HISPAJURIS, one of the biggest global law firms of which MONLEXHISPAJURIS is a member, has set up a service of specialised and immediate legal assistance in situ for grand scale accidents which is aimed at insurance companies and insurance brokers.

The service of High Risks of Hispajuris, contemplates the cover of all kinds of accidents of great magnitude which require immediate intervention: labour related, transport, electrical, fire or industrial.

The global administration of High Risks of Hispajuris is based on an immediate 24 hour service over the whole Spanish territory and has at its disposition highly qualified specialists, backed by expert teams as well as scientific staff. In addition, Hispajuris will carry out a continuous follow up of the administration of the files by way of an online platform, which permits the follow up of all the portfolios. The service also includes an analysis of the cover of the policies in order to carry out the defence and the legal direction of the accident before all of the jurisdictions and administrative areas for the correct processing of the file in defence of the Insurance Company and its insured parties.

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The Association of Hoteliers of Sóller, composing of 20 hotels at present, has chosen MONLEXHISPAJURIS as their Law Firm to defend and represent their interests before the Public Administration through their Associated Lawyer, Celia Pascual Sanz.

Celia Pascual is backed by an extensive and contrasted experience in the tourist field and, in particular has obtained relevant achievements within the tourist sector of Sóller.

In particular, José Antonio Fernández de Alarcón, senior partner of MONLEXHISPAJURIS will be a speaker on the 20th October at 9:45h at the presentation of “Alternatives of quality tourism: products of sports tourism” together with other speakers:

- Dª Cristina Sastre Fallet; President of Nautical Charters and the Spanish Federation of Nautical Renting.

- Hon. D. Francisco Javier Morente López; Managing Director of Sports of the Sports and Tourism Council of the Balearic Islands’ Government.

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EMILIA CASTRO, graduate of human resource management, has joined the team of MONLEXHISPAJURIS. The incorporation of Emilia Castro coincides with a distinguishing proposal that MONLEXHISPAJURIS is carrying out, of a tendency to offer a more and more integral legal assistance by means of the rendering of some of the services specifically aimed at the development of companies.

Since its commencement MONLEXHISPAJURIS has rendered various legal services among which are legal services in relation to companies. From now on, and due to the incorporation of Emilia Castro, the law firm is now able to offer a more specialised service to its companies and clients, and all with the added advantages which the national associated network of law firms HISPAJURIS offers, as well as the international network of law firms of MONLEX INTERNACIONAL.

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The network of law firms HISPAJURIS has joined the International Union of Lawyers (UIA), which associates more than 200 bar associations, federations and associations and as well as thousands of individual members of more than 110 countries.

The objectives of the UIA are as follows:

• Promote the essential principles of the profession.
• Take part in the development of legal matters in an international field.
• Contribute to the establishment of an international legal order based on the principle of justice between nations for law and peace.
• Co-operate in its capacity as a Non-Governmental Organisation (ONG), with the activities of other international or national organisations.
• Establish relationships and exchanges between bar associations, associations of lawyers or jurists and their members on an international level.
• Defend the profession.

For more information about UIA:
http://www.uianet.org/index.jsp?locale=es

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The second of the FEHM conferences scheduled for this month will be held at the Hotel Meliá Palas Ateneas, Palma on the 15th September. On this occasion the conference will be about “Tourism needs a change”.

The diversity of tourism means that various fields exist where competitiveness must be addressed and improved. The wide range of aspects makes it impossible to deal with all of them in one conference. For this reason the conferences will be centred on three of the fundamental pivots, on which the change of performance within the Balearic tourism sector will be based.

• Tourist regulations
• Promotion
• Connectivity

In accordance with these three basic panels, three round tables will be held at the conference:

1) “Tourist Regulations: a need of change and adaptation to the scenario”. Chaired by Mr. José A. Fernández Alarcón, vice president of the FEHM.
2) “Promotion, develop more with less”. Chaired by Mr. Oscar González, marketing manager of Iberostar.
3) “Connectivity as a key strategy for tourist politics in the Balearic Isles”. Chaired by Mr. Raúl González, Managing Director of the Barceló Group.

