Month: November 2024

After the tragic loss of a loved one due to the fault of another, it is essential to deal carefully with compensation issues 

Posted on by avocad_bxgv12hf

Life is varied, not only in its joys and sorrows, but also in the extremely painful events that have lifelong consequences. Dainius Antanaitis, attorney at AVOCAD, discusses the issues of damages and loss of earnings in very painful cases where a spouse is killed in a traffic accident due to the fault of the other .

According to the lawyer, it is natural that, in the state of mind caused by such an event, the relatives of the deceased, including the spouse, are least concerned about the legal aspects of the consequences caused by the perpetrator. "However, these issues have to be dealt with very carefully. And here I would like to draw attention not to the criminal proceedings against the perpetrator who caused the accident, but to the damage caused by the death of the spouse who was not at fault for the accident," says Dainius Antanaitis.

The death caused by a road accident normally results in both material and non-material damage to the person whose spouse has been killed, which must be covered by the compulsory third-party liability insurance of the perpetrator's motor vehicle. As regards damage to property, it should be noted that it is usually understood as destruction or damage to property, loss, expenses. For example, this could be funeral expenses. However, here the lawyer reminds us of another type of property damage - loss of income.

The case law on the loss of income of a spouse due to the death of the other spouse in a road accident is quite detailed and very broad, says Dainius Antanaitis, but the key points to be aware of are:

  • Civil liability is generally imposed for damage caused, but civil liability can also be imposed for future damage that can be proven;
  • the established case-law and the presumption in law that the deceased spouse has contributed to the maintenance of the family, it can reasonably be assumed that the surviving spouse loses the share of the future income that would have accrued to the surviving spouse had the other spouse not died;
  • the loss of income is calculated as follows: determine how long the deceased spouse would have been expected to live according to the average life expectancy of the person as published by the Department of Statistics and add together the deceased spouse's total average monthly earnings and any monthly pensions he or she would have received until the end of his or her expected life expectancy, and divide the result by half.

"In simple terms, the spouse of the person killed in the accident has the right to claim from the perpetrator's compulsory third-party motor insurance ½ of the income that the deceased spouse would have earned if he or she had not been killed, i.e. up to the end of the average life expectancy," notes the AVOCAD lawyer.

However, Dainius Antanaitis, a lawyer, points out that if a middle-income earner is killed in a road accident 10 years before retirement, for example, adding up all the earnings up to the age of retirement, plus the pensions he would have received up to the end of his life expectancy, and then dividing it by two, would give a quite significant sum. Not only that, but if you add the amount of non-pecuniary damages on top of that, which can also be quite significant, the insurer may have to pay quite a lot of money to the spouse of the victim.

Naturally, insurance companies don't always pay the amount demanded without agreeing to it or part of it. In this case, the injured party should seek justice in court. "Neither the person nor the insurer can be 100% sure which way the scales of justice will tip in any particular case. Therefore, litigation does not sound attractive to either of them. And here the insurer can offer a "compromise". For example, an agreement whereby the insurer agrees to pay a solid amount of non-pecuniary damages, but in this agreement the person already refuses to claim another solid amount from the insurer - the loss of earnings," the lawyer points out an important legal point.

He said that, although case law makes it reasonable to conclude that a person is likely to recover both consequential damages and loss of earnings, a risk-averse person may choose to take the sparrow's hand by signing a contract with the insurer to resolve the issue permanently.

However, it happens that a person may realise that signing the contract was a mistake, which may have been due to a variety of reasons (e.g. emotional experiences due to the death of their spouse, lack of knowledge, etc.) and that the loss of income, which they would probably have been able to claim, is very much needed in the household and in the various life worries that they have been left with alone after the death of their spouse.

Therefore, the lawyer says, it is important to think carefully before deciding whether to sign such a compromise agreement with the insurer and to consult a lawyer if you still have doubts.

What can you do to protect yourself from unfair competition? 

Posted on by avocad_bxgv12hf

Around 14-16 thousand new legal entities are registered in Lithuania every year. For example, in 2023, 15.7 thousand new companies were registered, the highest number in the last 25 years.

