Legal News
A company that provides installation services for home improvement products has been issued with a monetary penalty by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) after making thousands of unsolicited marketing calls to numbers registered with the Telephone...
The High Court has recently ruled that a man is entitled to benefit under a family trust despite finding that he was not the biological child of the settlor. The trust had been set up by a businessman in 2003 and included as its beneficiaries 'the...
A woman whose husband died after suffering two cardiac arrests in hospital has received compensation of £160,000. The man suffered from diabetes and ischaemic heart disease. After he had been very unwell all day, he was taken to hospital by paramedics...
An Employment Tribunal (ET) has confirmed that a construction company which made deductions from an employee's wages in accordance with a court order did not do so unlawfully ( Rainford v Stepnell Ltd ). The employee was the subject of an attachment of...
A girl who was hit by a car as she was starting her paper round has achieved a settlement for the life-changing injuries she suffered. The girl was just 14 when the accident happened. Her mother had dropped her off at a local shop to collect the newspapers....
A pre-nuptial agreement (PNA) will be taken into account when a couple divorces, as long as it has been freely entered into and it is fair to hold the parties to it. Recently, the Family Court was called upon to decide how the terms of a PNA affected the...
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued a reprimand to the Electoral Commission after hackers gained access to the information on the Electoral Register. Hackers gained access to the Electoral Commission's server in August 2021 by...
Individual taxpayers often rely on advisors to handle their tax affairs, but it is wise to make sure they are doing everything that needs to be done. In a recent case, a man whose accountant failed to file tax returns on his behalf was refused permission to...
Symptoms of mesothelioma tend to appear several decades after exposure to asbestos, by which time it may be impossible to trace the employer responsible for the exposure or its insurer. However, there are two government schemes that allow sufferers to claim...
Employment Tribunals (ETs) have a duty to give sufficient reasons for their decisions so that the parties to a claim can understand why they won or lost. In a recent case, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) overturned a finding of indirect disability...
When accidents at work lead to injuries which are relatively minor and heal within a short time, compensation may still be warranted. This point was illustrated by the case of a foundry worker who suffered a burn to his hand. He accident happened when he...
When prospective tenants are asked to pay a holding deposit, they should ensure that they disclose any information that might affect a landlord's decision whether to offer them a tenancy. Recently, the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) dealt with an application for...
Following an internal application process, Boys & Maughan has selected Orla Priston and Ihcene Khalfi for training contracts (now referred to by the SRA as Qualifying Work Experience or QWE) starting 1 September 2024. Orla attained her first-class...
A woman who suffered complications after undergoing a mastectomy has achieved a settlement of her claim against the NHS trust that employed the surgeon who operated on her. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and a mastectomy was recommended. She...
Disagreements with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) can be complicated and protracted, but it is vital to comply with deadlines at every stage of the process. In a recent case, a limited liability partnership (LLP) failed to convince the Upper Tribunal (UT)...
Unmarried couples who hope to have children together via fertility treatment must comply with a number of requirements in order for both partners to be legally recognised as parents, but if a mistake is made in the documentation, the courts can often assist....
Determining responsibility for road traffic accidents can sometimes be complex. In ruling on two personal injury claims arising from an accident involving four cars, the High Court had to consider where liability for the accident lay. As a Volkswagen was...
Can a local housing authority serve an improvement notice under Section 12 of the Housing Act 2004 in respect of a hazard that may or may not exist? This question was raised in a landlord's recent appeal to the Upper Tribunal (UT). The landlord had been...
Under Regulation 8 of the Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002 , employees who have worked continuously for four years or more under a series of fixed-term contracts automatically become permanent employees unless...
The High Court has ruled that a businessman's final will, which left most of his estate to his two youngest children and largely disinherited his two eldest children, was invalid. The businessman had been diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2010. Before making...
A body responsible for managing a forest has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after a husband and wife were struck by a tree that was being felled. The couple were walking their dog along a deer track in the forest. As the tree was...
A man recently succeeded in his argument that a property he had purchased consisted of two separate dwellings and therefore qualified for Multiple Dwellings Relief (MDR) from Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT). Although MDR was abolished earlier this year, it can...
If a business discovers that someone else has registered a UK domain name which is similar to its own name or trading style, it can make a complaint to Nominet UK through its Dispute Resolution Service (DRS). Recently, a DRS complaint made by an...
In cases of serious injury or disability, judges may be called upon to make difficult decisions about whether it is in the patient's best interests to continue life-sustaining treatment. A tragic High Court case concerning a severely disabled four-year-old...
A man who suffered permanent injury to his shoulder when he fell through an opening in a mezzanine floor has obtained damages from his employer. The man had been cleaning the booth of a crushing machine, used to loosen large amounts of waste material, and...