Inscriptions:
Email: logistica@fehm.es
Tel: 971 706007

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On the 8th July MONLEXHISPAJURIS organised a conference which was mainly aimed at businessmen and given by lawyer Mr. Juan Ignacio Navas at the conference hall of the Chamber of Commerce of Majorca and Ibiza. The speaker in question has obtained some important results in litigation with bank entities, obtaining sentences declaring null and void financial exchange contracts, or swaps, which his clients had signed.

The aforementioned swaps have been commercialised since the end of 2007, with the approval of Statute 47/2007 and the Royal Decree 217/2008, regulations which transposed the European Community regulations in relation to the Financial Instruments Market to the Spanish Legal Ordinance laws.

Basically the swaps which are commercialised are adhesion contracts which consist of exchange and financial flow compensation between clients and their bank entities, in such a way that where there is a debt already existing with the entity (for example, for a mortgage, a leasing, credit etc) said entity promises to pay the interest to the client, calculated by applying variable interest on the pending capital, whereas the client promises to pay the interest received by applying a fixed interest rate to the debt. Once this has been calculated the resulting balances are compared and one party pays the other the excess amount after having taken into account the compensation of the respective credits. Moreover, an indemnity is usually included in favour of the bank entity should the client resolve the contract unilaterally.

The proliferation of these contracts is a result of the tendency of a high rate of interest in 2007 which resulted in a good many companies and individuals having to support a heavy financial burden which was much more costly than expected. Therefore, many financial entities loaned and sold these swaps as if they were a type of security which would put the ceiling on the rate of interest they were paying, which seemed as if it was going to keep on increasing indefinitely. Nevertheless, their clients were not informed adequately regarding the nature of these products (of great volatility, quoted on secondary markets), nor that the risk that they were taking should the rate of interest of the investment be bullish. Generally what happened was that the first liquidations were favourable to the client as the interest rates remained high and even increased further. However, in 2009 the tendency was inverted and the interest rates began to fall, resulting in favourable liquidations to the banks and so they remain to this day. This situation is creating tremendous financial problems for many companies and individuals, and in some cases has meant that well established companies that had survived previous crisis have had to request bankruptcy proceedings.

As mentioned previously, these swaps were sold to clients whose trust had sometimes been abused and using them like insurance or the equivalent of a last resort before the increase of uncontrolled interest rates, when in actual fact these products are very complex with consequences that clients hold no control over. In other cases, when the clients visited their financial entity to request refinancing or a restructuring of their debt, they were obliged to contract these swaps as an indispensable condition in order to obtain their objectives.

Furthermore, due to its complexity, volatility and high risk, the regulations governing the swaps recommend that clients should only subscribe to transactions between banks or multinationals.

A number of resolutions exist because of this that declare these contracts null and void due to lack of consent for inadequate or insufficient information offered to the client when contracting this service, and/or for having made these swaps an indispensable condition to refinance them, resulting in the banks being obliged to return any amounts paid by the clients. In some cases it has even been possible to obtain compensation for the clients for damages incurred.

On the 17th June in Palma, Majorca the latest work-related meeting of HISPAJURIS, the Spanish network of 45 law firms which is spread all over the national territory, was held.

This work-related meeting was held all day at the Hotel Melià Palas Atenea, and during this meeting various matters related to the activity and work of the network of law firms were discussed.

From MONLEXHISPAJURIS we would like to thank all the lawyers who assisted and who travelled to Palma in order to make this meeting possible and we hope that their stay on the island has been comfortable and productive.

This event will take place at the Hotel Meliá Palas Atenea on Thursday, 12th May, starting at 9:00 and finishing at 13:15.

José Antonio Fernández de Alarcón will take part in this conference at 9:30 dealing with the topic “The current context of family tourist companies in the Balearic Isles: generational shift, professionalism and how to plan the succession”.

Following this at about 10:00 Mr. Antonio Serra will give a talk entitled “The present tax situation of family tourist companies and the future tendencies”.

