Glossary of Employment Law Terms
Get acquainted with some key concepts of employment law, and a few esoteric oddities as well! Learning the vocab can help you learn how to protect your legal rights.
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Bonus, discretionary and non-discretionary
Two main categories of bonus are discretionary and nondiscretionary bonuses.
A discretionary bonus is one that the employer can choose to pay or not pay as it sees fit. When claiming compensation for a dismissal without notice, the employee would often not be entitled to a discretionary bonus payment. But that may not always be so. In some cases employees have successfully established entitlement to a discretionary bonus on the grounds that other employees in the same circumstances receive the payment and the plaintiff would also have received, had they been employed to the end of the relevant notice period. [Note: double check Lancaster house page 1387, referring to Gilman v. Fieldturf Tarkett Inc., 2012 QCCS 1429.]
A nondiscretionary bonus is one which the employer cannot withhold at its sole and unfettered discretion but which should be paid out (or not paid out, as the case may be) according to the relevant policy or practice.
Cases sometimes distinguish between discretionary and nondiscretionary bonuses based on whether the bonus payments are an integral part of the worker’s overall compensation scheme.
See also
Bonus plan
Bonus refers to amounts paid or owed in addition to regular wages. A bonus plan or policy sets out the terms under which bonus is to be paid.
Entitlement to a bonus may be set out in a written policy providing for when bonuses will or will not be paid and in what amounts. For example, a bonus policy may provide for different payments depending on the worker’s achievement relative to certain Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or to the company’s Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA).
Often employment contracts provide that the worker’s entitlement to a bonus payment is limited or extinguished upon the termination of employment. For example, such clauses often state that the employee must be “actively employed” on a given payment date to be entitled to a contractual bonus payment. These limitations are not always enforceable. Courts have found that the requirement of “active employment” should presume the employee will be paid what he or she would have earned had the employer given reasonable notice of termination (and been actively employed to the end of the notice period), absent a clear agreement to the contrary.
See also
Bullying
Workplace bullying can take many forms but is generally a pattern of mistreatment of a worker that causes emotional harm. It could include aggressive and unreasonable communication, intimidation, threats, insults or interactions intended to embarrass, isolate or otherwise hurt a worker.
Workplace bullying is a kind of workplace harassment and is considered a workplace hazard under occupations health and safety (OHS) legislation in Alberta. Unaddressed workplace bullying can have legal implications, including under OHS legislation and, if related to a protected ground, under human rights legislation. In some circumstances, bullying can also give rise to a constructive dismissal.
See also
Common law
The “common law” refers to the rules or standards developed by judges in the past deciding cases, which eventually develop into enforceable obligations based on legal precedent. It is grounded in the idea that similar cases should be treated similarly. In other words, litigants in substantially the same situations should not be subject to different rules. This intuition is the basis of legal precedent.
The common law is a source of a rule’s authority that is distinct from legislation, which is composed of rules created by a governing body.
See also
Common law notice
Common law notice is the amount of reasonable advanced notice that employers must give employees of a dismissal, according to legal precedent grounded in judge-made case law.
Employees are generally (but not always) entitled to notice of termination, absent cause for dismissal.
The common law creates an implied term in employment contracts that employees are entitled to “reasonable notice” of termination, also called “common law notice.” This is conceptually separate from “statutory notice”, which refers to the minimum notice entitlement provided for in employment standards legislation. Often reasonable notice at common law is a significantly longer period that the statutory minimum. If an employment contract does not include an enforceable termination clause displacing the common law, an employer may not be able to dismiss the worker by only providing statutory notice.
The duration of reasonable notice is context dependent and differs from one employee to the next. The main factors courts assess when determining the appropriate length of notice are the employee’s age, the amount of time the employee worked for the employer and the character of the employment or position.
See also
Confidentiality agreement / non-disclosure agreement (NDA)
A confidentiality agreement is a term of an employment contract, or a stand-alone contract, in which the employee promises to protect the confidential and proprietary information of the employer. Types of protected information may include trade secrets, client and customer lists, business practices, business plans, financial information, and product designs (among many other things).
A confidentiality agreement would typically prohibit the use or disclosure of the protected information, except with the permission of the company.
The term non-disclosure agreement is effectively the same in meaning as confidentiality agreement. Both terms are used in employment law contexts.
