Introduction

The Hong Kong government has provided a wealth of online information, both legal and non-legal. Almost all the information is freely available with few local commercial sites.

One of the key providers is the Community Legal Information Centre (CLIC). It is a bilingual community legal information website and provides a quick internet guide for the general public to find relevant legal information in Hong Kong. The project is established by the China Information Technology and Law Centre (jointly run by the Faculty of Law and the Department of Computer Science) of the University of Hong Kong.

The HK Legal System

The primary constitutional document of HK is The Basic Law of the HK Special Administrative Region (“Basic Law”). The Basic Law was adopted on 4 April 1990 by the Seventh National People’s Congress (NPC) of the People’s Republic Of China (“PRC”) and came into effect on 1 July 1997 when the British returned HK to China (“Hand-Over”).

Historically, the Basic Law arose from The Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of HK (“The Joint Declaration”), which was signed between the Chinese and British Governments on 19 December 1984. The Joint Declaration sets out, among other things, the basic policies of China regarding HK. Under the principle of “One Country, Two Systems”, the socialist system and policies shall not be practised in HK and HK’s previous capitalist system and life-style shall remain unchanged for 50 years. The Joint Declaration provides that these basic policies shall be stipulated in a Basic Law of the HKSAR.

In the Basic Law, HK continues to follow the common law tradition established by the British colonial rule. The Basic Law allows HK’s courts to refer to decisions rendered by courts of other common law jurisdictions and allows judges from other common law jurisdictions to participate in proceedings of HK’s Court of Final Appeal and sit as HK judges.

Pursuant to the Basic Law, the HK Government retains sovereignty over the territory except in areas of national defence and foreign relations. The Government is headed by the Chief Executive. The Government must abide by the law and be accountable to the Legislative Council.

Laws in Hong Kong are enacted only by approval of the Chief Executive and majority consent of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (“LegCo”). Half of LegCo’s seats are elected under universal suffrage with the other half selected by functional constituencies consisting of special interests and trade unions. The Basic Law guarantees that all seats will eventually be elected under universal suffrage.

Structurally, HK’s court system consists of the Court of Final Appeal, the High Court (comprising the Court of Appeal and the Court of First Instance) and the District Court (which includes the Family Court). Other quasi-judicial bodies include the Lands Tribunal, the Magistrates’ Courts, the Juvenile Court, the Coroner’s Court, the Labour Tribunal, the Small Claims Tribunal, and the Obscene Articles Tribunal. Justices of the Court of Final Appeal are appointed by HK’s Chief Executive. The power of final adjudication in HK vests in this Court of Final Appeal.

The power to interpret the Basic Law vests in the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (“SCNPC”). The courts in HK can interpret, when deciding cases, provisions of the Basic Law which are within the autonomy of HK. However, if the Courts need to interpret the provisions of the Basic Law concerning affairs which are the responsibility of the PRC government, or concerning the relationship between the PRC government and HK, and if such interpretation will affect the judgments on the cases, the Court of Final Appeal, before making their final judgments, must seek an interpretation of the relevant provisions from the SCNPC.

Lawyers in HK are divided into barristers or solicitors. The vast majority of lawyers are solicitors, who are regulated by the Law Society of HK. Barristers are regulated by the HK Bar Association. Only barristers are allowed to appear in the Court of Final Appeal and the High Court. Just as the common law system is maintained, so are the common law courtroom customs such as the wearing of robes and wigs by both judges and lawyers.

Introduction

In an earlier article entitled “Custody, Care and Control, Splitting the Baby King Solomon’s Way”, I have written about what are the factors the Court will consider when deciding which parent gets custody or care and control of a child.

In this one, we will explore in some details what kind of orders are generally given by the Court in a “custody battle” and what these orders mean.

Before we dwell into that, I would like to correct a general misconception that the Court “award children to parents”. This is not so. You may no longer be someone’s wife/ husband but you will always remain your child’s parent and will continue to share an equal responsibility for your child with your ex-spouse. Such responsibility does not change with your marital status.

What the Court decides are 2 aspects relating to the upbringing of the child.

The first is whether one or both parents should have custody of the children. The second is which parent has care and control of the children and the access terms for the parent who does not have care and control.

What is Custody?

Different jurisdictions use this term in slightly different ways. In the Singapore Courts, the term “custody” means the right to make major decisions on the welfare and upbringing of the children. The Court generally consider the following areas as major decision making:

1 Medical issues like whether the child is to be hospitalized or a particular surgery should be performed on the child.

2 Educational issues like the choice of school, choice of enrichment classes, choice of course in school, choice of subjects, whether the child is to attend a particular school trip or outing, or tuition.

3 Religious issues like the religious instruction of the child, attendance at places of worship, undergoing religious ceremonies, etc.

In practice, the Court usually makes either one of the following orders when it comes to custody of children:

1 “Sole custody” order where the right is given to one parent to make major decisions for the child without the agreement of the other parent. These days, the Court who although may grant a sole custody order will sometimes also includes an order that the custodial parent must consult (or even obtain the consent of) the other parent when making decisions on specified matters, for example, choice of school, choice of course in school and so on.

2 “Joint custody” order: This is also the more common of the 2 orders. Here, both parents make major decisions for the child jointly – i.e. they must agree on the decisions which are made. In the absence of agreement, regretfully, either parent will have to apply to court for a determination of the disputed issues.

Although the Court is reluctant to do so, on very rare occasions, the Court may grant custody of different child to different parent. This is what is sometimes known as a “Split-Custody” order.

What is Care and Control?

Care and control is the right to have the children live with you, and to make everyday decisions about them. For practical reasons, care and control normally lies with one parent. The non-custodial parent who does not have care and control of the child will have access to the child. (I will not be discussing access terms in this article but in another one devoted only to access.)

Usually if the Court grants a split custody order for different siblings, it will also order for care and control of the children to be similarly split so the result is that siblings will live with different parents.

The Perennial Confusion

Bringing up a child is such a complex process that it is no wonder that many parents are confused as to what are day-to–day issues and what kind of matters become major decisions?

Things are made worse when 2 parents are fighting a very acrimonious divorce and have problems communicating with each other. In these situations, it sometimes appear that every kind of decision relating to the child can fall either way. For instance, if a child is allergic to peanut, is his day-to-day diet a medical issue or a major decision to be agreed upon by both parents?

Lawyers find themselves having to answer such questions from their feuding clients sometimes on a daily basis. In such cases, it is sometimes necessary and advisable to seek the Court’s specific orders spelling out in some detail, what kind of decisions require mutual consent and under what circumstances, the custodial parent can make the decision.

Even then, it is impossible for the Court to consider every single instance and parents are strongly advised to try and co-operate with each other when it comes to parenting the child. Remember that at the end of the day, it is the best interest of the child that everyone should be concerned with, not who has the last word.

Conclusion

“Since I don’t get custody of the children, why should I continue to maintain them?” or

“He did not pay me child support, why should I continue to let him see the kids?”

These are common remarks we lawyers hear from disgruntled ex-spouses.

