,000 workers every year.  Statistically one worker dies every 15 seconds worldwide, which translates to 6,000 workers die every day.  Of course most of these accidents occur in courtries where the safety at work is low and the workers have almost no legal protection.  Here in Canada however in such events, lawyer can be contacted, especially personal injury lawyersor law firms to help the family get compensations in such events.  Though these numbers are staggering, it is not to create a negative view of work, but more of a call for people to stand up for their legal rights related to workplace accidents and wrongful deaths.  That’s why the slogan of the National Day of Mourning is “Remember the dead - fight for the living.”

It is an absolute honour to know that Canada was the first country that declared the 28th of April the annual day of remembrance in 1985 and the first country where this day was officially recognized by the government in 1991.  In 1984 Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) started the Workers’ Memorial Day, which was declared annual a year later by the Canadian Labour Congress.  The day of April 28 was chosen because the Worker’s Compensation Act was passed this day in 1914.  The United States was the 2nd courntry to recognize this day in 1989.  In the States, April 28 is the day that Occupational Safety and Health Act went into effect, so this day was also historically important.  Since 1989, this day was accepted by trade unions in the North America, Asia, Europe and Africa and since 1992 it gained a major acceptance in the UK.  today it is officially recognized by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) as International Workers’ Memorial Day.  this day is also officially recognized in Argentina, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Luxembourg, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Thailand andin Taiwan.  Benin, Czech, Finland Hungary, Malta, Nepal, New Zealand, Romania, Singaport and UK are pursuing their governments to recognize this day.  So as you can see, the 28th of April is a global initiative supported by thousands of people that fight for the rights of workers around the world.  If you are looking for a lawyer in Canada, lawyerahead.ca has the most comprehensive information on lawyers.

Wills are the one of the most interesting legal documents in the history of mankind!  Numerous movies and books in the past has had a will as the center of the plot.  History of wills hold many example of interesting and curious cases of wills.  There are have been instances of people preferring very short wills to complicated ones. 

The first two shortest wills belongs to Bimla Rishi of Delhi and Karl Tausch.  Bimla Rishi’s will dated February 9, 1995 only contained one phrase in Hindi “All to son”; and to Kall Tausch’s will dated January 19, 1967 consisted only of the phrase “All to wife”. 

Some other famous wills left by certain individuals has had tremendous impact and can be felt even today.  For example, the famous Nobel Prize was founded in Alfred Nobel’s will.  While some great men and women in the history have done extra ordinary things with their wills beyond just distributing their assets, other notable individuals have died without even having a single will.  Among them Abraham Lincoln (also a lawyer), Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, James A. Garfield, Howard Hughes, Martin Luther King, Jr.  Rocky Marciano, Tupac Shakur, Kurt cobain, Buddy Holly, Lenny Bruce, Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Cass Elliot, Sonny Bono, Tiny Tim, Karl Marx and Pablo Picasso.

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Yet another famous wills case is the Estate of Kidd case found on the body of a deceased Arizona prospector who left his entire $250,000 estate “for research or some scientific proof of a soul of the human body which leaves at death.  I think in time, there can be a photograph of a soul leaving the human at death.”

Yet another famous wills case belongs to Charles Vance Millar, a canadian lawyer and financier.  His unusual will that came in effect after this death in 1926, on the 9th clause of his will, required that the balance of Millar’s estate was to be converted to case and then given to the woman who gave birth to the most children in 10 years following his death.  Strange enough indeed.   He further went onto outline that in the event of tie, the money is was to be distributed equally among the candidates.  This triggered the event called the Great Stork Derby.  In the following 10 years many women in Toronto started to get pregrant and as quick as possible.  In 1936, after it was all said and done, the winning mothers were Anie katherine Smith, Kathleen Ellen Nagle, Lucy Alice Timleck and Isabel Mary Maclean.  they each had nice children and received a sum of $125,000. 

Two more women Lillian Kenny who had 10 children yet 2 were still unborn) and Pauline Mae Clarke who had 10 children but several were considered illegitimate received a sum of 12,500 out of court.  During the ten years of the Great Stork Derby, the Supreme Court of Canada attempted to invalidate the will as being contrary to the public policy.  In addition, Millar’s distant relatives also tried to have the will declared invalid.  But being a lawyer, millar had the will very well prepared and it survived 10 years of litigation.  Because of his investment in the Detroit Windsor Tunnel, Millar’sestate increased drastically during the 10 years to a net worth of 750,000 dollars. A lot of money in those days.

What will your will look like ?  I’m certainly going to think about mine……

Lawyerahead.ca is the best way to find lawyers for any legal issues wills and beyond wills.