See also
Consideration
Consideration is one of the three components of the formation of a contract, with the other two being an offer and an acceptance of the offer.
Consideration refers to the things of value exchanged by the parties to the contract. It can be money, property, services, a forbearance, or even things of nominal value (such as the proverbial peppercorn). The consideration for an employment contract is generally the employer’s promise to pay salary and the employee’s reciprocal promise to provide their labour.
Courts have held that amendments to employment contracts that adversely affect employees may be unenforceable, if the amendment does not involve some new consideration flowing to the employee.
See also
Constructive dismissal
Constructive dismissal occurs when the employer makes a unilateral and substantial change to the terms of employment that represents a repudiation of the existing employment contract. This can permit the employee to resign and seek compensation as though he/she had been dimsissled without notice. The word “constructive” in this instance means “interpretive” – the employee asks the court to interpret his or her resignation as a dismissal.
Unilateral changes to the terms of employment that could result in a constructive dismissal include a significant reduction in pay, a demotion, a loss of management authority, or the transfer of a worker to a different city (among other things).
Constructive dismissal can also result from a poisoned or toxic work environment. This could arise in the context of serious bullying, discrimination or harassment in the office.
See also
Dependent contractor
A dependent contractor is a contractor (as opposed to an employee) who is highly dependent on one company or client for his or her income. It is an intermediary category between independent contractors and employees.
Courts have held that dependent contractors have an implied right to reasonable notice of termination, which an independent contractor would not enjoy. As with employees, the parties can contract out of the right to common law notice of termination. Unlike with employees, statutory minimums under employment standards legislation do not constrain how much (if any) notice of termination the contract can provide for.
This intermediary category reflects the fact that many workers are hired ostensibly as independent contractors but in reality are integrated into another business in a role that is very similar to an employee.
See also
Discrimination
In employment law, discrimination means the adverse treatment of an employee based on a “protected ground” under human rights legislation. The protected grounds under the Alberta Human Rights Act include race, ethnicity, place of origin, sex, gender, age, religion, disability, and more besides (see protected grounds).
When an employer treats an employee adversely based on a protected ground, the employee may have remedies under human rights legislation. For example, an employee who has a medical condition that prevents certain activities may not able to do everything the employer asks of them. If the employer were to dismiss the employee without trying to accommodate the disability, it could be in violation of its obligations.
See also
Duty of loyalty / duty of fidelity
Employees owe their employers a duty of loyalty (or fidelity) as an implied term of their employment contracts. The exact scope of this duty is circumstance dependent, and particularly so relative to the employee’s position. The duty applies at common law, even if there is no contractual term confirming it. It applies to both fiduciary and nonfiduciary employees, though fiduciary employees are subject to a higher standard and other obligations.
The duty of loyalty can include obligations to not compete with the employer during the term of the employment relationship and to do not misuse the employer’s confidential information. The obligation to not compete would generally come to an end when the employment relationship terminates, and the obligation to protect the employer’s confidential information would generally survive termination.
See also
Duty to accommodate
When an employee faces adverse treatment or circumstances at work based on a protected ground, the employer may have an obligation to take reasonable steps to accommodate an employee’s individual needs. The standard is accommodation to the point of undue hardship. Failure to accommodate the employee could amount to prohibited discrimination, opening the employer to a potential human rights complaint and associated liability.
See also
Employment contract
An employment contract is the agreement governing the relationship between the worker (the employee) and the employer. An employment contract can be written or unwritten. There is no general requirement that employment contracts be in writing to be enforceable. Even if there is a written contract, the law implies various unwritten terms through statute and the common law.
See also
Employment law
Employment law is a broad area touching almost all aspects of the employer/employee relationship, as well as many employee-like dependent or independent contractor relationships. It excludes labour law, which relates to unionized workplaces.
See also
Employment policy
Employment policies and procedures generally take the form of written statements regulating various aspects of the workplace, such as employee conduct, safety, privacy, and employee rights and entitlements (among other things).
Sometimes the policies are part of the terms of the workers’ employment contracts and sometimes they are not.
In Canada, most aspects of the employment relationship do not need to be governed by written policies. However, most jurisdictions require businesses to have written policies on certain matters, such as personal information, workplace violence and harassment, and occupational health and safety.