The Court will remind that a parent’s duty to maintain his child remains until the child reaches adulthood whether or not he has custody. Similarly, a parent’s right to have access to his child is sacrosanct and will be jealously guarded by the Court. Only in very extreme circumstances will access be taken away from a parent e.g. violence or raped victims. In the case of alleged violence, the Court may still give supervised access.

We also need to be reminded that just because custodial rights are not given to one parent, it does not necessary mean that that parent is a bad one. It often just means that the other parent is a better one and the child is better off with him/her.

Sometimes, it just isn’t in the best interest nor practical for two badly feuding parents to have joint custody of the child. This is especially so when it appears to a child that that his/her parents are often quarrelling over her. This can lead to very bad psychological damage to the child.

But most importantly, we must always remember: “My child’s best interest comes first and all the unhappiness between me and my ex-spouse must come a distant second”

Introduction

All of us are familiar with Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Sherlock Holmes, Superman, Batman, Captain America – all characters invented by someone and found in movies, cartoons, books or comics. Those from movies or comics have a graphic representation that we can see while those from books have distinctive characteristics that we gather from ‘word portraits’.

Thus, Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse are graphical or pictorial characters. Sherlock Holmes is a literary character. Superman, Batman and Captain America are a combination of both graphical and literary characters.

In our modern business world, the commercial exploitation of such characters is a huge and very profitable industry. Best sellers and box office hits have resulted in licensing of such characters for endless types of products and services, both in physical form and in electronic media. In Singapore, the recent crackdown on unauthorised downloads of anime is a stark example of industry protecting its commercial exploitation against ‘misuse’ by others.

Before moving further into the discussion, it is important to take note of a difference between a graphical character and most other forms of visual art – the character has the ability to evolve and take on a ‘life of its own’ while most forms of visual art are static. The character, which include its name and images, can be in a variety of different settings, postures and characterisations other than that originally depicted by the creator. This expands the scope of commercial exploitation (and thus the value of the character) with licensing programs for children’s toys, posters, animated cartoons, fast food restaurants and clothing. Because character development and the exploitation of any particular character is driven by commercialisation and profits, the issues of ‘property ownership’ and ‘intellectual property protection’ are paramount.

Therefore, we must begin by asking whether a character may be owned as intellectual property, and if so, how may the owner protect that character from being exploited by others. A related issue will then be the extent of the protection for that character: Can ‘new’ variations of its original depiction also be protected?

The legal protection of graphical characters is currently more defined than that for literary characters. The objective for the creator and/or owner of a character should be to cloak that character in a protective envelope that combines the benefits of copyright, trademark and even anti-competition laws. The overlapping protection provided by these areas of law has one commentator concluding that such convergence can result in a new body of law formulated to protect characters [1].

The interplay of, among others, the following factors have resulted in this convergence: (1) the profits that can be made from commercialising these characters and their variations which arise from new postures, settings and characterisations that differ their original depiction; (2) the ability of the characters (as least in their graphical form) to be trade marks that are recognised by trade mark laws in many countries; and (3) the ability of the characters, through extended use (by time and by the myriad of products and services on which the character is depicted), to create an image in the minds of the readers/viewers that is more vivid than life such that the character is almost human.

Protection of Graphical Characters

Suppose there is a new comic book project. The main character is based on an idea that the creators believe has enormous commercial potential; not just as a character in a comic book, but in other media formats and merchandising activities. As the creators develop their character, it takes on the essential characteristics that provide a character’s uniqueness: a name, physical appearance, and attitude or character traits.

Will the law protect the character in the comic book? If the character is used outside of the comic book, will it still be protected? In this digital age, it is very rare to see a popular cartoon character in only one medium. It is not unusual today to find a character that makes its first appearance in a comic book or in a film to be immediately, if not concurrently, licensed for toys, other products and services, and being exploited in other media formats. What should the creators do to protect their character? As a result of the commercial implications, a broad-based protection policy is necessary – the creators often practice ‘overkill’. This means the character should be protected by a combination of copyright, trademark and competition laws.

Protection of Literary Characters

Even though most stories and plots are forgotten, the characteristics of a literary character frequently remain fixed in a reader’s imagination; this fixation may then provide the true underlying value of a particular literary work or series. Because of such underlaying value in a literary character, the creator and/or publisher should always take steps to ensure that the literary character is protected, especially if there may be a possibility to use the literary character in book sequels, or for licensing the use of the literary character for films, television programming, electronic or other media or merchandising. It is only by maintaining control and protection of the literary character that revenue streams may be maximized for the creator/publisher of that character. The value of such protection can be seen in the many ‘unofficial sequels’ to well-known and well-loved classics based on the continuation of the main characters of the story.

The primary difference between the literary and graphical character is that the physical appearance and characterisation of the literary character resides in the imagination of the reader and is continually being developed in the reader’s mind by the author’s description of the character as the story unfolds. This is in contrast to the graphical character where the physical appearance and characterisation are visually apparent. This difference it is extremely significant when evaluating the scope of protection that is available for literary characters This is because for literary characters, no two minds will see a particular character in the same way. The protection problem may also exist when a later graphical representation of a literary character is portrayed very differently than from the word portrait that initially appeared.

Copyright Protection

The Copyright Act provides creators and/or owners of fictional characters copyright protection that is strong, but of limited duration. It is important to remember that the copyrightable expression of a character is much more than just the character’s physical appearance, and that it includes the specific name, physical appearance, and character traits of that character.

The copying of a particular literary character has occurred if one uses identical or substantially similar language to describe the character, but what more frequently occurs is a taking of the more abstract character traits and elements that only conjure up a mental image of that character for the reader. In reality, none of the verbally described characteristics of the literary character are as dominant as the visually depicted characteristics of a graphical character and therefore the copyright law distinction between an unprotectable idea and protectable creative expression may prevent copyright law from protecting the literary character.

With that said, what exactly can be copyrighted? Can another person use the character outside the usual character traits that is associated with that character? Because there are no cases in Singapore, we have to look elsewhere, notably USA, for hints as to the possible answer.

In Warner Bros., Inc. v. American Broadcasting Cos. [2], the US court noted that “in determining whether a character in a second work infringes a cartoon character, courts have generally considered not only the visual resemblance but also the totality of the characters’ attributes and traits.” More will be said about this case later.

In a similar but earlier case, Detective Comics, Inc. v. Bruns Publications [3], the US court found that the character Superman was infringed in a competing comic book publication featuring the character Wonderman. The court found that the infringing work “appropriated the pictorial and literary details embodied in” the copyrights protecting Superman.

Later cases appear to suggest that the similarity in the graphic depiction of a character alone, without the plot elements, may be sufficient for copyright infringement.

In Walt Disney Prods. v. Air Pirates [4], the infringers admitted copying the names and appearances of the characters, but placing them in very different situations than those used by Disney, ie in adult, counter culture comic books. The court rejected the infringers’ defence.

Another issue is whether copyright laws can protect a particular character once that character has taken on a life of its own and the character is no longer existing in the original context in which it first appeared? This is important because copyright laws do not protect an ideal but protects the expression of that idea. The court will never protect the idea of any man with super powers but will protect the character of Superman.

