Free Legal Advice on Credit Cards: Are you liable to pay for your bank's mistake?

If you use credit cards for your transactions, this free legal advice may be useful to you.  Recently, a young IT professional came to me with a query regarding credit cards. He was issued a credit card by Bank X and a sum of Rs 8,000 was wrongly debited against the said card. Immediately, he informed the bank and the bank promised to reverse the debit. Following this mix up, he stopped using the card. So far, the story runs smooth. 

Here comes the glitch. Two years down the lane, he receives a credit card statement for Rs.32,000! He sought the bank's assistance to get the full credit card statement to understand how this happened, given that he hadn't used the credit card since the mix-up he had reported officially to the bank. 

Free Legal Advice for using Credit Cards

What's the way forward? Keep these simple legal tips in mind while using credit cards:

1.  If a wrong debit has been reversed as per the Bank's communication to the customer, the bank should have reversed the interest as well as other charges that was levied on the first amount. 

2. The important thing is that the customer should have conducted an immediate follow up to get a detailed statement of the reversal of charges. 

3. Simply not using the credit card was not enough - that didn't help, did it? Besides, where's the legal closure that one needs to show in terms of proof of communication and subsequent action from the bank?

Free Legal Advice: How to leverage Code of Bank's Commitment to the Customer 

 As a customer who feels wronged, the first point of contact is the bank's nodal officer whereby one can explain what happened and request the mistake to be rectified. If required, you have to go through the provisions of  The Code of Bank's Commitment to the Customer. This Code specifically states that it will provide a credit card statement to the card holder every month free of cost at the mailing address as per the bank's records. It also states that in the event of non-receipt of information, the bank will resend the details when a request is received from the card holder. 

Free Legal Advice: How to send copy of communication to RBI Customer Service Dept

In writing, bring this to the notice of the bank and send a copy of your communication with the timeline and details to the customer service department of the Reserve Bank of India. If you receive no reply or follow up, you can directly file a complaint with the Banking Ombudsman in your state. 

Free legal advice: Employee can be fired for working during breaks

Recently, I was fascinated by a decision by the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. An employee as dismissed for working through her break.  Doesn't this sound ridiculous? 

So lets break down the facts to understand it better. 

A sales person who has won numerous awards was given a 'final' warning in writing on account of her abrupt behavior with co-workers and for working beyond her usual hours. This implies that she would skip her breaks by coming back to the shop floor to work. Following this warning, she filed a complaint alleging that she was being given adverse treatment on racial grounds. Even before a hearing was held to look into her complaint, she was terminated. 

In this particular case, the employer's stance is that it has a right to fire an employee for working through a break. Legal issue that rose was: Did the employer fire the employee in retaliation for the complaint she had filed? 

Interestingly, the tribunal agreed with this point raised by the employer and held that the real reason of the dismissal was not a retaliation of any sort.

You can refer to this case in detail here.  

This decision raises several questions. Why should the employers be held liable as per Canada's laws for work that is performed by an employee during break hour? Is this legal approach justified? Does it protect the rights of all stake holders? What is its real objective? Obviously, it puts pressure on employers and adds a severe risk of dismissal to employees who want to work beyond the prescribed hours?

It would be interesting to know your thoughts on this Canada law decision. 

Online law advice: Autism rate in Ontario and Gaps in Formulating an Action Plan

According to recent news reports, the autism rate in Ontario is estimated to be one in 88 children. In fact, the average age for a child to be diagnosed with autism in Ontario is 3. You can imagine how this can be a heart-breaking wait for parents, particularly as they would eb the first ones to notice and perhaps document the early signs at the time of birth itself. While all experts agree that a child who is diagnosed with autism requires to be put into treatment, parents cannot do so easily without funds from the state. Why? The answer is simple. Therapy for autism in Ontario requires them to shell out $60,000 for a year.

Despite promises by politicians to improve this grim scenario, there has been very little action in tackling this fast growing developmental disorder. Canada's Charter of Rights states that every Canadian citizen has access to equal rights, including people with disabilities. No one has any doubts that autism is a disability.While some say that Ontario is on the right track, many point out that enough is not being done to help or support the affected families.

What is worse, once given a diagnosis, the wait for services can be as long as four years — a damaging loss of time for a child.

Autism Therapy: The Way forward

Some of the simplest solutions are the toughest to implement. But I believe these can work wonders in bridging the gap between the waiting period and the actual treatment process :

1. Reduce the waiting period with planned medical intervention that can be spread out into diagnostic phases. The authorities will have to differentiate between how public and private therapy can enter this picture at varied time slots.

2.  Parents require a free therapy counselling system that provides them with integrated service solutions that will not cost them at all. 

3. As the age of the autistic child increases, parents will have to tackle crises after crises. There is an urgent need to develop proactive involvement between the parent and the counselor to find a tailor made action plan for the autistic child.

What is sad is that in India, the scenario is much more bleaks. There is rampant red tapism, procedural delays and many other factors that make it very difficult for parents of autistic children to give them fair opportunities. In fact, there isn't enough proven statistics on autistic children in India, what treatment processes they undergo and what the role of the government is in helping them move forward. 

We live in a world where laws appear more humane than the people. 

Free Legal Advice: Welcome to the wonderful modern Bar

Lawyers are no different from other professionals. The good side and the flip side are all there. For instance, social snobbery can be discovered as an art and at its best heights within the conversations that we as lawyers tend to have about others.

Here's a real conversation between senior lawyers from the book Baby Barista and the Art of War, that is a must read for every budding and senior lawyer who is a practitioner of the litigation system:

Boss: I don't know what the world is coming to these days.

Head of Chambers: Even ten years ago. Extraordinary, really. Sometimes I just don't recognize the world we live in."

Boss: Yes. To think that over half of our next door chamber's tenants are now non-Oxbridge."

"Do you think its catching?"

"It certainly seems to be."

"Well, I think we need to guard against it as a matter of top priority."

My take on this interesting conversation: Welcome to the wonderful modern Bar.