See also
Employment standards
Employment standards refers to legislative and regulatory rules governing the relationship of employment, including for minimum wage, overtime, holidays, job-protected leaves, vacations, hours of work, earnings, youth workers and termination (among other things).
Generally, the legislative standards provide minimum requirements that all employment practices must meet but they do not displace any contracts or common law standards that satisfy the statutory minimums. For example, employment standards legislation provides a mandatory minimum notice of termination for most employees, but in so doing it would not displace an employee’s right to a greater period of notice at common law or under contract.
See also
Fiduciary employee
A fiduciary is someone who occupies a position of high trust and responsibility, who owes certain elevated duties to another.
Some employees are fiduciaries of their employers and owe fiduciary duties, which in general terms involve putting the employer’s interests before their own. Key employees, such as senior managers, may be fiduciary employees. An employee is more likely to owe these more onerous obligations to the company where he or she has discretion or power to significantly affect the company’s legal or business interests or where the company has placed a trust in the employee that makes it particularly vulnerable. For example, a worker who is entrusted with sensitive confidential information could have fiduciary obligations.
Note: Even non-fiduciary employees owe some similar duties of loyalty to their employers.
See also
Fixed-term employee
A fixed-term employee is a worker who is engaged to work for a specific limited length of time. Conversely, an indefinite-term employee is one who works under a contract that has no specific end date.
Fixed-term employees are sometimes colloquially described as working “on contract”, though that description is not very apt since all employees have a written or unwritten contract of some kind.
One of the most significant differences between fixed-term and indefinite-term employees relates to notice of termination and the scope of damages upon a dismissal without cause. A fixed-term contract presumptively expires at the end of the term, with no need for the employer to communicate an intention to terminate it. The worker is not entitled to advance notice that the contract will not be renewed or extended, unless the contract provides for such notice. However, if the employer terminates a fixed-term contact prior to the end of term, it may be liable to pay damages for lost income to the end of term, even if that is a longer period than an indefinite-term employee would have received as reasonable notice. Again, that presumption can be altered by agreement in the contract.
See also
Golden parachute
Golden Parachute is an idiomatic term referring to a termination clause that promises the employee a particularly generous severance package on termination by the company or on some other event, such as a change of company ownership. The payment can come in a variety of forms, including cash, salary continuance, shares or stock options, and any other benefit.
A Golden Parachute clause would typically be negotiated at the formation of the contract. These clauses can provide significant job security. Generally, such clauses would only be implemented for higher-level employees, such as senior managers or executives.
The fortunate employee who is dismissed in these circumstances is said to have received the “Golden handshake.”
See also
Harassment
Under Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety scheme, workplace harassment is defined as a single or repeated incident of objectionable or unwelcome conduct, comment, bullying or action intended to intimidate, offend, degrade or humiliate a particular person or group. Harassment and bullying are considered workplace hazards. Employers have an obligation to prevent and address harassment in the workplace, including by factoring harassment into hazard assessments, implementing prevention plans and procedures, providing appropriate worker training, and investigating incidents of workplace harassment.
Employers in Alberta are required to have written policies and procedures to prevent workplace harassment and workplace violence.
See also
Human rights
In Canada, human rights generally refer to the rights conferred in legislation providing for the equal treatment of all people (in certain defined contexts) without discrimination based on protected grounds. The protected grounds can vary slightly form one jurisdiction to the next but generally include race, place of origin, sex, illness, and various others (see protected grounds for more). Human rights are an important part of the law of employment.
See also
Independent contractor
Independent contractors are workers who are not employed by the entities they do work for but who are in business for themselves. They are independent from their clients, as opposed to employees who are essentially integrated into a company’s business. This is clear enough in theory, but not always so clear in practice. It is not always easy to determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. And getting the classification wrong can have significant financial implications for the parties, especially if the Canada Revenue Agency gets involved.
There are numerous differences in the rights of independent contracts and employees. Typically, an independent contractor would not be entitled to notice of termination (absent an agreement for notice) and would not get the benefit of many employment standards rules. However, contractors who are dependent on one company for most of their work could be dependent contractors at law and presumptively entitled to greater job security.
See also
Inducement
Inducement refers to a situation where an employee is induced, enticed, or recruited away from their current secure employment to take new work.