Not to mention those who provide a range of services on a self-employed basis. Competition is fierce, professionals have a lot of choice and often migrate between different companies in the same field in search of a change, a higher salary or a friendlier team. In many cases, the newcomer not only has specific knowledge of the competitors' company and its characteristics, but also a close relationship with the clients of the former employer.

They are particularly welcome by competitors, even though they may not realise that they are unfairly competing with their previous employer or giving the new employer the opportunity to do so. Jonas Zaronskis , Partner at AVOCAD, tells us what company information is protected by law and what an employer can do to protect itself against unfair competition .

What company information is protected by law?

In a company, some information is usually protected by law (e.g. trade secrets) and the rest is protected by special agreements and contracts. Trade secrets are confidential data which are specific and highly significant and the use of which could in any way prejudice the rights and legitimate interests of the rightful owner of the information. Even after the termination of the employment relationship, a business secret is protected for a period of time in accordance with the law and may not be used for any purpose. According to case-law, information is considered to be a trade secret if it meets three requirements: secrecy, value (commercial value) and whether reasonable steps have been taken to preserve the information. Thus, company managers should bear in mind that the more valuable the particular information constituting a trade secret is, the more intensive the actions taken by the owner of the information to protect it must be in order for the protection to be considered reasonable.

It is very important to note that, according to case law, a company's customer list is also a trade secret. Customer data is to be protected as a trade secret if it contains information other than the name of the customer that is not available to the public, such as contact persons, decision makers, business practices, technical information to assist in the operation of the business, service and quality requirements, planned projects, solvency etc. Thus, if you leave your job and take your former employer's customers with you, you may face significant legal consequences.

Agreements on confidential information

In some cases, companies choose to include in the employment contract or in a separate agreement certain data and conditions that are treated as confidential information within the company. The agreement on the protection of confidential information must specify the data constituting the confidential information, the duration of the agreement on the protection of confidential information, and the employer's obligations to assist the employee in maintaining the confidentiality of this information. The employer and the employee may agree in the agreement on penalties for non-performance or improper performance of the agreement. The agreement on the protection of confidential information shall be valid for a period of one year after the termination of the employment relationship, unless the parties to the employment contract agree on a longer period.

When signing these types of agreements, company directors should bear in mind that the court assesses not only whether the specific confidentiality agreement has been respected, but also whether the information included in the agreement was sufficiently important and whether sufficient care was taken to preserve that information.

In practice, the terms "business secret" and "confidential information" are often used synonymously, but the relationship between these types of information is relevant for the purposes of deciding on the consequences of the disclosure or use of such information. In essence, a trade secret is a type of confidential information, but confidential information is not necessarily protected as a trade secret. An obligation to protect confidential information normally exists where it is provided for in a contract.

Is it better to patent the information or hide it as a trade secret?

However, there are two ways to protect information - you can hide it (e.g. trade secrets, confidentiality agreements, etc.) or you can make it public (e.g. patents).

As a way of protecting information, a trade secret has a number of significant advantages: the information does not have to be disclosed to anyone (e.g. registered in public registers); it is not subject to strict formal requirements (e.g. novelty, originality); etc. In addition, legal protection of trade secrets is open-ended.

So why patent information that could already be a trade secret? Trade secrets have several drawbacks: there is always the possibility that another entity will discover or create the trade secret information on its own, there is also the possibility that the information will be disclosed to another entity in a legitimate attempt to reproduce it (e.g. by trying to replicate the recipe of a drink), and there is the possibility that the trade secret may be disclosed inadvertently or intentionally.

A patent ensures that only you can make, sell or otherwise use the invention. So only you will make a profit from selling and using it. This protects the money you have invested in the invention, and you can always demand that competitors do not use the invention and pay damages. However, the owner of the invention can only enjoy this exclusive right for 20 years. Since a patent is only valid for 20 years and a trade secret is protected indefinitely, very exclusive products, such as the recipe for a Coca-Cola drink, are protected by trade secrets and not by patents.

So basically, the way you choose to protect information depends on the information itself, its importance and even the nature of your business.