Likewise at this conference, which is organised and sponsored by Banca March, Barbara Bennasar Mesquida; regional manager of the Banca March, Palma, Margarita Ramis Fornés; president of the Association of Hotel Chains of the Balearic Isles, Ignacio Jiménez; Ex-hotel director and Expert in Company Organisation, Alfonso Castellano; CEO of MindProject and Antonio López de Ávila; Director of Executive Master in Company Management of Tourist Companies at IE Business School in Madrid will also be taking part.

It will be a social sporting event, showing solidarity and with no competitiveness involved. The participants will be divided into teams and will swim in relays around the island of Formentera in 3 stages. This swim around the island of Formentera vindicates swimming as one of the most appropriate sports to treat and fight against Cystic Fibrosis.

This year swimmers from all over Spain and the rest of the world will take part in this event. Swimmers who are physically and psychically disabled, veteran swimmers, elite swimmers, swimmers with flippers and a group of swimmers from all over the Balearic Isles.

The Respiralia Foundation is a non-profit organisation which was founded on the 6th February 2006. A group of people with cystic fibrosis is working for the company in the Balearic Isles in the hope of bettering the services offered for the treatment of this serious and incurable disease.

Our law firm is proud of being able to take part in this event and contribute to the cause which the Respiralia Foundation has promoted.

REDUCE THE COSTS OF HEALTH AND SAFETY IN THE WORKPLACE WITHOUT RELINQUISHING THE QUALITY OF THE SERVICES.

This is what clients of MONLEXHISPAJURIS will be able to obtain when they contract the services of Health and Safety in the Workplace with DICONSAL S.L., a company accredited in 1997 (the first in Spain) in all preventative specialities and which has experience and know-how in all sectors.

Apart from offering the basic health and safety in the workplace services, DICONSAL S.L., additionally offers the following advantages for companies which are clients of MONLEXHISPAJURIS:

• Compliance with the two main obligations of the businessmen in just one morning, coordinating training with the carrying out of medical examinations.
• Management of training funds for companies in order to render them either non existent or greatly reduced
• A collaboration agreement with MONLEXHISPAJURIS in order to grant the associated companies with total cover in the technical-legal area with regards to health and safety in the workplace matters.
• A REDUCTION OF 15% ON FEES for the companies which are clients of MONLEXHISPAJURIS and that contract Health and Safety services together with Training Funds Management with DICONSAL.
• Discounts of 15% on specified complex technical services: Self Protection Plans, Evaluation of Explosive Atmospheres (ATEX), asbestos measurements, Security Coordination on building sites, ergonomic studies, etc.

Please contact Ángel Prats at the following email address or telephone numbers:
aprats@diconsal.es
Phone number 971 287 820 - 629 206 246

Please find below a list of the contact numbers and addresses of DICONSAL in the Balearic Isles:

DICONSAL PALMA
Avda. Joan Miro, 20-bajos
07014- Palma de Mallorca.
Tel: 971-287820/ 971-285835/ 971-458119
Fax: 971-289124

DICONSAL MANACOR
C/ Ronda de L´Institut, 2, bajos.
07500- Manacor.
Tel: 971-834583
Fax: 971-559505

DICONSAL IBIZA
C/ Quarto de Potmany nº 6 (Edif.- Lido)
07800- Ibiza.
Tel: 971-398069
Fax: 971-302880

DICONSAL MENORCA
C/ Ciutadella nº 78
07701 - Maó
Tel: 971-369251
Tel-Fax: 971-369556

Due to the commitment of MONLEXHISPAJURIS for the development and orientation of this law firm towards the emerging Russian market, MONLEXHISPAJURIS was present at the Tourist Fair which took place in Moscow from the 16th to the 19th March.

The fair offered the unique opportunity of getting to know the situation and present state of the Russian Tourist Market first hand. For this reason various other Spanish tour operators were present such as Coral Travel, TUI Russian Department, Ascent Travel, Danko, Lanta-Tur, Intourist, Natalie Tours among many others, with some of which we will shortly begin to maintain a business relationship.

Under the management and coordination of lawyers José Antonio Fernández de Alarcón and Marc Ripoll from the Majorcan law firm MONLEXHISPAJURIS – as the leading team in international proceedings - having previously achieved an historical sentence in 2008 in the state of Massachusetts, U.S.A, have won yet more legal proceedings, this time in the state of New York in representation of one of the most important hotel chains in Spain whose head office is situated in Palma, Majorca and also one of the main international tour operators with its head office in Germany.