Custody / Access Assessment is actually a well known phenomena we often see play out in movies.  Sometimes a professional such as a social worker, psychologist or even a psychiatrist  enter into a family’s living situation to perform an assessment on the family and their living conditions.  Custody access assessment is usually ordered by the judge if the parents can’t agree on parenting and child visitation arrangements among themselves or through a mediation and arbitration lawyer.

The purpose of this procedure is to help judge define the best parenting arrangements for the children.  As mentioned above, usually this assessment is performed by a 3rd party such as a social worker and tends to be a fair assessments of the family conditions and motivated by childrens’ best interests.

Before assessment is started the parents usually meet with the judge and he or she will try to help them come to an agreement without going to trial.  At this pretrial meeting the custody or access assessment is usually ordered.  Note that in some events this may happen even before pretrial meeting if both of the parents request it.  If only one of the party wishes to request assessment, then it can be done so through an application.

It must also be pointed here that at any point in time, the parents have the right to stop this procedure shall they reach an agreement.

The procedure itself goes in the following way.  At first the judge decides what information is required for a particular family case.  It is important that the gathered information is full and true because it will be used to define which of the parents will provide a better life for the child or children.   After the required information is defined, the social worker starts gathering this information.  The information gathered could include family, marital and parenting background, speaking with the parents about their views on the children’s future, needs, observing the children with each parent, interviewing teachers, doctors, new partners, friends and relatives, speaking to the child to name a few.  After the information is covered the social worker then composes a report that contains his or her findings and recommendations on custody and access.  The parents, the lawyers and the court are provided with copies of the report.  After the report is reviewed by both sides, they have a possibility to reach an agreement.  If still no agreements can be reached, a trial maybe necessary.  During the trial the report formulated by the social worker will be used as evidence and social worked who performed the assessment maybe used as a witness.

While all the issues with custody and access are sometimes very hard to settle between the parents because of the emotional and stress that goes into a situation as this, the assessment could become the best solution as it is done independently and based on the interests of the children involved.

If you require family lawyers for your famly cases, lawyerahead.ca is the best way to find a lawyer.

We already wrote about The Pirate Bay trial few months ago. For those who missed that article, The Pirate Bay is a file exchange server (based on the torrent system) from Sweden. Today it is the largest server in the world with over three million visitors every day and it is constantly sued by copyright holders and various copyright protection organizations (in the latest case by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI)).

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Many people consider that such cases not only influence the copyright laws but also are dangerous for the freedom of modern Internet. For example after the verdict IFPI demanded that Swedish internet service providers block The Pirate Bay. The providers refused and stated that it is not their job to censor the websites for their customers and that they support the principles of a

free and open Internet.

A large response to this case and the verdict itself came from the Swedish Pirate Party. This party has nothing to do with swashbuckling adventures; it is focused on reforming laws regarding copyright and patents. Also Pirate Party supports the strengthening of the right to privacy, both on the Web and in everyday life, and also the transparency of state administration. Formed in 2006 this party encouraged people to form similar parties and organizations in the whole world. After the verdict on The Pirate Bay case, over 18,000 people joined the Swedish Pirate Party raising its membership to over 33,000 members. Right now it is the fourth-largest Swedish party by membership count and the party that has the largest youth organization. During the whole case the Pirate Party organized protests and on the next day after the verdict over 1000 protesters gathered in the streets of Stockholm. As mentioned above the Pirate Party views this case and the actions that followed, not as an attempt to reform the laws regarding copyright, but as an attempt to control the Internet and private lives.

And by the way, the biggest problem about suing sites like The Pirate Bay is that these sites actually do not exchange information, they just uphold servers that help users to connect to each others and exchange some stuff between their personal computers. During the case one of the Pirate Bay lawyer tried to use this fact and selected the user King Kong as an example of person that is not even under Swedish jurisdiction. This was immediately labeled by the press as King Kong Defense.  For more information on Vancouver Lawyers, Toronto Lawyers and Lawyers for your Intellectual Property legal needs, visit www.lawyerahead.ca

Generally speaking wills are a great tool.  You need to keep in mind that will is not all that complicated, it is a legal document that makes lives of your family, relatives and even charities of your wish easier when you pass away.  Charity organization are a great thing and it should be considered as an honor to be able to make someone else’s life easier by contributing to charities.  With everything you still need to ensure that the charity or charities you put in your will is really what you want and is the right thing.  When you are dealing with the decisions related to the law, you need to take your time before naming charities in your will.  Getting legal advice from a lawyer is an excellent way to go as lawyers would understand the legal consequences of your will.  Lawyerahead.ca is a great way to find a lawyer for your legal needs and can be used any time shall you require a lawyer.

