Lawyering's Ins and Outs

The Starfish "An old man was walking along the beach.In the distance he saw someone who seemed to be dancing along the waves. As he got closer, he saw a woman picking up starfish and tossing them back into the ocean. "What are you doing?" The old man asked. "The sun is coming out.If I don't throw them in they will die". "But woman, there are many miles and miles of beach with starfish all along it. You can't possibly make a difference". The woman bent down,picked up a starfish and threw it back past breaking waves". "It made a difference to that one!" Like the woman in the story, the wonderful members of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society Philippines Chapter (JRCLS) desire to make a difference in the lives of those LDS members who stand injured and unprotected legally. Since its formation, the members of the Philippines Chapter have extended legal aid services under the society’s legal aid program to a number of qualified

This month is the Couchsurfing (CS) Manila Boracay Escapade of which I am invited to attend. It is in celebration of CS Lyn birthday (July 13) and the opening of her new home from July 10-15,2010 . I'm sure it will be fun so too bad I can't attend. My sadness,however,could not be compared to the sadness felt by several resort owners way back in October 2008, when the Supreme Court (SC) declared that some 400-hectare of Boracay Island as reserved forestland that cannot be subject to private ownership. In its October 8,2008 decision, the SC declared that Boracay Island is owned by the state and ruled that private claimants are ineligible to apply for a judicial confirmation of title over their occupied portions in Boracay even with their continued possession and considerable investment in the land. The SC en banc dismissed the claim of the affected residents, mostly owners of various resorts in the island, that Proclamation 1801 and its implementing circul

I got a request for legal advice on Facebook from a girl whom I do not know. She said in her email that she found my name through the internet search engine. I find it interesting and I became curious what I would find if I do search for my name. And curiosity killed the cat! There were 72,200 matches for mary ann l.ojeda in (0.16 seconds). Lotza stuff huh! One thing that I find interesting was the citation by no less than the Supreme Court of my book "Securities and Regulation Code With Annotations" in a case entitled " ABACUS SECURITIES CORPORATION versus RUBEN U. AMPIL docketed as G.R. No. 160016 promulgated last February 27, 2006. The decision was penned by then Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban. The Facts: Petitioner - Abacus Securities Corporation (" Abacus ') is engaged in business as a broker and dealer of securities of listed companies at the Philippine Stock Exchange Center.Sometime in April 1997, Respondent Ruben Ampil (1) opened a c

I am currently attending a Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) classes to complete my Compliance 3 which ended last April 14, 2010. Yea, I am late and cramming! But after this Series 49 (a full package of 36 units with Legal Advantage plus 4 units on Legal Ethics with Chan Robles Lawnet , MCLE providers), I will have 23 units credited for MCLE 4 and only need 13 units until April 14, 2013. MCLE is a continuing legal education required of members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) to complete at least thirty-six (36) hours of legal education activities every three (3) years. The first session of Legal Advantage Series 49 is on Legal Writing and Oral Advocacy which is a part of my lacking units for MCLE 3. Atty. Rose Marie King - Dominguez , a partner of SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan is the lecturer. She said that effective legal writing must be clear and useful which means discarding the " legalese ". Legalese is a law jargon, a langu

Today I had a walked - in - client who visited me at home. She is my first client to do so since I moved in our village almost 4 years ago. I don't really take on individual clients except for a few friends and those assigned to me by the J.Reuben Clark Law Society Philippines Chapter given the very busy corporate practice. Anyway, the client is a very concerned mom, who is a mother of a 7-year old girl whose SEX/GENDER was erroneously entered as MALE in her Certificate of Live Birth. She is seeking to change said minor's sex / gender before she begins school and she has been looking for a lawyer for almost two months now until she met my sister-in-law Amy who suggested that she visits me. I accepted the case. The petition is pursuant to Article 412 of the Civil Code of the Philippines which was amended by Republic Act (R.A.) No. 9048 in so far as clerical or typographical errors are involved, to wit: “ ART. 412 . No entry in the civil register shall be changed

I received a Request For Legal Assistance Form from a sister A  of Marikina City. She is asking the J. Reuben Clark Law Society Legal Aid to assist her in filing a nullity of marriage against her former husband, J . However, the review of the facts of the case finds the application of the relative divorce provision found in the second Paragraph of Section 26, of the Family Code which states: "Art. 26. All marriages solemnized outside the Philippines, in accordance with the laws in force in the country where they were solemnized, and valid there as such, shall also be valid in this country, except those prohibited under Articles 35 (1), (4), (5) and (6), 3637 and 38. (17a) Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner is validly celebrated and a divorce is thereafter validly obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry, the Filipino spouse shall have capacity to remarry under Philippine law. ( As amended by Executive Order 227 )&q