In days of yore, a written agreement involved paper, ink and physical signatures. But today you can find yourself bound to an online contract with not a drop of ink involved. A recent High Court case, in which a debtor’s attempt to escape an electronic contract and signature failed, illustrates.

Divorce is at best stressful for everyone, and at worst it involves bitter dispute and recrimination, perhaps to the extent of one or both parties applying for a “forfeiture of benefits” order.

What is that order, how easy is it to obtain, and what factors will the court take into account in deciding whether or not to grant it? We’ll address those questions with reference to three recent and illustrative High Court decisions which involved extra-marital affairs, emotional and financial abuse, and other “substantial misconduct”.

What’s the best way to protect yourself from someone out to damage your reputation? It’s all too easy these days to hurt us or our businesses online, with social media channels in particular providing attackers with quick and targeted launchpads for defamatory posts.

Fortunately, we have several legal options available to us. We’ll analyse them with reference to a recent High Court case in which a property developer was being attacked on both a WhatsApp group and Facebook by a fired contractor.

“Caveat Emptor”

This is an old legal principle meaning “let the buyer beware” and it’s essentially sensible advice to buyers to inspect whatever they are buying thoroughly before they buy it. Our modern consumer protections have tempered the legal effect of that principle to some extent, but it still applies legally in some instances and in any event it’s always sound practical advice for daily life. So next time you buy a house, or a car, or a pack of apples (or indeed anything) think “caveat emptor”!