The 1st step you should take is to calculate the value of your assets and find out if you have enough funds to donate to a charity.  This means totalling all your personal net worth like your home, other properties, car, all your personal possessions and your money, minus all your debts.  Debts would be items such as your personal loans, mortgages, overdrafts, credit card and or other purchase agreements that you have to pay over time.  Even in calculating an accurate report on your net worth, it is recommended to seek legal advice through a lawyer or your accountant or any other professional certified to do this.

Once you have calculated your net worth, you will need to choose the charity organizations that you want to give donations on your will.  Here are 4 main things recommended things to check.

Reliability

Be sure the organization that you are interested is a reliable one.  It has been reported in the past that many organizations take on other official charity organizations name in order to fake their existence.  So it is a good idea to contact the charity organization of your choice directly.  Get all the information you possibly can on them.  Check the history of the organization through 3rd parties or do some research on the Internet.  Internet usually carries directory of legitimate charity organizations.

Funds Dispensation

Charity Organizations welcome their potential donors questions on how their funds will be dispensed.  Therefore don’t ask this question to find out and get a full report on where you should expect your funds to go.

Purpose

Understand the purpose of the organization.  You do not want to think you are making a donation to something when it fact it means a completely different thing.  Last thing you want to do is make a donation to a charity which turned out to be an embarrassment to your family because it was not exactly what you would have wanted to do.  To avoid this, ensure you read their brochures to understand their mission and purpose of the organization

Impact

Whenever you are making a donation to something, you should check the possible impact of your donation.  Sometimes a charity organization can be large in size and even branded but are ineffective in achieving their goals.

Having said that here is another important thing to remember about charities.  Tax benefits.  Charity donations are designed to give you tax breaks.  Ofcourse this is not something that is going to directly benefit you but could be helpful to your friends and family.

As always, when it comes to all things legal, consult a lawyer.  Lawyerahead.ca helps you find the best lawyer(s) for your legal needs.  Post your case and get an experienced lawyer to help you with your will.  It is also better to discuss with them tax related questions with your lawyer.

Links to Toronto Lawyers and Vancouver Lawyers that can handle estates and wills.

Best of Luck.

Main thing to remember and to do isin a car accident insurance claim is to contact a lawyer as soon as possible.  Lawyerahead.ca is the best way to find your lawyer in Canada including car accident lawyers.  A car accident lawyer will help you handle the situation based on his professional experience and will be able to, speaking generally, negotiate a better settlement for you.  A car accident lawyer will define define the type of damages, chances of winning the case and lay out the entire strategy for maximizing results.  A list of other important dos and don’ts will follow.

1. Gather evidence right on the spot.  Take pictures (you can even use your cellphone) of the car and the place of the accdient, write data and any information you can gather related to the accident, and get the names of the witnesses involved.
2. Contact you insurance company as soon as possible, preferably immediately after the accident or as soon as you get home
3. Go over your insurance plan.  Review the “Coverage” and “Exclusion” on your insurance coverage before having the conversation with your insurance company representative.  During the conversation, ensure you document and take notes of the conversations and the details
4. In your conversation with the insurers, try to be honest as possible.  and present all the possible evidence you had gathered so that the insurers are able to get an accurate reading of the incident.
5. Check all your papers and documents for any additional insurance you may be eligible for.  Many times other policies like home insurance policies, “Umbrella policies”, and credit card policies may have additional coverage for you and will help recover your claim.
6. Keep receipts on all your expenses related to your claim especially medical bills.  Having record of these will ensure you get the maximum possible claims
7. Important: Do remember that the insurance company will try to minimize your payout.  Which makes sense as less money they shell out to you, more losses on their books.  Having a lawyer assist you is ideal.
8. Use Lawyerahead.ca to find a lawyer

The Don’ts of the Car Accident Insurance claims:

1. Don’t assume any responsibility or make any statements at the scene of accident.  Anything you say can be held against you.
2. Don’t sign anything before you fully understand the details.  Again, lawyer will be able to advice you depending on the seriousness of your accident
3. Don’t be afraid to refuse signing any documents if you consider them incorrect or could put you in liability
4. Don’t accept any “final payment” if you are not ready to do so or you feel is under compensated
5. Don’t loose time, you have a year after the accident to begin legal action, be sure to start it as soon as possible to maximize results and use fresh evidence
6. Don’t make any rash decisions, consult a lawyer first.

And as a side note, remember your insurance company must pay for the compensation as covered in your insurance policy.  Don’t let them get away with tactics to reduce this amount.  Don’t be afraid to enforce them either and stand for what is yours!