In the USA, courts apply what is known as the “character delineation” test, ie. whether the particular character is sufficiently and distinctively delineated so that it warrants protection. The character’s appearance and personality must be specific and unique.

This is especially important for the protection of literary characters which involves two questions:
(a) First, was the character as originally conceived and presented sufficiently developed to command copyright protection?
(b) If so, secondly, did the alleged infringer copy such development and not merely a broader and more abstract outline?

Trademark Protection

Another way to protect the graphic character, even if the character is protected by copyright, is to protect it under trademark laws which will protect the character from being used by another party without authorisation when the character functions as a form of identification of a product or service and commands public acceptance and recognition. This protection could prevent the exact duplication of the trademark owner’s character or the imitation of that character where the likely result is to cause public confusion, mistake or deception with regard to source of the products or services that is identified with the character.

The main advantage of protection under the trademark regime is a potentially perpetual protection. The term of protection might last indefinitely if the use of the trademarked character is properly protected and maintained.

Trademark laws will not permit a graphic character to be trademarked solely for its own protection. The character must be associated with a product or a service that uses the character as a mark.

The main disadvantage in using trademark laws to protect characters is cost. Trademark protection is territorial, ie registration is required for each territory protection is sought. It is also limited to the class of products or services it is associated with. Registration is thus required for each of such classes in all the territories. Furthermore, any changes in the appearance of the graphic character could destroy the original trademark protection and will therefore require additional trademark registrations to ensure that the current appearance of the graphic character remains protected.

The critical issue in proving trademark infringement is the “likelihood of confusion” and whether consumers are likely to be misled or confused as to the source of the products or services bearing the indicia of the trademarked character. For example, if ABC Company published its own comic book that used the names and likenesses of Disney or Warner Brothers cartoon characters, are consumers confused into believing that Disney or Warner Brothers published that comic book? If the answer is “Yes”, there is infringement.

Trademark laws can also be used together with competition laws and tort laws to prevent wrongful use of a fictional character by: (1) misrepresentation, (2) false sponsorship, and (3) misappropriation.

Misrepresentation occurs when a party represents that a particular character is associated with their product or service, when, in reality, it is not.

False sponsorship occurs when a party indicates that a particular character has endorsed its product or service when it has not.

Misappropriation, which may be most relevant with the protection of characters, occurs when a party in essence steals another’s character in order to associate it with their product or service.

If such misuse of a graphical character occurs and a “reasonable person” is of the opinion that the graphical character had been misrepresented, used falsely as a sponsor, or misappropriated then the party engaged in such misuse could be found liable for damages.

Convergence Of Protection

In the USA, character owners have been successfully extending protection for the fictional characters by arguing that copyright protection should adopt the total “look and feel” approach from trademark doctrines and applying them to copyright infringement cases.

In Walt Disney Productions v. Air Pirates the court co-mingled copyright and trademark doctrines by stating that the Disney characters used by the defendants had achieved a high degree of ‘recognition’ and ‘identification’ (ie trademark concepts) and that these elements helped make the characters protectable under copyright law.

Conclusion

Therefore, while the creator is still admiring the newly created fictional character, he/she should recognize the scope of legal protection available for the character and should do all that is necessary or financially feasible to properly protect this potentially valuable fictional character.

————————————————-

Footnotes

[1] Michael Todd Helfand, When Mickey Mouse Is as Strong as Superman: The Convergence of Intellectual Property Laws to Protect Fictional Literary and Pictorial Characters, 44 Stanford L. Rev. 623 (1992). As anti-competition laws in Singapore is still in its infancy, we will not be discussing this in the article.
[2] 720 F.2d 231, 241 (2d Cir. 1983).
[3] 111 F.2d. 432 (2d Cir. 1940).
[4] 581 F.2d 751 (9th Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1132 (1979).

Introduction

“MacDivorce” is a term I coined to describe what I regard as the “best” way to divorce (if there is such a thing as a “best” way for such a traumatic and stressful experience). It is the best because as the title suggests, it is fuss free, quick and thus low cost, kind of like having a meal at a fast food joint. As the premise for MacDivorce is the consensual understanding of both spouses, it is therefore the least painful.

Before I proceed further, I must add this disclaimer: Nothing in this article is meant to ridicule, belittle or undermine the seriousness of marriage vows. This article is written in the hope of helping anyone contemplating divorce understand a little bit of what is often a heart wrenching and painful process. The matter sets out here is strictly from my experience in the course of my practice and is not meant to reflect anyone else’s opinion/ experience/ practice.

Ingredients

Before your case can qualify for MacDivorce, it must have the following “ingredients”:
a) You must have been married for at least 3 years;
b) You must have been separated for at least 3 years;
c) Your spouse must consent to the divorce;
d) There must be no matrimonial property like a HDB flat;
e) There must be no child/children to the marriage;
f) Both parties are Singapore citizens and are residing in Singapore;
g) Both parties are of age and of sound mind;
h) The marriage was contracted in Singapore;
i) Parties have worked out all the terms relating to maintenance, assets and legal costs;
j) There is full co-operation and prompt response time by both parties.

Procedure , Time and Resource

Note: The time listed is an estimate only of the shortest possible time required and is only as good as parties’ full co-operation and prompt response. This includes the Court’s response time.

If your case satisfies all the above, then this is how your matter is likely to proceed if you engage a lawyer:

Step 1: Set up an appointment with a lawyer to brief him/her of your case (1-2 hours)

Step 2: The lawyer will write to your spouse informing him/her that you intend to commence divorce proceedings based on 3 or 4 year separation. The letter (“the Letter”) also sets out the terms of settlement where issues like maintenance, assets and legal costs (i.e. who bears how much) are concerned. The Letter will seek your spouse’s consent to the divorce and the settlement terms by asking your spouse to sign the enclosed Consent and the Letter and then returning both documents to the lawyer. (1-2 working days)

Step 3: Preparation of the court documents will commence and drafts will be sent to you for your approval or confirmation (1-5 working days)

Step 4: Upon receipt of the Letter, duly signed by your spouse and after all the drafts have been approved by you, the papers will be filed with the Family Court through the Electronic Filing System (1 working day)

Step 5: When the Court returns with the suit number of your writ and the filing date, your spouse will attend at the lawyer’s office to accept service of the documents and to sign the Draft Consent Order (setting out the terms of settlement stated in the Letter) (3-5 working days depending on spouse’s schedule)

Step 6: You will then attend at the lawyer’s office to sign the requisite documents so that you can apply for a hearing date for uncontested divorce. The hearing date given is usually about 3-6 weeks from the date of application. Draft Consent Order will be filed at the same time.

Step 7: Attend the hearing. Your spouse need not attend the hearing if he/she does not want to.

Step 8: Your lawyer will extract the Interim Judgment (3-5 days after the divorce hearing)

Step 9: 3 months later, your lawyer will apply for the Interim Judgment to be made final and the divorce is officially completed.

