An enduring power of attorney protects your affairs in case you have a serious illness or mental incapacity. Like other types of powers of attorney, the enduring power of attorney is a legally recognized document in which you state that you wish to appoint another person to act as your agent and ...
Blog Posts
How to Evaluate Whether Your Employees Are Managers
In The Bahamas, employees who work in a managerial or supervisory position do not receive overtime pay. There are different requirements for notice and pay if you terminate these employees or make them redundant. Further, if they successfully challenge their dismissal as wrongful, they may not re...
Requirements for Securities Firm Staff in The Bahamas
Workers at firms that carry on securities business in The Bahamas must meet certain legal requirements, particularly if they are advising clients about securities. If you are looking for a securities broker or investment advisor, make sure the person you choose is following the law. If you are tr...
What Is an Authorised Purpose Trust?
The laws of The Bahamas recognize creation of an Authorised Purpose Trust, which is a unique type of trust with a non-standard beneficiary. In fact, Authorised Purpose Trusts usually do not have a single named beneficiary or group of beneficiaries. Instead they exist with the purpose of furtherin...
Overdue Child Maintenance Payments? Your Next Steps
If your ex-wife or ex-husband owes child maintenance payments, take action quickly to recover the payments. Although you may hesitate to seek court intervention due to fear that the non-custodial parent will involve your children in the dispute or stop spending time with your children, delay may ...
What Happens If You Die in The Bahamas Without a Will?
A will is a legal document that explains in writing how a person wants his assets to be distributed after his death. There are specific requirements for a will to be legally valid. It must be in writing and signed by the person making it, it must be signed in the presence of two independent witne...
Required Rest Periods for Bahamian Employees
In The Bahamas, employees may not work an excessive number of hours or days in the week without taking required rest and meal periods. Generally, the “standard hours of work” are eight hours in one day or forty hours in one week. Employees who have irregular hours due to the nature of their emplo...
Who Owns Money Deposited in a Joint Bank Account?
In a recent decision, the Privy Council considered whether money held in a joint bank account passes to the survivor upon the death of one of the accountholders, or whether the money goes to the deceased accountholder's estate. Whitlock and another v Moree [2017] UKPC 44. The account holder who d...
Anti-Money Laundering: Reporting Suspicious Transactions
Financial institutions in The Bahamas have an obligation to report suspicious transactions to the authorities. The reporting requirement serves to keep personnel alert to potential money laundering and to provide adequate notice to the authorities so that they can investigate whether money launde...
How Are Families of Companies Treated in Insolvency Proceedings?
In The Bahamas, families of companies may seek relief from the courts for insolvency. Families of companies include a parent company and subsidiaries or a series of closely related companies doing business with one another. Unlike in some other countries, The Bahamas does not permit joint insolve...
Exchange Control: How Does It Work?
Exchange control in The Bahamas affects all foreign currency transactions between Bahamian residents and residents of foreign countries. It is a series of rules that restrict the movement of foreign currency to and from The Bahamas. Companies doing business in or with The Bahamas should be aware ...
Bahamian Work Permits
Non-Bahamian citizens must acquire work permits before they can perform work for an employer in The Bahamas. The government only issues work permits under specific conditions, so expatriates seeking work here should ensure that they follow Labour Department and Department of Immigration procedure...
How Bahamian Laws Promote Modern Business Communication
The Bahamas has worked to modernize its laws for the digital age by adding provisions that promote modern business communication. For example, the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act and the Data Protection (Privacy of Personal Information) Act address the increasingly frequent role th...
Wages and the Minimum Wage in The Bahamas
In The Bahamas, the Employment Act and Minimum Wages Act explain how and when employers must pay employees their wages for hours worked. Bahamian law establishes a minimum wage and overtime wages for workers. The minimum wage in The Bahamas is $5.25 per hour. All employers must pay their employe...
How to Protect Your Business from Litigation
Although no business is truly judgment proof, you can take steps to protect your business from litigation. Staying out of court involves balancing risk. There will always be some risk of having a lawsuit filed against the business, but you can take practical and legal steps to mitigate your risk....
Dividing Property in a Divorce
When a married couple divorces, they need to consider how to divide their marital property. The court will make the ultimate decision about dividing property, but the couple or their attorneys can discuss an amicable way to accomplish the division. It can be the most emotionally difficult part of...
Can My Employees Form a Trade Union?
The Bahamas recognizes trade unions for employees. To form a trade union, employees or union officials must register the union with the Department of Labour. Trade unions must meet various requirements for operation, but employees who join a union do attain certain highly beneficial rights. Trad...
Is It Too Late to Engage in Mediation?
While many people resolve their legal disputes through early mediation, often settlement discussions happen very late in the progress of a court case. Sometimes the parties have not considered settlement until right before trial because they have many disputes about the facts of the case or the d...
We Want to Adopt a Child. Where Do We Start?
If you would like to adopt a child in The Bahamas, you have an exciting but potentially difficult road ahead. First, you should determine whether you are eligible under Bahamian law to adopt. Second, you will need to follow all steps of the adoption process. Eligibility The Adoption of Children...
When and Why to Form a Trust
There are many reasons to form a trust. A trust is a legal device that requires a settlor, the person creating the trust, to transfer assets to another person who acts as the trustee. The trustee has legal ownership but holds the assets for the benefit of beneficiaries. The beneficiaries may rece...
Unfair Dismissal from Employment in The Bahamas
In The Bahamas, every employee has the right not to be unfairly dismissed from employment. Bahamian law contains specific descriptions of possible reasons for dismissal that are unfair. Employees who feel that they have been dismissed unfairly should contact an attorney to discuss their rights. ...
Battles over Jurisdiction in International Insolvency Proceedings
When battles over jurisdiction arise in international insolvency proceedings, which country's laws will take priority? Two recent insolvency cases begun under similar circumstances led to two very different results. In the first, the Baha Mar group of companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy pr...
How Do I Seek Sole Custody of My Bahamian Minor Child?
You can seek sole custody of your Bahamian child. It can be difficult, however, to convince a court that the other parent should not have some access to the child. In general, Bahamian law permits both parents to a child born in wedlock to have a right of access to their child and considers both...
Directors’ Liability for Wrongful Trading in The Bahamas
Directors may become liable for wrongful trading if they engaged in fraudulent trading or trading while the company is insolvent. One defense to a charge of wrongful trading is that the directors took “every step” to minimize losses to creditors or contributories of the company. In a recent case ...
Taking Leave from Work: How Much and How Often?
Planning to take leave from work? Know your rights and be informed when you speak to your employer about your plans. Under Bahamian law, employees are entitled to various types of leave. See Employment Act. Sick Leave If you have been working for an employer for at least six months, you may tak...