Magistrates reluctant to seize weapons in domestic violence cases

Studies have shown that efforts to fight domestic violence are being hampered because magistrates do not use the powers available to them in terms of the Domestic Violence Act to seize weapons from perpetrators. Business Day reports that Dee Smythe of the Gender, Health and Justice Research Unit at the University of Cape Town, says in the latest SA Crime Quarterly that in one in five intimate femicides a woman was killed by her partner with a licensed firearm. The SA Medical Research Council found last year that magistrates had failed to seize weapons. In a study for the Institute for Security Studies conducted last year, magistrates said the implementation of the Act was cumbersome because they had heavy case loads and did not focus primarily on domestic violence cases.

 

An example of a simple will

 Interested in drawing up you own D-I-Y simple will? Here's a basic example.
 
 And here are the formalities you should observe.
 

Employer cannot unilaterally set retirement age

A recent ruling in the Labour Court has dealt with the issue of retirement age. In Rubin Sportswear v SA Clothing and Textile Workers Union and others the Labour Appeal Court had to decide whether an employer was entitled to determine a particular age to be the normal retirement age for his employees by setting it unilaterally as the retirement age. Four employees were dismissed by the appellant, who had recently bought the company, when they reached the age of 60, reports Cluver Markotter Legal Update. The respondents did not accept the dismissal and contended that they were still able and willing to perform their work beyond the age of 60 and that this dismissal was unfair discrimination based on age. The Appeal Court upheld the Labour Court ruling that the dismissal was unfair. It said the Appellant’s conduct in purporting to unilaterally fix 60 as the normal retirement age for the employees was a breach of their terms and condition of employment. The court further looked at what could be considered ‘normal’ retirement age and concluded that 60 was neither the normal nor the agreed retirement age for the respondents. Full report in Cluver Markotter Legal Update    Supplied courtesy of Legalbrief Today. To participate in a free month’s subscription to Legalbrief’s daily legal news service Click here.

 

Father gets rights to question son's 'lover'

A retired soldier has won the right to question a man, who claims he was his deceased son's life partner, about the nature of their relationship, after a ruling made in the Cape High Court on Tuesday.

James Middleton contends that his son Phillip was not involved in a life partnership with French chef Dominique Ripoll-Dausa, who has launched a legal battle for a share of Phillip Middleton's multimillion-rand estate.

Should Ripoll-Dausa succeed in his constitutional court challenge against legislation that, he says, unfairly discriminates against the rights of gays to inherit their partners' estates, he will stand to inherit a substantial portion of Middleton's estate.

 

Florida won't recognise gay marriages from other states

In a blow to g ay rights in the US, a District court in Florida has upheld a federal law protecting states from having to recognise another state's homosexual ‘marriages’. The court dismissed a lawsuit brought by two women seeking to have their Massachusetts union recognised by Florida. They had argued that the 1996 Defence of Marriage Act was unconstitutional because it discriminated on the basis of s ex and violated their fundamental rights, reports The Washington Times. But Judge James Moody disagreed, saying the law treated men and women equally and that the government met its burden of stating a legitimate interest for allowing marriages to exist only between men and women. And in a separate ruling, the Louisiana Supreme Court has unanimously reinstated the marriage amendment to the state constitution that voters overwhelmingly approved in September. The ruling reversed a state district judge's ruling in October striking down the amendment.
Full report in The Washington Times

Supplied courtesy of Legalbrief Today. To participate in a free month’s subscription to Legalbrief’s daily legal news service Click here.