Conclusion

Most law firms will be prepared to fix their costs and disbursements for divorce matter of this nature. In my practice, the cost range for this kind of divorce matter is my firm’s lowest for divorce matter.

Total time taken from the day you are ready to meet your lawyer (all ingredients met) to Final Judgment is about 4 ½ – 5 months (see proviso above).

In 1999, two young lawyers from a prestigious US law firm were asked by the firm’s corporate client to research the availability of legal cases on the Internet. Why? The client did not want to pay the firm’s high legal research bills.

The result – an online legal research service called Fastcase (www.fastcase.com). It uses computer algorithms to perform the case indexing normally done by human editors at Westlaw and LexisNexis (affectionally called “Wexis” by industry players). The two lawyers, Philip Rosenthal and Edward Walters, through Fastcase are attacking Wexis’ stranglehold on legal research.

Free Law

Fastcase is not alone. A mix of for-profit and not-for-profit sites have similar missions: including PreCydent (www.precydent.com), Public.Resource.org (public.resource.org), Legal Information Institute (www.law.cornell.edu) and Casemaker (www.casemaker.us). Such sites collect digital version of case laws that traditionally fill the shelves of law libraries in the US. What do such sites do with these collections?

Fastcase is offering them at a very low subscription to users – it sells bulk subscriptions to the US state bar associations for as little as US$2 per subscriber per year, a ‘no brainer’ for US law firms to at least try it out.

Public.Resource.Org is offering them for free download and incorporation into other sites, irrespective of whether they are for free or on a commercial basis. For example, Columbia and Colorado Law Schools have announced they will incorporate the information in their free altlaw (www.altlaw.org) service. A number of commercial legal research providers have announced they will incorporate this data in their services. Public.Resource.Org is the brainchild of Carl Malamud. He is a data-access advocate who in the mid-1990s started putting Securities & Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filings online for free. The SEC later took up his idea and created the Edgar online service. Malamud also prodded the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to do the same with patents in 1998.

Casemaker offers the cases to its State Bar Association Consortium members. Bar associations who choose to sign up as Consortium members can provide exclusive and unlimited access to Casemaker to its members. The Casemaker on-line search engine allows users to search and browse a variety of legal information such as statutes, codes, rules, and case law on the web.

The Legal Information Institute (“LII”) offers free access to US legal materials. LII is a research and electronic publishing activity of the Cornell Law School.

The open source law reflected in the ‘LII’ phenomena has spread its wings around the world – there are about 12 or 13 other similar institutes around the world, including WorldLII (www.worldlii.org), ComLII (www.comlii.org) and the renoun AustLII (www.austlii.org). Over 270 databases from 48 jurisdictions in 20 countries were included in the initial release of WorldLII. Databases of case-law, legislation, treaties, law reform reports, law journals, and other materials are included and are free.

Bigger law firms will continue to use Wexis for a long time. The established vendors have the most current and comprehensive databases. But Fastcase and similar websites can be used for quick searches and to cross-check citations and has a phenomenal niche serving smaller firms that can’t afford Wexis.

Legal Research 2.0

The arduous task ahead for such legal research sites begins with digitising all of the court records. Computers then have to be programmed to determine whether a holding in a case has been overruled or altered by a subsequent decision; a task presently carried out by an army of lawyers and editors at Westlaw, Lexis and other law reporters around the world.

Interestingly, what lawyers do when researching legal materials (ie. Looking through old court decisions to find arguments that will help their cause; Ranking those cases according to a well-established hierarchy: decisions that have been cited frequently by other judges are considered more reliable than ones that nobody cites; appeals courts rank higher than trial courts; recent decisions trump old, stale ones) is quite similar to what Google’s software algorithms do with Web sites. Google’s servers use similar logic, ranking Web sites according to how many other sites link to them and how lofty the referring sites are in the ranking.

This similarity struck Thomas Smith, a professor at the University of San Diego School of Law. His research showed that citations display a highly skewed distribution, similar to that of links among Web sites. Out of 4 million cases he studied, 400,000 weren’t cited at all, and 773,000 were cited only once. Only 0.3% had been cited more than 500 times.

Smith and Tomarchio (the mathematician who assisted him) used this knowledge to develop a free legal search engine called PreCydent. In tests Smith and others have shown that PreCydent turns up those cases legal experts consider the most authoritative more reliably than any of the existing legal-research services.

Fastcase is working on new ways to display data, including a chart that sorts cases by relevance and time. Type in a search term or phrase and Fastcase displays a field of circles. The largest circles will probably be around the key decisions relevant to the search term. Click on the circle and the case is displayed, with hypertext links to other cases cited within it and to cases that cite it. This is a fundamental change from the way legal research has been performed since the mid-1700s, when Sir William Blackstone revolutionised the practice of law by putting English common-law cases into categories. All modern law reporters index cases according to preset legal topics, lumping them into categories in much the same way as Blackstone did. Tradition may now be an obstacle. PreCydent and Fastcase are working on new ways of doing legal research, leveraging on smart programmers and cheap computing power.

It remains to be seen if such revolutionary ways of doing legal research will find acceptance among the conservation legal fraternity. However, after doing things the ‘usual way’ for over 200 years, what is wrong with using technology developed for the internet for making (hopefully) legal research faster, more reliable and easier?

We hear anecdotal stories of false claims made on the Internet that on the face of the article/website appear authoritative and accurate. Yet, it cannot be that everything on the Internet is bogus. So, how do we determine the wheat from the chaff?

We start by looking at some examples of false claims.

• Bogus Information
  • Example: Bogus press release distributed on newswire service. Some main-stream news media ran the story. [FBI Arrests Man in Shares Hoax, BBC News, 1 September 2000. (accessed 26 August 2008)]
  • Moral of the story: Bad information can appear in the news. A phone call (to the company with the press release) can save face.
• Web Scams
  • Example: Do-Not-Email registry copies the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC“) Do-Not-Call site. There is no such registry. It was set-up to solicit email addresses. [Sham Site is a Scam, Federal Trade Commission, 12 February 2004. (accessed 26 August 2008)].
  • Moral of the story: Scams abound in email and on the Web. Know who you are doing business with. Insist on a secure Web page for the submission of personal information.
• Falsified Research
  • Example: Articles published, and patents submitted, based on misrepresented research data. [Scientific Fraud Found at Bell Labs, Associated Press, 26 September 2002. (accessed 26 August 2008)].
  • Moral of the story: Professional publications are not immune to bad information. Skepticism and verification are your best defenses.
• Illicitly Edited Works
  • Example: Hacker edited several stories at Yahoo News for 2 months. [Yahoo News Hacked, Security Focus, 18 September 2001. (accessed 26 August 2008)]
  • Moral of the story: Electronic information can be changed surreptitiously after publication. Skepticism and verification is your best defence.
• Bad Information in Print
  • Example: Error in instructions in “Dummies Book” for making lye created a burn hazard. [Recall of Dummies Book, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 15 October 2003. (accessed 26 August 2008)]
  • Moral of the story: Errors appear in print too.
• Hoax Sources
  • Example: Con artist duped Slate reporter into publishing two diary entries he thought came from the CEO of BMW, Americas. [Who Is Robert Klinger? Slate, 12 March 2002. (accessed 26 August 2008)]
  • Moral of the story: Check out (verify) sources. Don’t rely exclusively on email for communication. Consult a technician if you suspect the source of an email.
• Unreliable or Inaccurate Sources
  • Example: Health Grades provides physician profiles. Rocky Mountain news found they were accurate only 42 percent of the time. Profiles or reports on people are often inaccurate because of errors in reporting information. [Analysis Gives Health Grades Flunking Marks, Rocky Mountain News, 16 October 2004. (accessed 26 August 2008)]
  • Moral of the story: Get information from the primary source when possible, which in this case, is the state medical board. Always verify information, especially information about people.

