Broken Promises: Can you sue your fiancé for breach of promise to marry?

[caption id="attachment_2494" align="aligncenter" width="403"] Source: www.diaryofsanjeev.blogspot.com[/caption]

Your boyfriend promises to marry you on different conditions: when he finds a stable job, when he saves enough money for the wedding, when he gets 28, or when he's tired of being single. Whatever it is, you patiently wait for that day to come. Then one day he said he changes his mind. He's marrying you no more.

Can you sue your fiancé for his breach of promise to marry?

Of course, yes.

But another question would be, can you compel your fiancé  to pay you for his breach of promise to marry? In legal parlance, is breach of promise to marry an actionable wrong?

How I misspelled "case"?

During our Prelim Exam in Intellectual Property Law, I misspelled a word so simple even a Kindergarten pupil can spell it. A question was asked whether or not Joe Sison, Jr.'s infringement case would prosper.

Then I wrote, "Joe Sison, Jr.'s cas will not prosper."

I admit. I won't even try to rationalize how I did it. It was sheer carelessness that I misspelled the word "case" and instead wrote "cas."

This must be one of the downside of relying too much on Spellchecker in MS Word. I have become so much dependent on it I expect red jagged lines would appear under the word every time I misspell a word.

My consolation was that only one point is deducted from my score.

Alternative Lawyers – 'Conscience of the Legal Profession'

[caption id="attachment_2476" align="alignright" width="300"] Delegates and organizers of the Basic Orientation Seminar on Legal Aid.[/caption]

When you become lawyers, in what field of the law you want to be engaged?

On the second day of the two-day Basic Orientation Seminar on Legal Aid Atty. Neil Pacamalan, Cultural Affairs Specialist for Mindanao of the US Embassy, Manila, asked that question to the delegates from the University of Mindanao and Ateneo de Davao University College of Law.

The question drew a variety of response: commercial law, criminal law, international law, labor law, among others. Few mentioned about public interest lawyering, which others call alternative lawyering or developmental lawyering.

[caption id="attachment_2478" align="alignleft" width="144"] Atty. Neil Pacamalan[/caption]

This type of lawyering, according to Atty. Pacamalan, is devoted to lending legal assistance and empowering such marginalized groups as urban poor, farmers, or fishers. He said these are the groups that are historically, culturally, and economically marginalized.

Atty. Pacamalan is convinced that involvement in alternative lawyering is not detrimental to the law students’ studies. He surmises that while UP, ADMU, and San Beda excel in the Bar Exams, the three are able to maintain a robust legal aid centers.

He said that alternative lawyering should not be a second choice only, reiterating what former Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. said.

“To me it is troubling that the lawyers who advocate such worthy causes are called the alternative,” said Davide at the First Alternative Law Conference on November 8, 1999. “An alternative is a second choice. You should be considered the mainstream, the first choice, the true and ideal lawyers. Better yet, the conscience of the legal profession.”

Help Mindanao, US Embassy official urged law students

[caption id="attachment_2469" align="alignleft" width="240"] Officials from the US Embassy, US DOJ-OPDAT, UM, and MYVC join the delegates from UM College of Law and ADDU College of Law.[/caption]

"Stop kidding around," intoned Atty. Neil Y. Pacamalan, Cultural Affairs Specialist for Mindanao, Public Affairs Section, of U.S. Embassy. "This is not for the US Embassy, but for Mindanawons."

Atty. Pacamalan was referring to the two-day Basic Orientation Seminar (BOS) on Legal Aid, which was organized by the U.S. Embassy, Manila and the Mindanao Youth Volunteer Corps. The BOS is attended by 31 law students, 21 of which come from University of Mindanao, and 10 are from Ateneo de Davao University.

[caption id="attachment_2472" align="alignright" width="240"] Atty. Neil Pacamalan, Cultural Affairs Specialist for Mindanao, Public Affairs Section, US Embassy, Manila.[/caption]

According to Atty. Pacamalan, who gave an introduction on what the purpose of the BOS is, Mindanao has a lot of problems, legal problems at that. Law students, he said, should lend their knowledge of the law to address these problems.

Acknowledging the heavy workload of a law student, Atty. Pacamalan nevertheless encouraged the students to get involved, and disabuse themselves from worrying over their petty problems.

"If you continue to stick to your selfishness," he said, "if you always think that you have no time to help others because you have to study first, then nothing will happen to Mindanao."

One way of helping the community in which law students are a part of, he said, is through establishing a Legal Aid Office, which is primarily run by law students, and working on it seriously.

"Tell us if you need our help," he said. "We will help you. But if you don't, we are not forcing you. But we are knocking on your door. Help Mindanao."

Beyond the Bar Exam

Almost everything we do in law school is for the Bar Exam. In a little while, however, a group of law students from the University of Mindanao College of Law will gather for a seminar on the establishment of a Legal Aid Office.

A Legal Aid Office, usually run by graduating law students who are supervised by law professors, primarily provides free legal assistance to those cannot afford to have one. The experience law students get from dealing with real clients and doing real legal stuff is definitely something they can use long after the Bar Exam.

The seminar will be held at Loleng's Mountain Spring Resort. It will last from February 02 to 03, 2013. It will be sponsored by the U.S. Embassy.