consumer law essay (1 Viewer)

[sandra]

I got an essay asking to " ASSESS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM IN PROTECTIG CONSUMER RIGHTS "
Im having trouble keeping to the 600-800 word limit though , so i was wandering if anyone knew what are the important things i should speak about, and what is not necesary to include, cuz i got no idea...
Thx heaps..

 

[santaslayer]

I think your teacher has made a gross mistake. How can an evaluation question be of that mere length? Anyways, I think this link is adequete enough for your use:

http://www.boredofstudies.org/community/showthread.php?t=38600&highlight=consumer

Any other questions should be directed back to this thread.

 

[santaslayer]

This is in response to Sandra's PM. She couldn't open the link.


Copied from Tabris'thread on Consumer Law:

Evaluating the Effectivness of the law essay plan:

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Intro

- the effectiveness of the law can be evaluated by examing the effectiveness on individuals; equality, accessibility, enforcability, resource efficiency and recognition and protection of rights.
- For society it can be evaluated through its resource efficiency, reflection of community standards, opportunities for appeals , reviews and eforcability and balancing rights and values of society with individuals

Body

(Body 1)

- There always has been an unequal baalnce of power between indiviudals and businesses and the law atempts to rectify this problem through the creation of statute law.

- Trade practices act 1974(Cth)
- Sales of goods act 1923 NSW
- Fair Trading act 1987 NSW
- Contract review act 1980(NSW)

- These statutes attempt to balance the power between individuals and businesses in achieving justice

- These statutes set out the obligations, rights and responsibilities of the individuals and the business firms regarding the production and consumption of goods and services

- Donoghue vs Stevenson case showing the shift of power by challenging the Lassaiz faire notion creating a more equal baalnce of rights and responsibilities of consumers and businesses

- However equality is limited as individual power can not match the collective power of business firms

- Overall equality of rights and responsibilty exists in simple transactions and is effective but not in major disputes where there is a great inequality of power between individuals and trans-national businesses

(Body2)

- accessibility refers to the ability of the individual to achieve consumer redress and is essential in achieving justice as shown in Dietrcih v Queen

- accessbility to the law has increased with the introduction of ADR, mediation and conciliation and out of court settlements as well as self help programs

- This along with the department of fair trading's complaint handling has allowed greater consumer redress for individuals over the years
- the existence of legal aid has created financial support for individuals who dont have the resources to take on big businesses

- however there the effectiveness of mediation and conciliation and self help mechanisms are limited and many cases end up in court

- legal aid is limited and requires means tested and the cost and time of litigation deters many from taking action

- even if legal aid is guarenteed, the quality of representation may be of a lower standard than a rich business's lawyers

- Overall, the law can effective in providing access to simple disputes and again, complicated and large disputes deters many individuals from taking action

(Body 3)

- Enforcability refers to the effectiveness of the law in enforcing itself on soceity

- The law is effective in enforcing any domestic breaches as statute law and common law is applied in the same way as any other law

- The existence of the ACCC, ASIC and APRA monitors the markets and major business activity so any breach can be dealt with the fullest extent of the law

- However, globalisation has restricted the enforcability of domestic law as it cannot exted beyond our borders unlike businesses

- James Hardy Aesbestos case and Christopher Skase case is one example where business owners has shifted overseas and escaped major legal action

- International law is in its infant stages and cannot be effective in extradition etc.

- Overall the law can be enforced effectively domestically but not internationally

(Body 4)

- Resource efficiency has improved the time and costs of achieving jsutice and consumer redress for indivuduals

-The ACCC, dept of fair trading all provide information on consumer's rights and businesses responsibilities

- Through self-awareness of rights, individuals can use self help measures and mediation and conciliation avenues to achieve redress

- However, resources can only be efficientyl sued on a small simple scale, large matters require massive amounts of resources and time

- The bereaucracy and red tape involved in the legal system which limits the effectiveness of resource efficiency for the indivudal

- Overall resource efficiency can only be effective and useful in minor matters not large corporate legal action matters

(Body 5)

- recognition and protection of individual rights has been largely effective through the law

- Trade practices act 1974(Cth)
- Sales of goods act 1923 NSW
- Fair Trading act 1987 NSW
- Contract review act 1980(NSW)

- The department of fair trading and the ACCC recognises rights of the consumers by monitoring and making reviews of current rights with business and consumer trends

- Australia has also implemented the UN International Convenant on social and economic rights (ICSER) 1966 which protects and recognises basic human economic rights

- The ACCC and dept of fair trading and the also advocates for the consumers if the matter is beyond there comprehension

- Amadio case where the law recognised and protected Amadio's rights where the Bank attempted to take advantage through unconscionable behaviour

- the recent media case where the RBA took action against major credit card banks to stop increased card fees

- overall the law has been very effective in protecting and recognising individual rights.

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This is a rough plan of my intro and body for evaluating the effetivness of the law in teh consumer law topic

I will include effectiveness of society later

Anway what do u think of it? its for my assessment task on Monday and some feedback would be nice, if theres any problem or bad information in it plz let me know

My response was:

1) Nice introduction. You've effectively communicated what you are addressing in your essay, which forces the examiner to mark it in a way which you find suitable.

2) You should really try to be specific when citing legislation. What is the value of the pieces of legislation you are referring to?

3) Referring to other regulatory bodies such as the ACCC is nice.

4) Nice number of cases.

5) International refernces are always a winner.

6) Something about law reform is just before the conclusion is always good. What can the legal system improve?

7) Statistical information, News articles and other forms of media should be included.

8) Overall, you've raised valid points. Using other forms of authority to back up what you say is what you need to work on. Nice effort.

There.

 

[courtneyjw]

Could someone help me I have a legal essay and the question is "Evaluate the effectiveness of Consumer Law in meeting the needs of individuals and the society." and we have to refer to technology and credit
if anybody could give some advice that would be great