Now that we know what is bad, how do we tell what is good? Use the non-exhaustive list of things to look out for as a guide.

How To Evaluate And Verify the Information

• Identify the Source: Who is providing the information?
  • Check domain ownership using Whois look-ups.
  • Learn how to decode a Web address and detect Web site spoofing.
  • Read “about us” and author bios.
  • Examine links to and from other Web sites.
  • Anyone can publish a Web site.
  • Examples illustrating source identification:
    • Clearly indicated: GigaLaw
    • Multiple sources different from site owner: AllRefer.com
    • Masked: Gatt.org
• Discover the Source’s Expertise: Is the source an expert or authority?
  • Examine credentials in author bios and “about us” pages.
  • Examine grammar and spelling.
  • Examine links to and from other Web sites.
  • Look for other publications by the author or publisher.
  • Independently verify credentials.
  • College degrees-call registrar’s office
  • Professional associations-check professional directory
  • Is the person cited as an expert in the news or trade literature?
  • Has the person published articles in trade literature or peer-reviewed publications?
• Determine the Level of Objectivity: Does the source provide a balanced viewpoint?
  • Examine the writing style. Is it trying to influence your opinion?
  • Examine the advertising. Does it influence the content?
  • Lack of objectivity does not necessarily mean the source provides substandard information. A persuasive writer intends to win your favor. S/he might use good facts and analysis to do so.
• Establish the Date of Publication: Is the information current at the time of publication?
  • Examine creation and revision dates. Do not rely on dates provided by search engines.
  • Review facts and analysis in historical context.
  • Assess the writing for time-sensitive information. Be cautious about descriptive words such as always, never, all, none and most.
  • Be aware of scripting that creates the current date (display source code to detect)
  • Stay away from undated information whether it is presented as fact or commentary.
• Verify What the Information Claims: Can you find two or more reliable sources that provide the same information?
  • Use primary sources (sources that originate information) for facts.
  • Secondary sources (sources that interpret facts) should provide cited references.
  • Look for cited references.
  • Reliable sources meet all the quality criteria stated below.

Criteria for Quality in Information

• Scope of Coverage
  • Scope of coverage refers to the extent to which a source explores a topic. Consider time periods, geography or jurisdiction and coverage of related or narrower topics.
  • Tip: When seeking information about the scope of coverage of a database, look for dates and information about excluded materials. Does the database cover the period of time of interest to you? Does it exclude select articles because of copyright licensing issues?
• Authority
  • Authority refers to the expertise or recognized official status of a source. Consider the reputation of the author and publisher. When working with legal or government information, consider whether the source is the official provider of the information.
  • Tip: Authors recognized as experts amongst their peers are usually cited and reviewed in the literature. If a source claims official status (e.g., Singapore National Printers performs the role of the Singapore Government Printer), you should be able to verify the claim.
• Objectivity
  • Objectivity is the bias or opinion expressed when a writer interprets or analyzes facts. Consider the use of persuasive language, the source’s presentation of other viewpoints, the reasons for providing the information and advertising.
  • Tip: All writing, except for the dissemination of pure facts, contains a certain amount of bias. Does the source provide a balanced point of view? Does the author want to influence change? Is the advertising influencing the content?
• Accuracy
  • Accuracy describes information that is factually irrefutable and complete. Consider the editing and publishing policy of the source. Is it peer-reviewed? Does it fact-check before publishing?
  • Tip: You should be able to verify factually correct information. Are there two or more reliable sources that provide the same information?
• Timeliness
  • Timeliness refers to information that is current at the time of publication. Consider publication, creation and revision dates. Beware of Web site scripting that automatically reflects the current day’s date on a page.
  • Tip: The information provided might have been current at the time it was published. Can you establish the publication date? Does the revision date cover changes in content or aesthetic revisions only?

Hopefully the above will help a budding online researcher obtain more accurate, credible and authoritative information while researching on the Internet.

NB: This article was first published in the August 2008 issue of The Law Gazette. It is a personal account of Ong Tay & Partners’ involvement in Project Law Help, an initiative started by the Law Society of Singapore where law firms provide pro bono services to approved Voluntary Welfare Organisations (“VWO”). For more information on Project Law Help, please access The Law Society of Singapore’s website at http://www.lawsociety.org.sg/Default.aspx

Ong Tay & Partners

I have been in practice since 1989. I have always known (since I was 12, according to my mum) that I will run my own business by the time I turn 26. So, after 2 years of being an LA, I joined Ong Ying Ping (Ong & Associates) and so began Ong Tay & Partners. Lim Seng Siew joined us in 1995 and “filled the space for “Partners”. In many unexpected ways, this turned out to be a durable partnership.

All the partners share some fundamental values where practice is concerned- some of them from our personality, many through each other’s influence. Such as the belief that a well rounded lawyer must have some experience in litigation, best acquired when we 1st started out – when our skins are still thick, (hopefully) less egotistic and more idealistic. All the partners therefore have some court experience and then we branched out to something else. In any event, all 3 of us have experience in corporate, conveyancing matter and litigation work.

Both Seng Siew and Ying Ping have been doing community service work since early on in their practice. They were members/chairperson etc of Law Society’s various committees from time to time. Ying Ping even served in the council for 2 years.

It is probably no coincidence that our office has always been just a stone’s throw from Law Society. In Colombo Court, we were practically neighbours and remain so even now, good fences notwithstanding. My 2 partners have influenced me greatly on it comes to pro bono work.

Sometime in the year 2000, the 3 of us with some friends started a legal portal. Although that venture (wwlegal.com) did not succeed, that experience forms the foundation for many of the new visions of OTP, including our philosophy on pro bono work.

Lawyers and Pro Bono Work

I was one of those who thought I could not do pro bono work, not because of lack of interest but because I was too busy, busy, busy. How do you fit in your family, your work and our friends into a 24 hour day and still have time?? This was till I joined Singapore Association of Women Lawyers (“SAWL”) (at a friend’s introduction) sometime in the early 1990s when I met women lawyers with children, their own practice and who made time to do free counselling work at least once a fortnight, compile material to help the public understand the law and give free talks at seminars on divorce, wills etc.

Nonetheless, I was young then and felt the need for more active involvement in other areas, such as publishing more articles and pamphlets. I left SAWL after 1 term.