The concept has particular significance for the determination of an employee’s entitlement to notice of termination. Judges sometimes rely on inducement as a factor to justify finding that an employee is entitled to a longer notice period than would be typical in the relevant circumstances. This can arise when an employee is induced away from secure employment and then dismissed from the new employment shortly after. The idea is that, when an employee leaves secure employment, in which they’d have been entitled to a lengthy notice period, and they are induced to take the new work, the new employer should have to provide notice of termination as if they were a longer serving employee.
See also
Just cause
Just cause (or cause for termination) means that the employee has done something (or failed to do something) that gives the employer justification to terminate the employment relationship without notice or pay in lieu of notice. Cause for termination might result from an employee’s serious misconduct, habitual neglect of duty, or incompetence.
Occasionally employers may be tempted to allege just cause for dismissal in order to avoid paying an employee severance. Courts do not like to see such allegations used for purely strategic reasons and will sometimes impose extra financial penalties to punish and discourage the practice.
See also
Layoff
Layoff is a word that is used in a few different ways but most commonly refers to the dismissal of an employee without cause, especially for business reasons, such as when the company needs to cut staff or restructure. On this usage, a layoff would be permanent.
Another common usage of layoff refers to a temporary suspension of employment, or temporary layoff. For example, seasonal layoffs are common some industries.
The concept of layoff has more precise meaning within some legislative schemes, such as the Canada Labour Code and the Alberta Employment Standards Code.
The word is also sometimes also used as a synonym for dismissed without cause, as a way of emphasizing that the dismissal did not relate to the worker’s conduct. In that usage, saying “we have to lay you off” means “it’s not you, it’s us.”
See also
Mitigation
Mitigation refers to actions taken by a person to offset their losses following a breach of contract. In employment law, mitigation typically relates to a dismissed employee’s successful efforts to get alternative employment after termination and thereby replace the income stream that was lost. When mitigation efforts are successful, the damages owing to the employee will be correspondingly reduced.
Moreover, the law imposes a duty to mitigate on the innocent party to a breach of contract to make up his losses, including an employment contract. The duty can reduce a dismissed employee’s entitlement to financial compensation even if he or she did not actually secure alternative employment. For example, judges will sometimes reduce an employee’s award of damages if the employee did not make adequate efforts to find a new job and the judge is satisfied they would have mitigated had they tried.
In Alberta, mitigation income would not be deducted for the period covered by statutory notice of termination. The treatment of mitigation income is dependent on the legislation in effect in a given province, which varies on this point.
See also
Non-competition clause
A non-competition clause in a contract is a type of restrictive covenant (or negative covenant) promising to not compete with another person or entity in business or work matters. For example, a clause may provide that the worked will not take employment with or be otherwise involved in a competing business, for a certain period of time, within a certain geographic scope.
See also
Non-solicitation clause
A non-solicitation clause in a contract is a type of restrictive covenant (or negative covenant) promising to not seek services or request work from certain other individuals in a business or employment context. This could involve (among other things) forebearing seeking work from a business’s clients or hiring a business’s employees.
See also
Notice period
A notice period in employment law is the length of advanced notice an employer should give an employee before terminating the employment relationship. The duration of the notice period may be affected by the terms of the contract, statutory minimums, and the common law. Notice is not required if there is cause for termination.
An employment contract can provide for an agreed-upon duration of notice (or compensation in lieu of notice) for the termination of employment. Parties have wide latitude to make whatever arrangements they prefer, as long as those arrangements comply with employment standards legislation.
In Alberta, the Employment Standards Code mandates that employees who have been employed for 90 days or more must receive the minimum Code notice of termination or pay in lieu. The amount of notice required under the Code is determined by the worker’s length of service.
At common law, the duration of reasonable notice of termination that an employee should receive depends on the circumstances, and especially the worker’s age, how long they have worked for the business, and the character of their employment.
See also
Occupational health and safety
Occupation Health and Safety laws are the set of rules governing the rights and responsibilities of employers, supervisors, and workers (among others) to promote occupational health and safety and to protect workers and other persons present at workplaces from injury or hazards. The legislation sets out various complex obligations, including obligations on organizations to have and implement certain workplace policies. Individuals and corporations that do not comply with OHS obligations could be exposed to liability and prosecutions.
See also
Pay in lieu of notice
Pay in lieu of notice is the financial compensation that employers may give dismissed employees instead of giving advanced notice of termination. Pay in lieu of notice can be combined with working notice, as long as together they amount to the financial equivalent of adequate notice of termination.