In litigation which confronted an American citizen and an important Majorcan hotel chain, a New York tribunal declined jurisdiction as it was considered that in the interest of both parties the trial should take place in the country of origin of the alleged incident (Aruba) and not in the United States of America which was the country where the claim was made.

The guests, who are residents in the state of New York, bought the package tour that included a stay at a hotel in Aruba which belongs to the hotel chain in question, in the summer of 2009. On returning to her country of origin the former hotel guest sued the hotel chain alleging in her claim that the fall from a horse on an excursion which had been organised by an external company was the responsibility of the hotel. Said claim was presented before a New York district court with the sole purpose of obtaining a multi-million court ruling and at the same time generous compensation for damages.

The judge in his sentence in December 2010 analysed the questions regarding the competence between the two countries involved and he arrived at the conclusion that none of them were sufficient for the court in the U.S.A to pronounce judgement.

The decision of the New York court not only acknowledges the hotel chain to be right but also admits that the election of an American court of justice was made with the intention of obtaining generous compensation from the plaintiffs (“try to find a deep pocket”).

Since the Majorcan hotel chains have advanced in leaps and bounds by crossing the Atlantic Ocean to countries like Mexico, The Dominican Republic or Jamaica, the claims received from clients in countries like the U.S.A or Canada have doubled over time. Aforementioned claims have sometimes been for exorbitant amounts which have seriously worried the investors in the hotel sector and their insurance companies. It is for this reason that such sentences for the defence of the interests of the Majorcan hotel chains are so important in these countries especially as it has been considered for the first time that the American courts and tribunals are not competent to try these cases.

On the coming 28th and 29th October the 1st National Congress for the Law of Tourism will take place in Palma. The Congress has been organised by the Bar Association of the Balearic Isles, the University of the Balearic Isles and the law firm MONLEXHISPAJURIS.

This Congress hopes to achieve two objectives: to convert the Balearic Isles as a reference with regards to tourist law and offer solutions to guarantee an optimum future in the sector, and the harmonic co-existence of different interests which come together in tourism together with the people who are integrated.

For such purposes the lawyers and hoteliers will debate about the legal challenges for tourism in the 21st Century and they will analyse the situation in which tourism finds itself in relation to the economic crisis and the future of the sector as well as the challenges of tourist regulations. Also various current matters will be discussed in relation to air transport, the tendencies and problems of tourist contracting and the administrative mechanism for the protection of tourists as well as consumers.

The inauguration Act will be presided over by the President of the Government, Francesc Antich. The Councillor for Tourism of the Government of the Balearic Isles, Joana Barceló, the professors of Administrative Legislation Raúl Pérez Guerra and Joana M Socias Camacho, José Antonio Fernández de Alarcón, the President of the Hotel Federation of Majorca, Marilén Pol and the general secretary of Internal Commerce and Tourism, Joan Mesquida will be taking part in the congress among others.

José A. Fernández de Alarcón, the senior partner of the law firm MONLEXHISPAJURIS, will be taking part as a speaker at the 5th Risk Management Conference which will take place on the 23rd September at the Hotel Gran Melià Victoria.

The speech which José A Fdez will make, together with other speakers, will deal with the topic “The Civil Liability of Councillors and high level management” and is due to take place at 11:45 a.m. at the aforementioned Hotel Melià Victoria.

Alejandra Marqués, an associate lawyer of the law firm MONLEXHISPAJURIS, who is the person in charge of the area for the Legal Assessment of Companies and who has a wide professional experience in company matters, has recently signed an agreement with Margarita Dahlberg, President of the Association of Nautical Companies of the Balearic Isles (AENB). The aforementioned agreement has been reached in order to offer all of the associates of AENB some very advantageous conditions with regards to assessment services. AENB is the most important organisation within this sector and each and every one of its subdivisions which form a part of the Nautical Sector is related to it; Nautical and Manufacturing Industry, Commerce, Nautical Services which cover such important aspects as Chartering and all kinds of repair and maintenance services.