What I failed to realise until later, was that sometime, what the public needs is not just words and voices, but time. Time from a lawyer who will sit down and give them some guidance as to what the next step should be. Back then in 1994, the internet was still not widely used and many people do not know who to turn to. Even today, many people still do not know where to go. Lawyers who make the time (the ultimate priceless commodity) so that these people have someone to turn to, will always have my greatest admiration. Where I am concerned, of these small group of lawyers, those who counsel individuals rank 1st in terms of “Admirability” because not only are they giving up precious time but they demonstrate true patience and compassion.

When we started wwlegal.com, it was also our vision toward making legal information free for the public. The website had articles on legal issues written by lawyers, free for the public. We believe that a lawyer’s role should involve the value-added service of analysing the client’s problem and providing a solution and not just to inform their client what the law is.

I think pro bono work must be a necessary aspect of each and every lawyer’s job scope, even if it to provide legal information for free. With the advent of the internet, most of us can now do this.

Ong Tay & Partners and Project Law Help (“PLH”)

We volunteered as one of 4 pioneer law firms in May 2004.

I am a big fan of the concept of PLH because

a) Law Society does the screening for who is deserving of free legal advice

b) VWOs are the recipients and this is a new focus as there are already many avenues for individuals to receive legal aid

We were paired with All Saint’s Home, a hospice for the aged. When we were 1st introduced, my partners and I paid a visit to the hospice and met with the CEO and their staff who hosted an informal lunch at their canteen. We were brought around the place and we learnt of how they run their organisation. It was good to actually see what goes on with your VWO, meet everyone and learn what are their needs and concern.

We learnt that our VWO is like most non profit organisations in Singapore. Funding is limited and they still have to worry about generating enough income to cover certain overheads. Issues like children who left their parents at the home without paying (even when they can afford to) etc is prevalent.

The 1st thing we tried to do together was not “legal” at all. We introduced All Saints Home to one of our clients who was holding a special event and wish to nominate a charity to donate some of their proceeds. It went very well. We also introduce them to work with the Rotary Club that Ping was a member of and some canned food was donated to the hospice.

Then we started giving legal advice. In the past three years, we have worked with them on improving the organisation’s T&Cs when patients are admitted and their indemnity forms. We also gave advice like when their patients or their family have problems with managing the estates of these patients and how to apply for committee of estates and persons etc. In many ways, the ability to help the hospice’s patients is also helping the hospice because the family members are then able to utilise some of the patient’s savings to pay the hospice.

Ms Surin Lee, who is the social service officer will email me or call me whenever she needs some legal advice. Almost always she will email me 1st and as far as I can, I will respond within three days. Surin is very understanding and knows that my work will have to come first and there are days when I am involved in hearing/ trials and I cannot get back to her. I will email her to let her know my schedule and when I can get back to her by and it has worked quite nicely for me.

How Can We Improve?

There are still limitations to how much we can do. For instance, law firms face concerns as to possible conflicts of interests in acting for the VWOs and the patients’ or care recipient’s family. It sometimes seems as if we are unable to follow through with our advice and provide the solutions. In the beginning, we tried referring them to other lawyers but often, it does not work out for a variety of reasons.

In the course of our experience with Project Law Help, we realise the following:

a) Different VWOs will have different needs

b) These needs change with time

c) Although we are working with VWOs sometimes their legal needs are very personal

I guess at the end of the day, if PLH provides an effective channel for communication between VWO, Law Society and their assigned lawyers so that we are able to hear their needs and are able to respond with what to do, we have helped them.

Surin told me that they would only come to me when they have very tricky and more complex cases. If there is a place they can go to, without having to “trouble” us for legal information relating to their work, this will be helpful. So I guess we are back to the free information, pro bono aspects of a lawyer’s role.

The issue of providing some basic information on the website were already implemented by Law Society e.g. some FAQs on PLH etc and their Know Your Law section.

The next step may be to provide even more detailed articles on the website specific issues relating to VWO.

Conclusion

Our partnering with All Saints Home has been good and an eye opener for me. We now have more queries from other organisations like social workers handling AIDs patients’ matters. It is satisfying when I am able to help the family members. Caregivers are tasked with such stressful demands.

It is corny but I do feel that practice only means something when you can help someone. To be able to make someone happy is a great gift and we must cherish our opportunities. PLH may not be able to make our VWOs happy but we definitely can help make them less unhappy.

After Mrs Tan voted on Election Day, she returned home to find an e-mail from none other than the Prime Minister of Singapore (prime_minister@gov.sg). He thanked her for her vote and promised to address her concerns of education and rising cost of living. She was a little disturbed, but as it turned out the sanctity of her secret ballot hadn’t been compromised. Someone (her husband) had merely sent her a spoofed e-mail.

E-mail is considered “spoofed” when the e-mail address in the “From” field is not that of the actual sender. Believing what you read in spoofed e-mail can cause huge embarrassment. So if you receive an e-mail from Mr Lee Hsien Loong or a man purporting to be an executive of a European carmaker offering you a free car, it might not be on the level. The bad news is that it’s not very hard to spoof e-mail. The good news is that it can usually be detected – if you know what to look for.

To detect spoofed e-mail you need to understand how e-mail messages are sent on the Internet.

• First, your e-mail program (e.g. Outlook, Eudora, Hotmail) sends the message to an SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) server, a computer that understands how to relay your message.
• Then, the message is relayed from SMTP server to SMTP server across the Internet.
• When the message arrives at its penultimate destination, the e-mail is stored in the recipient’s mailbox at a POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) server. The POP3 server is a type of e-mail server that provides a temporary mailbox to leave messages so they can be picked up by the recipient’s e-mail program.
• Finally the message is fetched by an e-mail program (e.g. Outlook, Eudora, Hotmail), so the recipient can read it.

Like a well-paid courier, SMTP just passes along what it was given. If Mr Tan tells Outlook that his e-mail address is prime_minister@gov.sg, neither Outlook nor the SMTP server provided by the Internet service providers (ISPs) have any way to verify that this is true. If the Outlook settings are changed to say that the e-mail address is clown@circus.org, Outlook happily sends this email to Mrs Tan. Some ISPs configure their e-mail servers to be more restrictive about the e-mail they’ll accept, attempting to verify the veracity of the sender’s address, but a determined spoofer usually knows how insert e-mail further along the transmission chain.

However, every e-mail message contains details of its transmission history in a hidden component known as a “header”. By viewing the header and doing a little detective work you can usually spot the telltale signs of spoofed e-mail.

Investigating suspicious e-mail messages is a relatively technical process. You start by checking the headers. Use your e-mail program to view the header information of the e-mail message. Email headers looks like gobbledygook. You just have to learn to read it.

Looking at the header, the first thing to check is the “From” field, which will look like one of these:

From: Lee Hsien Loong (prime_minister@gov.sg)
From: prime_minister@gov.sg (Lee Hsien Loong)
From: Lee Hsien Loong

Look for a discontinuity between the friendly name and the e-mail name. If the friendly name is “Lee Hsien Loong” but the e-mail address is spammer@spoof.com, or if the e-mail name is missing entirely, the e-mail message may be spoofed. But a sophisticated spoofer won’t make this simple mistake.