Each year, many aply to permanent residence in Canada.    The process tends to take years and can be rather tedious.  to avoide this, some choose to partipate in Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP) specific to the province to which they plan to immigrate.  Every province except for Ontario has one of these programs in an effort to attract, as AlbertaCanada.com put its, “labour-market-destined immigrants.”  Here is an example of such program, Alberta’s Immigrant Nominee Program or AINP.

The AINP divides candidates into three types: employer-driven, strategic recruitment, and family.  the intention behind the employer-driven section is to aide businesses that cannot fill their employment needs with Canadian citizens or permanent residents.  To be considered, a person must be either a skilled worker, semi-skilled or an international graduate.  What they mean by “intern

ational graduate” is someone who has attended school in Alberta or within Canada but is not yet a permanent resident or citizen.

Strategic recruits are those Alberta has invited or has a high-demand for.  This category is subdivided into compulsory trades, engineering occupations, and U.S. visa holders.  The “compulsory trades” section applies to those like welders and electricians and the applicant must be actually invited by Alberta to be eligible.  For engineers, they must have worked or be working in Alberta within the last 2 years.  U.S. visa holders must be working in the U.S. and have a job listed on AINP’s Occupations under Pressure List.

The newest branch of the AINP, the family stream is for those with loved ones already living in Alberta.  Requirements includes that you be between the ages of 21 and 45, have a sponsor between 21 and 45 with a job or regular source of income, and have at least ten thousand dollars in a `recognized Canadian Financial Institution.`

Application processing times range from 5 months to 18, but they state that as of 2009 the èstimate`is 12 to 24 months.

Although this program is only applicable to those intending to live in Alberta, I hope it gives perspective as to how these programs tend to work in general.  Seeing as this description only highlighs some of the eligibility requirements and porcess for those interested in immigrating to Alberta, it would be wise to get some help with the whole process with a lawyer who is experienced in Immigration Law as in the case with an Immigration Lawyer.  Like most governtal programs, there are myriad forms and minutiae one must consider, but in the end, these programs do actually speed up the time it takes to become a permanent resident and if one so chooses, a Canadian Citizen.

There are three main types of homeownership: Freeholds, condominiums and cooperatives.

Freeholds are what many think of when they think of owning a home. This is when you own the house and property that house is on. Although these tend to be the most costly of the three types, freeholds allow freedoms the other types of ownership prohibit. The freedom is very attractive and entails levels of privacy especially in freestanding homes (not duplexes or townhouses) from neighbors and others. Pets and smoking – two heavily regulated issues for renters and in other forms of home ownership – are solely up to the homeowner in this regard. As far as liabilities, the freehold homeowner is responsible for all maintenance, repairs, upgrades or any problems that arise in his or her home. These, of course, can be costly at times, but many find the freedom to do what they want well worth these infrequent expenses.

Condominiums are the second type of home ownership. They tend to be cheaper than freeholds. The owner of a condo is responsible for maintaining the inside of the unit and pays a fee (usually monthly) to the condo association or groundskeeper for things like lawn maintenance, garbage removal or other various expenses. The catch is that condominiums do not allow the same amount of freedom freeholds do by imposing regulations on noise, upgrade/renovations and pet ownership. It is much like living in an apartment complex only instead of paying rent to a landlord and building any equity, you own the unit and are only obligated to pay upkeep fees.

For those looking to own a home, but not yet financially prepared for a freehold mortgage or condo, cooperatives may be the way to go. Cooperatives or co-ops are groups of people who pool their money to own a collection of homes. These originated in the 1960s in response to many families who could not afford freeholds and were unsatisfied with the quality of rental properties. Realtytimes.com states the three basic types of co-ops are:

· Building Co-operatives: The earliest co-ops appeared in Eastern Canada where citizens banded together in order to build and finance their homes. Once construction was complete, they divided the properties into separate titles with separate mortgages.

· Continuing Co-operatives: Members rent from the co-operative, but also control and own it, preserving it for future members. Non-profit co-ops are of this form, established under federal and/or provincial guidelines, built with government funding and supported with rent-geared-to-income programs.

· Equity Co-operatives: These share-based forms, where residents benefit from appreciation in value, are distinguished from condominiums as the property is held by the co-op.

The downside of a co-op, depending on the type a person gets involved with is that deciding to sell or drastically modify your property has to be approved by the co-op board. For example if you had a buyer lined up and they were a convicted sex offender they might decide that is not the type of person they want in their community and deny the sale, whereas with a freehold you could sell your home to sex offenders, convicted murderers, Glenn Beck or whomever you so choose.

Attorneys can help with legal aspects of home buying and you should consult with a lawyer with Real Estate experience before a home purchase.  Lawyerahead.ca prescreens its lawyers so you can avoid hiring the wrong lawyer.