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Did you ever receive email with the following content?

“Please check before it is too late.

Hope the above can help for you. Just take note. ”

In response to the above email, a senior lawyer, Mr Tong Soo Tim, had kindly shared his view as stated below:

“I have read it and find that it represents an unbalanced view of the situation and it causes me concern.

This is my addition to the partial information in the article.

In theory there is such thing as Joint Tenancy versus Tenancy in Common. This is in English and Common Civil Law. If you actually ask most bank officers in Malaysia or even some lawyers in Malaysia, they wouldn’t be able to tell you what is Joint Tenancy or Tenancy in Common. This is because we don’t have exactly the same law as in England.

I know that some Malaysian banks have something called “Survivorship Clause“. This is more easily understood….to mean that if there is 2 or more names in a joint-account, the survivor (the one who didn’t die) gets to have all the money in the joint account.

I believe, though I have not checked with all the banks, that you can ask if they have this clause. It is a separate paper for both the account holders to sign when opening, or sometimes even after the account have been opened previously, in order to say that the account holders themselves, opt for this “Survivorship Clause”.

There are pro-and-con for Joint Tenancy and Tenancy in Common. While in the email below, it draws up a scenario where it may seem like a hardship for a wife (widow) not to have access to the bank accounts directly and immediately, but the fact is that, if the widow is to have all the money, sometimes there’s no guarantee the widow is actually the rightful person to have the money.

For example, 1. The deceased has parents, and children, besides the widow. The money should be shared between all of them. 2. The widow is only family…but they are separated, and pending divorce. The deceased may have done a Will to give his money to his brothers or sisters instead of his separated wife.

The freezing of account may be frustrating and problematic in some genuine cases…but to just allow widows or widowers to take out money from their joint-accounts may cause injustice in some cases.

Another scenario could be in the case of Joint accounts between a old parent and one of his 4 or 5 children. If the joint-account holder is allowed to just take out the money, it may be a temptation for the child not to honor his old parent’s instructions to share the money with all the children. This is actually a Breach of Trust. But if the money is already taken out, and there is a blanket policy of “Joint Tenancy”, then the other children have absolutely no cause in law to challenge the “joint-account holder child”.

Hope this helps to balance the article’s point a bit. Emotional approach is appealing, but it is sometimes not accurate nor even right. While we all wish for life to be more convenient, there are usually good reasons for legal processes…the law and lawyers are not here just to make life difficult ”

In order to show our appreciation to the support of our members and to allow eLawyer members meeting face to face, eLawyer would be having a New Year Dinner Gathering 2010 at Decanter Restaurant Section 17, Petaling Jaya!

It would be held on the 6th of February (Saturday) at 6:30PM.

Front view of Decanter Section 17

This dinner gathering would be a great chance to meet, and network with, new friends or catching up on old good times with your buddies.

Besides enjoying yummy Western food, notable guest and senior practitioner have been invited to share insightful thought which would be useful to many practitioners, the topics include “How Does Personality Determine Suitable Area of Practice?” & etc…

The ambiance of the restaurant: Cozy and homely

For those wanting fresh air, a comfortable environment awaits them

A sight to behold for the alcoholic-inclined !

One of the yummy foods that’s awaiting the guests at Decanter (All the foods are Halal)

If that are not good enough, all participants would be given an Ang Pow from Mr. Eddie Law personally in conjunction with the upcoming Chinese New Year!

In order to maximize the enjoyment of all our guests, invitations to this dinner would be kept to a maximum of 50 people. As such, registration is based on 1st come 1st serve basis.

A nominal registration fee of RM10 would be charged for every participant. The registration fee including foods (Halal) and drinks.

Therefore, please R.S.V.P by emailing your name, organisation, mobile number, occupation (e.g.lawyer or pupil in chamber or law student & etc) to donald@elawyer.com.my on or before 3^rd February 2010.

Kindly bank the resgistarion fee of RM10 to our account at 3147481600 (Public Bank) on or before 3^rd February 2010. Please keep the bank-in receipt to exchange for the entrance ticket at our reception on the event day.

Dress code: casual smart.

For for more information on this event, please contact Donald at 03-2782 5399 or 016234 1177.

The following are the maps and directions of the restaurant:

VERY SHORT, MOST EFFECTIVE AND HOW TRUE…

30 seconds Speech by Bryan Dyson (CEO of Coca Cola)

“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them – Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit and you’re keeping all of these in the Air.

You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.

But the other four Balls – Family, Health, Friends and Spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for it.”

WORK EFFICIENTLY DURING OFFICE HOURS AND LEAVE ON TIME. GIVE THE REQUIRED TIME TO YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS & HAVE PROPER REST.

Being a Christian and lawyer myself, I was so excited when Joshua told me that there will be a “Malaysian Christain Lawyers Conference 2009″ held on 27 Nov 2009 at Gospel Hall, Petaling Jaya.

(from the left, Dato’ Dr Cyrus Das, Mr Lee Swee Seng, Mr Eric Cheah, Mr Lee Min Choon & Mr Yapp Hock Swee)

The conference went on well and received overwhelming response, in consideration, of the limited resources and publications for this conference.

There was more than 100 Christian lawyers attended the conference. Some participants were from East Malaysia, Korea and Australia.

I arrived before 9am in the morning. The conference started up with Praise & Worship led by Joanna Loi, followed by welcoming speech from Mr Yapp Hock Swee.

Mr Lee Swee Seng, a senior lawyer was sharing on the topic of “Mediation and Dispute Resolution in the Christian Context”.

The 2nd speaker is a lawyer from Penang, Mr Eric Cheah, who is helping the migrant workers in Malaysia, espacialy the Vietnamese workers. He shared on the topic of “Migrant Workers – Desperate for Lawyers”.

The last speaker is the well known litigation counsel, Dato’ Dr Cyrus Das. His topic was “Religious Liberty”. He was the counsel for the famous Lina Joy’s case.

After lunch, the participants was divided into 5 different groups to join the below workshops sessions:

1. How to Handle Religious Liberty Litigation? (by Mr. Steven Thiru)

2. Mediation & Reconciliation (by Mr Gregory Vijayendran)

3. Migrant Workers: Meeting Needs in a Wholistic Way (By Mr Eric Cheah)

4. using Your Role as a Lawyer for God (by Mr. Yapp Hock Swee)

5. Walking the Tightrope of Faith to True Success (by Mr Benjamin Dawson)

The organiser of the conference is associated to the Advocates International whose vision is “A worldwide fellowship of advocates bearing witness of Jesus Christ through the legal profession.”

Advocates International encourages advocates to put legs to Acts 1:8 and has reaches lawyers over 150 nations.

I am glad that I have attended this conference and through the workshops sessions I learnt about the practical manners that how a Malaysian Christian lawyer can do justice for the needy. This is a good platform to gather the Christian lawyers in Malaysia, so that in future it can mobilise the Christian lawyers to serve the needy in our society and bringing glory to our heavenly Father.

I pray that God will bless the leaders of this fellowship and am looking forward to the next fellowship.