Next, look at the “Received” fields. Each time the message gets relayed through an SMTP server, a new “Received” field is added, and you read them bottom-to-top. The bottom one might look like this:

Received: from PMOffice ([111.333.555.777]) by PMOfficeMail (MailProgram v9.7) with SMTP id 1-2-3-4-5 PMOfficeMail PMOfficeMail@PMOffice for ; Fri, 8 Aug 2008 08:08:08 +0800

Supposedly, this details the original sending of the message from the sender’s e-mail program to their ISP’s (or company’s) SMTP server. However it can be forged. If the message purports to be from “gov.sg” but you see names like “spoof.com” you should be suspicious. Also look up the sender’s IP address, i.e. ‘111.333.555.777’ in the “Received” line. At Windows command prompt type:

Nslookup 111.333.555.777

This will likely tell you the name of their SMTP server. Another tool to use is:

Tracert 111.333.555.777

This lists the network route from your computer to the IP address indicated. Look for suspicious server names or clues to geographical locations. Again, you’re looking for discontinuities. However, again don’t be surprised if the IP address is useless since a spoofer can do some Internet magic to make it useless.

You can continue with this sort of detective work up through the different “Received” fields. If you are lucky you can track down the e-mail address and ISP of the true sender and get the spoofer kicked off their ISP. Most ISPs have a dedicated e-mail address for abuses or complaints.

Sometimes the simplest way to unmask spoofed e-mail is by responding to it. If the spoofed address doesn’t exist, it may bounce back undeliverable. But if the spoof e-mail address does exist, such as prime_minister@gov.sg, don’t be surprised if your message generates an automated returned message along the lines of “thanks for writing.” Remember not to use your e-mail to do this. Use a temporary e-mail created with one of the free e-mail service providers.

Why didn’t the designers of e-mail spoofing from the beginning? The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol was designed in the early 1980′s. Then the Internet was the purview of academia and government agencies, and as such, there was no cause to consider security. It provided for no formal verification of sender. It was assumed that everyone will do the right thing. Developers also wanted to keep things simple and identity authentication complicate matters. Besides, standards for authenticating identity on the Internet didn’t exist back then and for the most part still don’t. Finally, spoofing e-mail has legitimate uses. For instance, you have an account, yourname@isp.net, but you want all replies to go to yourname@myserver.com. You can spoof yourself so that all the mail sent from the isp.net account looks like it came from your myserver.com account. If anyone replies to your email, the reply would be sent to yourname@myserver.com. This is also helpful if you temporarily use a Web-based email account but want the replies to go to your regular email address.

Given today’s e-mail infrastructure, there’s not much that can be done to prevent spoofing. Companies and organizations can tighten up their mail servers. This just makes it a little more difficult for spoofers, not impossible. If you are in a situation where the authenticity of the sender must be established and it is someone you are already in communication with, you can agree to use PGP or other encryption programs when exchanging e-mail messages. Encryption protects messages from tampering and positively identify the sender. A promising sign is the emergence of programs that attempt to authenticate, filter or tag e-mails, but these have yet to be widely embraced by ISPs (although the US and other governments – with good reason – are pursuing them avidly).

Until then, be wary if you get the unexpected mail from the Prime Minister of Singapore offering to drop by your neighborhood and personally ‘feel your pain’.

Foreword by OTP- To herald the New Year, we have created a new category of articles under “Miscellaneous Information” called “Other Professions”. Here, you can find contributions on non-law topics by other professionals in their field. Although these articles may not deal specifically with legal issues, we hope the information provided can nonetheless help our readers avoid the often stressful and expensive legal disputes following uninformed choices. Our disclaimer continues to apply.

Mr Wan Yew Fai is the Chief Financial Officer of Mason Works Pte Ltd. More information about his company can be found at http://www.masonwks.com/.

Badges of Disaster

Many people shudder in fear when they realize they have to take charge of a fit out project. It is not uncommon to hear of unhappiness with one’s interior designer or main contractor in retrofitting or construction contracts.

My word of advice:-Don’t be afraid but don’t hire a nightmare either. Here are some tips to avoid hiring someone who has neither the discipline nor equipment or skills in the trade.

The Signs-: Each sign may not be significant or conclusive. However, bear in mind that many insignificant factors, taken collectively, can add up to something big! I have listed some of these warning signs which I am labelling here as “Symptoms” for you. (Please note that the conclusions stated here are at best likely, always only a possibility and never foregone, so please do not take it as the Gospel Truths. These are however observations I have made over the years in this business with feedback from our customers as support.)

Symptom 1:

Says one thing and does another – the game seems to be constantly changing. Things either seem incomplete or inaccurate.

Possible conclusion:

This person is not sure about the trade but is afraid to admit it. He checks around with his subcontractors and friends only to find out that he is wrong and now needs to retract. It may be an indication of a person who is trying to wiggle out of a promise when things are not in his favour.

Symptom 2:

Says that everything can be done no matter how far-fetched it seems.

Possible conclusion:

This person may have very little project experience. You’ve got to dig deeper with him and chances are many of his renovation ideas cannot be implemented. The project is unlikely to turn out like he said it would (or worse, it may even look awful). When you complain about it, he is likely to twist the facts and make it sound like it was YOUR ideas or instructions in the first place or blame the failure to realise his fantastic schemes on “your low budget”, a budget he did not seem to have any problems with when he tried to get your business.

Symptom 3:

No prompt respond even if it is a simple query.

Possible conclusion:

This is the guy who takes on more than he can chew. He may be cheap but the real price that you will have to pay is TIME! Delay in handing over is common. This means unhappy customers and slow or no payment from them, resulting in financial difficulty for his company. This often leads to shortcuts or unfinished work.

Symptom 4:

Concerns more with what you can do for him (i.e. getting paid) than what he can do for you.

Possible conclusion:

This is a sign that the company is already in financial difficulty and is unlikely to be able to fulfil their end of the bargain with you. You should try and conduct a financial check on the company before you engage his services. He may only be interested in getting his deposit from you so that he can fund the losses he has incurred somewhere else.

Symptom 5:

A flashy lifestyle crammed with expensive social activities and very little time for honest hard work.

Possible conclusion:

I know I am being controversial here and I stress that this is only my very personal view and I have no intentions of casting aspersions on how others should do their business.

The caution here is to realise that everything has a price and that the price of your designer’s expensive taste is likely to be coming out from your pocket. This price is too high only if you are not getting your money’s worth. If he has neither the time nor the energy to run your project properly after a night of heavy partying, my advice is, don’t pay this price.

Symptom 6:

Unable to use IT tools.

Possible conclusion:

Unfortunately, in this era of e-filing, e-application and e-submissions, this may mean taking more time to get you your permits and licences. Further, with the advances of IT, better 3D presentations, drawings and communication tools can be made available to you, saving you time and eventually money. This is especially crucial for commercial construction contracts.