The quantum of pay in lieu of notice is set by the relevant notice period, including any applicable periods of statutory or contractual notice and common law reasonable notice. Generally the amount owing is whatever the employee would have been paid over the relevant notice period, had he or she been given working notice of termination (subject to various exceptions and qualifications).
See also
Probationary period (probationary employee)
A probationary period is a timeframe at the beginning of an employment relationship during which the employer reserves the right to dismiss the employee with no (or with minimal) notice or pay in lieu. Often a probationary period is characterized as a time for the employer to assess the worker’s fit and suitability for the position. Someone who is employed during a probationary period is called a probationary employee.
Any period during which the employee could be dismissed without notice (absent just cause) must expire before the employee becomes entitled to statutory notice of termination (or Code notice, in Alberta). If a probationary period will extend beyond the point when the employee becomes entitled to Code notice, then the contract should state that the employee’s entitlement to notice is limited to the statutory minimums or to some other appropriate period short of common law notice.
The presence of a probationary clause would not permit an employer to dismiss an employee in violation of mandatory legislative standards, such as constraints imposed by human rights, occupational health and safety laws, or whistleblower legislation.
See also
Protected grounds (human rights)
Human rights legislation prohibits the adverse treatment of a worker based on certain aspects of the person’s identity, called the “protected grounds.” In that case, the adverse treatment could constitute prohibited discrimination and could permit the worker to seek compensation and other remedies at law.
In Alberta, the protected grounds include race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, religious beliefs, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, physical disability, mental disability, marital status, family status, source of income, and sexual orientation.
See also
Reinstatement
In employment law, reinstatement means placing a worker back in a job that was lost, typically without loss of seniority or other benefits, or into a comparable position. It is a right sometimes conferred on employees by statute or contract, including collective agreements (for unionized workplaces), human rights legislation, labour and employment standards legislation, occupational health and safety legislation (but only in a select few jurisdictions), and (less commonly) employment contracts.
See also
Release of liability
A release of liability is a legal document confirming that the employee has released the employer of its obligations and liability arising from the employment relationship or some other specified source. After signing a release, an employee will typically be preventing from later bringing a claim against the employer for matters covered in the release.
In the usual course, an employee would only consent to signing a release after reaching agreement on appropriate compensation, and the employer would only pay compensation on the condition that there will be a release of liability.
See also
Restrictive covenant
A restrictive covenant is contractual provision in which a party agrees to be restrained in some way. These can include covenants to not do certain types of work (non-competition agreements), to not seek work or services from others (non-solicitation agreements) and to make no use of proprietary or confidential information (confidentiality agreements).
See also
Retiring allowance
A retiring allowance is a taxation category under the Income Tax Act for taxing amounts that an employee receives when they retire from their employment. Despite the name, it is not only applicable to workers who are retiring from the workforce but also applies to lump-sum severance payments given to workers who are dismissed without adequate notice.
Retiring allowances are taxed at a rate that is often lower than the personal income tax rate for the worker, and no source deductions are made for employment insurance or the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).
See also
Salary continuance
Salary continuance is one mechanism that employers can use to give dismissed employee’s pay in lieu of notice. In short, the employee continues to receive their regular pay over the notice period, even if they are not attending for work.
When a severance offer is structured as salary continuance it is common for the agreement to include a claw-back provision. In that case, if the employee were to get alternative work, the salary continuance would come to an end, often with a portion of the remaining salary being paid out as a lump sum. (Yes, “claw back” is a bit of a misnomer in this instance, but that’s the usage.)
See also
Severance
A severance package refers to the total compensation package that an employee is offered after a dismissal without adequate notice or cause. The proposal can involve a lump sum payment, salary continuance, benefits continuance, a period of working notice, or a combination of thereof (among other things).
Loosely speaking, severance is synonymous with pay in lieu of notice, but in some jurisdictions “severance pay” can have a different meaning, particularly under legislation.
A severance package is an offer of settlement, which, if accepted, would create a binding contract. If not accepted, the parties would generally continue to negotiate or pursue litigation.
See also
Statutory notice
Statutory notice (sometimes called Code notice, in Alberta) refers to the minimum notice of termination (or pay in lieu) that an employer must give to end an employment relationship, even if the parties had contracted for a lesser period of notice.
