Latest News
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 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...
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 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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 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...
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...