At the Convention Assembly on the 23rd July, which took place at the Hotel Melia Victoria, Marilén Pol, candidate of the Association of Hoteliers of Palma, was elected as the new President of the Business Federation of Hoteliers of Majorca (FEHM).

The candidature of Marilén Pol was backed by all of the hotel associations of Majorca and her election was voted unanimously since the objective was to jointly represent the whole of this sector.

The new Board of Directors is composed of the following people:

• President: Marilén Pol
• Vice-President 1º: Matías Barceló (Association of Cala D’Or)
• Vice-President 2º: José Antonio Fdez. de Alarcón (Association of Playa de Palma)
• Secretary: Margarita Socias (Association of Alcudia, Ca’n Picafort)
• Treasurer: Joan Massanet (Association of Capdepera)
• Members:
   · Sebastián Darder (Association of Palmanova, Magalluf)
   · Joan Bonnín (Agritourism Association)
   · Aurelio Vázquez (Syndicate of Hotel Chains)
   · Pedro Cañellas (Association of Cala Millor)
   · Margarita Ramis (Syndicate of Hotel Chains)

The number one objective of the new Board of Directors will be to concentrate on maintaining the unity of the whole hotel business sector, by means of the Board of Directors, in representation of all of the hoteliers in all of the tourist areas.

Another of the main objectives will be to achieve an increase in the business participation within the representation of the sector, and an increase in the involvement all of the hoteliers and associations in the projects of the FEHM.

Among the projects of the new Board of Directors, the setting up of work theme committees, a board of area managers and a rotating system for the participation of all the Associations at the Board’s meetings can be found. For this reason during the following weeks work meetings will be organised within the areas in order to establish a Plan of Action for the next 3 years. The aforementioned meetings will begin as from the 20th August and the work plan will be presented in September.

On the 30th June, 2010 The Minister for Equal Rights Mrs. Bibiana Aído Almagro awarded our colleague Alejandra Marqués, associate lawyer of MONLEXHISPAJURIS, an Honourable Mention of Corporative Social Responsibility in recognition of her work for the development of self-employment for women which was carried out within the framework of the Collaboration Agreement between the Ministry and the Tourist and Employment Council of the Balearic Government, and for having acted as mentor together with other business women in diverse matters as well as in the field of economic activity.

The awarding of the aforementioned Honourable Mention took place in an awards ceremony at Es Baluard and was officially opened by the President, Mr. Francesc Antich.

José Janer González , associate lawyer of MONLEXHISPAJURIS is in charge of a new project as Head Legal Advisor of Orizonia (http://www.orizonia.com), which is one of the most important tourist groups in Spain comprised of tour operators, travel agencies, airline companies and hotels, with their head office in Palma, Majorca.

The principal shareholder of Orizonia is the Carlyle Trust which acquired aforementioned company 15 years ago from Mr. Miguel Fluxá (Iberostar)

José Antonio Fernández de Alarcón, a partner of MONLEXHISPAJURIS, in his capacity as Vice-president of the Hotel Owners’Association of Playa de Palma and who is a specialist in this matter, took part in the negotiation of the Urban Planning Statutes of the Playa de Palma, the last draft of which was approved at the Meeting of the Association on the 12th May, 2010. This statute, which is pioneer in Spain, establishes a legal framework for the reconversion process of tourist areas as well as serving as an example for future reconversions in this country.

Said statute will now follow the corresponding parliamentary procedure and with the exception of any specific amendments put forward by opposition groups, will hopefully come into effect during this legislation.

Before the end of the year the offices of MONLEXHISPAJURIS will move to a building constructed in 1929 whose façade and structure has been duly renovated. Aforementioned building, situated in Avenida Gabriel Alomar i Villalonga, on the corner of Calle Manacor, is barely 100 metres from their present offices.

Celia Pascual Sanz, Associated Lawyer of the law firm MONLEXHISPAJURIS, as the person in charge of the Department of Legal Consultancy for Companies, has recently signed a collaboration agreement with the Hotel Association “REIS DE MALLORCA”, through which she will now be able to offer her ample knowledge and professional experience in the field of companies to all its associates, offering them legal advice with very advantageous conditions.