Symptom 7:

Instead of recommending solutions like an expert, he waits for you to instruct and tell him what to do – even on technical matters.

Possible conclusion:

It’s an inexperienced and unskilled person you are dealing with: He’s not likely to be able to come up with some creative ideas or solutions – you might as well be the designer.

You do not want to engage someone and then see these symptoms and say “Uh-oh, I am in trouble now”. Assess your ID providers carefully and these are some of the qualities you want to see in him:

1. Good creative mind with a willingness and passion to learn;

2. Ability to understand technical matters;

3. Ability to do detailed planning – the key word being “detailed”;

4. Skills in IT for prompt applications, submissions and drawings;

5. Disciplined, calm, thorough, organized and responsible personality;

6. Willingness to spend the time to monitor and follow up on your project;

7. Financial acumen for proper budget planning and accurate cost assessment

All successful relationships take at least 2 willing participants and the following are the qualities your ID provider wants to see in you:

1. Recognition and acceptance that everything has a price. Quality or timeliness often means higher initial outlay but lower long term costs. Cutting costs almost always means compromising or worse, cutting corners.

2. Clear leadership at your end. There must be one instructing party and one set of instructions. Too many chiefs with differing views can only confuse and confound and your project will end up messy and incoherent.

3. Stay the course. By all means, take more time to plan (bearing in mind the delay cannot then be attributed to your designers) but once you have made the decisions and given the go ahead to proceed with the works, don’t waver or change your mind without good reasons. Always remember: Changes =Variation Orders = Additional Costs both in terms of money and time. Too many changes also often result in mistakes and the person who suffers will be you.

I took on this case as a favour for a friend, a lawyer herself. She had represented this couple, Mr. and Mrs. Ang, in 2 of their previous adoption proceedings. It is a rare case as both the children, a boy and a girl, were from the same natural parents, Teck Ann and Wendy who are not married.This time, Teck Ann and Wendy again wanted to give up their youngest child, a 1½-year-old girl for adoption. They approached my friend to enquire if the Angs might also wish to adopt this child as well. The Angs were thrilled and agreed immediately.

My lawyer friend thought it might be better if another lawyer represent the Angs as she felt that she was getting too “closely-involved” with the case. I agreed to take it up.

We arranged to meet at my friend’s office at 7pm one Friday with all the adoption papers prepared for the signatures of Teck Ann and Wendy, the natural parents. This was also to be the night they would be handing the little girl over. Forever.

It was a night I would never forget.

That evening, I saw Teck Ann and Wendy come with the girl, a most adorable child. Chubby with a full head of rich curly hair she had huge, intelligent eyes and a ready smile. I was completely won over.

There was also an eleven-year-old boy, Meng, with them. I later found out from my friend that Meng was Wendy’s eldest son from a previous marriage and that Wendy had been through a bitter legal battle against her ex-husband before the Court awarded custody of the boy to her. “Ironic, isn’t it?” my friend said. “But perhaps that was why he was the only child who had not been given up”, she remarked wryly. My friend was very sweet to Meng and asked him how he was. He answered timidly that he was fine. He seemed like a really obedient child, ever at his parents’ every beck and call.

Wendy went through a list of things about the girl’s habits with us (she ate three times a day, and was given rice as they had no money to buy milk, the things she liked and didn’t, the doll that she slept with, etc.). Toys were brought to keep her occupied and her favourites were pointed out to us so that we knew which ones would pacify her.

All this time, Meng carried the little girl and exchanged baby talk with her. But soon it came time to say goodbye. Needless to say, it was a very emotional moment for Teck Ann, Wendy and Meng. We told them they had to leave the office and its vicinity (anonymity was crucial, and we had to make sure that they were not following us or could see where we were heading when we sent the child to her adoptive parents). After another half an hour, the family reluctantly left. The baby started screaming for them immediately. We tried to pacify her as none of us were comfortable with the prospect of having to bring a hysterical baby downstairs, especially me. I felt really guilty, as if I was to blame for the separation. We eventually gave up when it was clear that the baby was not going to stop. I remembered then why I gave up family law in the first place.

My friend drove up to the front of her office building and very quickly, we bundled up the wailing baby into her car. Shenton Way was deserted as it was already close to nine o’ clock.

Suddenly, my friend exclaimed in dismay, “Oh no, look who’s hiding behind the tree, that one in front of that office building…” I looked ahead and saw the figures of Teck Ann, Wendy and Meng huddled together. From where I was sitting, they seemed to be crying. The boy was clutching his mother’s skirt, sobbing uncontrollably, eyes locked on us as we drove by. They stood there without moving for a long time, even after our car sped past. To this day, it is impossible to recall that moment without fighting back the tears.

The baby never stopped crying even after we reached the adoptive parents’ house. When Mrs. Ang saw the child, she was speechless. Tears welling in her eyes, she quickly brought the child up to her room. Mr. Ang told us that they had a really anxious night. Right up to the last moment, they feared that Teck Ann and Wendy would change their minds and the baby would never arrive.

Just then two laughing children came dashing out into the living room, one of them in his BMW toy car and the other in a tricycle. They looked at my friend expectantly and asked, “Where’s the baby? Where’s the baby?” Mr Ang explained that the baby was upstairs and no one was to disturb her for a while.

We settled down to coffee while the children showed off their toys to us. “Every time I look at these two children, I know what I have done was worth it.” my friend said to me as Mr Ang went to the kitchen to bring us refreshments.

I had to agree. It was clear that these children were loved and well taken care of. Home was a nice landed townhouse with a lush garden. Mrs. Ang had willingly given up a career to be a full time mother. You cannot but think: it will be a wonderful environment for the children.

My friend sighed and continued: ” Do you know that Meng has never been to school? Teck Ann told me they had no money. I have told them about getting government aid but nothing has been done.”

I was shocked. The stark contrast between Meng’s life and his siblings’ was just too overwhelming. My heart simply went out to him.

How will he grow up? What kind of a person will he become? At this tender age and under such circumstances, he had already suffered the pain of losing a sibling three times. How will all this affect him eventually?

I felt really tired and emotionally drained. I looked at my watch; it was well past midnight. The children had disappeared and my friend and I decided to go upstairs to say our goodbyes.

Everyone was in the master bedroom. The 3 kids were on the queen-sized bed playing with each other with mummy looking on.

Mrs. Ang smiled softly when she saw us. “It’s a miracle,” she said, “the baby stopped crying immediately when she saw my boy. She started calling him Kor-kor (term for “brother”). I think she must have thought that he was the other boy.”

She looked down at the kids and added quietly, “I think everything’s going to be all right”.

I think so too.

Postscript:

The reason I share this with you is to show that certain situations are not so clearly black or white. It is the grey area surrounding such situations that affects us the most and reaches for our humanity. Hopefully, this experience will also illustrate the fact that there are many lawyers, not unlike my friend, who walk this moral tightrope with a heart. Despite their human weaknesses, they continue to strive towards what they honestly think is the best under very difficult circumstances. Which, people sometimes forget, they did not create in the first place.