In a decision that will serve as both a relief and a warning to companies with trusted key employees, the High Court has ruled that a manager who made unauthorised payments to himself from his employer's bank account over an eight-year period was liable to...
When couples divorce, the courts will take pre-marital agreements (PMAs) into account but will also consider the needs of each spouse. This principle was demonstrated recently in financial remedy proceedings before the Family Court. The couple had signed...
Medical negligence claims can be complex and expert legal representation is essential to ensure a just outcome. In a recent case, the High Court awarded damages of nearly £200,000 to a woman who experienced life-changing overactive bladder symptoms...
The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by an investment holding company in respect of whether professional fees in connection with selling a business could be deducted from its profits for Corporation Tax purposes. The company was part of a corporate...
A motorcyclist who suffered life-changing injuries when he collided with a car has succeeded in his claim of liability against the car's driver. The motorcyclist, then aged 55, collided with the back of the car, which also struck a car in front of it. There...
A woman and her ex-husband who allegedly lost substantial funds belonging to the woman's mother have been ordered by a judge to pay back the missing money. After the mother died in 2019, at the age of 86, the woman's sister brought proceedings in an effort...
A crane operator who was severely injured in a workplace accident has reached a settlement with his employer. The man was de-rigging a crane when its head hit his right elbow. He sustained severe fractures and nerve damage, and had to have metal plates...
Tenants who feel that they are being overcharged for services in connection with their properties are able to challenge the reasonableness of their charges. The First-tier Tribunal (FTT) recently reduced the amount a tenant was required to pay for insurance...
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled that poultry workers were not 'working' while travelling from their homes to farms where they carried out their duties and back again, and were not entitled to be paid the National Minimum Wage (NMW) for the...
A woman who was left with life-changing disabilities after medical staff missed several opportunities to diagnose a serious neurological condition has secured substantial damages. She was admitted to hospital in 2015. A stroke was suspected and she...
An unauthorised mortgage broker and its associates who exploited vulnerable consumers have been ordered by the High Court to pay £4 million to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) . The order was obtained against a company that arranged mortgages...
When incurring costs in respect of a property, landlords should consider at an early stage whether these will be recoverable through the tenants' service charges. A right to manage (RTM) company recently failed to persuade the Upper Tribunal (UT) that legal...
The Court of Appeal has overturned a Family Court decision that tibia fractures sustained by a 10-month-old girl had been inflicted deliberately or recklessly by one of her parents. The parents were in a long-standing, stable relationship. The girl had...
Settlements in personal injury claims can include amounts for psychological as well as physical injuries, as demonstrated by a case in which a pedestrian obtained significant damages after she was hit by a motorbike. The accident happened on a busy street....
A ground-breaking agreement with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) involving former armed forces personnel who suffer from noise-induced hearing loss has been approved by the High Court. The MoD has accepted that it owed a duty of care to veterans, and that...
A financial services company has succeeded in its appeal against a High Court ruling that it was not entitled to claim ownership of a trade mark registered by an LLP carrying out business on its behalf. The LLP was set up in 2007 as part of the...
The will of a man who married his carer less than a year before he died and left everything to her has been set aside after his daughter challenged its validity. The man was 93 years old when he married his carer, who was then aged 54. Following the...
Where an employee who has made a protected disclosure is dismissed, can the dismissal be unfair if the decision-maker is merely aware that the employee has made a disclosure, or is some understanding of the details of the disclosure required? That question...
A railway signalman who was injured when he tripped over debris on an unlit walkway has secured compensation. He was taken to A&E after the accident. X-rays showed that he had fractured his finger and he was fitted with a splint. He was unable to work...
Under Article 5(3) of Regulation (EC) 261/2004 (Regulation 261), an airline is not obliged to pay compensation where flights are delayed or cancelled due to 'extraordinary circumstances' which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had...
In a case that illustrated the complexities of IR35 (also known as the intermediaries legislation), the Upper Tribunal (UT) has remitted the question of whether a TV and radio presenter provided his services as an employee for reconsideration by the...
A man who was left with lifelong injuries after undergoing bowel surgery has achieved a settlement of his claim against the NHS trust responsible for his care. After initially undergoing surgery to remove a polyp, he experienced frequent bowel movements...
The Upper Tribunal (UT) recently ruled on an appeal against a decision of the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) that a sign saying there was no public right of way over a staircase did not prevent a private right of way being acquired over it. The staircase had...
A man has been banned from acting as a company director for 10 years after breaching the rules of a scheme designed to support businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The man, who was the sole director of a construction company, applied in 2020 for a...
Asbestos-related illnesses commonly develop many years after the exposure that caused them. In a case that illustrates how this can be reflected in settlements of claims, a man who developed symptoms related to asbestos secured provisional damages, reserving...