Alejandra Marqes, a lawyer who is working for the law firm MONLEXHISPAJURIS and is responsible for Company Legal Assessment, has recently signed an agreement with Joana Pons, President of the Association of Businesswomen of the Balearic Isles- ASEME Baleares, whereby she will offer her ample professional experience in the business world, with some very favourable conditions, to its associates.

JOSÉ JANER GONZÁLEZ solicitor of the Bar Association of the Balearic Isles has just joined MONLEXHISPAJURIS at the beginning of this business year.

JOSÉ JANER has a Bachelor’s degree in law from the University of the Balearic Isles, and he then took a Master’s degree in legal assessment for companies at the Higher Institute of Law and Economy (ISDE) in Barcelona, as well as a General Management Programme (PDG) of IESE in Madrid. He is bilingual in Spanish and Catalan and also speaks English and German.

After having exercised his profession in various law firms in Palma, he then became a member and Manager of the legal assessment department of the Iberostar Group for nine years until 2008. During this period he specialised in Mercantile Law focused on companies. From this point the development of international expansion within the hotel group was initiated by means of the acquisition of property and the construction of hotels as well as the acquisition of hotel chains. He also participated in the decision and legal coordination of the founding of the Cruise Ship Division Iberojet belonging to the tour operator Group Iberostar, leaders in the field of the acquisition of three cruise ships besides various charters of other ships. He participated directly in the expansion of the network of travel agencies of the aforementioned group, negotiating and elaborating contracts for the total national and international business transmission of tour operators. At the same time he participated in the acquisition of commercial aircraft for the charter company of the same group. During the last few months he has carried out management tasks in expansion and business development in the construction sector.

The incorporation of JOSÉ JANER to MONLEXHISPAJURIS coincides with a distinct proposal in which this law firm is at present making progress with regards to a greater development in its legal assessment via the provision of services which are specially focused on company development in the tourist area.

Since his commencement with MONLEXHISPAJURIS he has offered his services in the area of legal company assessment, among others, and with the incorporation of José Janer this law firm is able to offer its services in areas such as company tourism as well as other services such as the support of the expansion and diversification of businesses; the assistance and assessment at the beginning of new developments and/or reinvestment in certain geographical areas; assistance in the strategy of the management of assets and support in day to day decision making, among others.

All of which has the advantage and added value which the national network of associated law firms HISPAJURIS offers, together with the law firm’s own international network, MONLEX INTERNATIONAL

The Spanish solicitors’ network HISPAJURIS offers an integral assessment to Spanish businessmen, as well as the rest of Europe, with their investments in Russia by means of the opening of a new law firm in Moscow. The assessment will be carried out through the multidisciplinary law firm “DEYCO” (“Law and Commerce”) who have recently opened in Moscow and whose staff consists of solicitors, auditory economists and native certified legal translators.

Likewise HISPAJURIS will assess Russian businessmen that are living in our country via its national network of law firms.

HISPAJURIS has endorsed an Agreement with the Spanish Confederation of Housing Cooperatives (CONCOV) in virtue of which HISPAJURIS puts at the disposal of CONCOVI and its associated entities, a multidisciplinary legal service (in mercantile, tax and accounting areas, labour and human resources matters, new technologies and procedural service; with the exception of strictly cooperative matters).It also offers proximity by way of 40 associated law firms spread all over the Spanish territory.

Mr. José A. Fernández de Alarcón Roca, partner of this law firm, has recently been named member of the Board of Directors of the Hotel Chain Association of the Balearic Isles “AGRUPACION DE CADENAS HOTELERAS”, the main hotel lobby group of the Balearic Isles and which incorporates the main hotel companies of the island

By petition of the Tourist Board Council of the Balearic Government, the Law Society of the Balearic Isles has entrusted Ms. Alejandra Marques Feliú and Mr. José A. Fernández de Alarcón Roca, solicitors of MONLEXHISPAJURIS, to act in representation of the Law Society to analyse and compile the modification and adaptation project of the General Tourist Regulations of the Balearic Isles. Aforementioned regulations are fundamental for the institutional architecture for tourism of the Balearic Isles and which covers the regulation of all hotel company activity, as well as leisure and restoration.