All Canadian provinces and territories have employment standards legislation that sets basic standards governing the relationship between employers and employees. The various legislative schemes place constraints on how employers can dismiss workers, including setting a minimum for advanced notice of termination absent cause. Those minimums create a floor, not a ceiling – that is, employers may have to give more notice (or pay in lieu) than the statutory minimums, such as when the common law applies or there is a contractual provision for more generous notice. Statutory notice merely represents the mandatory minimum amount of notice required, which the parties can’t contract out of.
See also
Termination clause
A termination clause is a provision found in many employment contracts that specifies the rights of the parties when the employment relationship is terminated. Typically, it would involve an agreement that the employee’s common law right to reasonable notice of termination will be replaced with an alternative arrangement for notice or pay in lieu (severance), which may be more or less generous than common law notice. Parties have wide latitude to contract out of the common law, as long as their agreement meets the minimum requirements set out in the applicable employment standards legislation.
Termination clauses are often drafted in favour of employers, providing for significantly less notice or severance than would be required at common law. However, termination clauses can also be a drafted to the advantage of the employee, providing significant job security. Consider, for example, the proverbial Golden Parachute.
See also
Termination with cause
Termination for cause refers to the dismissal of a worker in circumstances that justify an immediate termination of the employment contract, without advanced notice or financial compensation in lieu of notice.
Typically, employers can only dismiss employees with notice or pay in lieu of notice. However, if the employee significantly misbehaves, shows habitual neglect of duty, or is not competent to discharge the obligations of the position, then the employer may be permitted to dismiss him or her immediately, without notice or financial compensation. Things that could provide cause for termination include insubordination, insolence, threats or acts of violence, theft, significant negligence, harassment of other workers, consistent lateness or absenteeism, incompetence or significant poor performance.
Termination for cause is also sometimes called just cause.
See also
Termination without cause
Termination without cause refers to the dismissal of a worker in circumstances where the worker did not do anything to justify a termination without notice.
The law presumes that employees are entitled to working notice of termination or pay in lieu of notice. Typically, an employer can end an employment contract without cause if it provides notice of termination or pay in lieu (subject to various exceptions). Where a dismissal without adequate notice or cause amounts to a breach of the contract of employment, the employee is generally (though not always) entitled to financial compensation.
Termination without cause is sometimes colloquially called a wrongful dismissal or unjust dismissal.
See also
Unjust dismissal
Unjust dismissal most often refers to a dismissal without adequate notice to the employee, in which usage it is synonymous with wrongful dismissal and termination without cause.
It may also refer to a dismissal in breach of the Canada Labour Code, which gives rise to statutory remedies not typically available to employees in other contexts, including the potential for reinstatement to the former position.
See also
Variable compensation
Variable compensation is a rate of pay that changes based on factors other than the time spent on the job or a fixed salary. Most commonly it refers to bonus, commissions, stock options and incentive-based pay. Variable compensation can be a lucrative, though unpredictable, portion of the worker’s overall compensation package.
See also
Working notice
Working notice refers to the advance notice of termination that an employer gives a worker that the employment relationship will be terminated as of the specified date.
Employers have the right to dismiss employees without cause, provided they give adequate advanced working notice or pay in lieu of notice. However, that right is subject to some constraints, such as under human rights legislation or the Canada Labour Code (in the case of federally regulated workers).
Generally, employees are not entitled to receive pay in lieu of notice (a.k.a. severance) if the employer gives adequate working notice. However, legislative schemes vary from province to province and may provide for some compensation independent of notice of termination.
See also
Wrongful dismissal
Most broadly, a wrongful dismissal is the termination of a worker’s employment contract in a manner that breaches the contract or other laws, including human rights or employment standards legislation. But often the term refers more specifically to a termination without adequate notice or cause.
Typically a wrongfully dismissed employee is entitled to pay in lieu of notice of termination (a.k.a. severance).
See also
Disclaimer
This website does not provide legal advice or opinion and should not be relied on as such advice or opinion. The articles here provide general information only. Tomm Law makes no claims, promises, or guarantees of the accuracy or completeness of the information. Articles are not updated after publication and may become outdated with changes in jurisprudence or legislation. Your use of this site is subject to the Terms and Conditions, which include disclaimers and waivers of liability.
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