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Latest News & Articles
New Energy Performance Certificate rules for landlords and agents11/01/2012
From April 2012 landlords and managing agents selling or letting property in England & Wales must comply with new rules about commissioning and disclosing Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) certifying the energy rating for a property.
Tribunal gives guidance on tenants installing solar panels
11/01/2012
Landlords may find they cannot unreasonably refuse to allow tenants to install solar panels, following a recent Tribunal decision.
When directors can be personally liable on company insolvency
11/01/2012
Two recent cases have clarified when directors can be made personally liable for their company's debts under 'wrongful trading' laws, if it goes into insolvent liquidation.
British Standards Institution launches Bribery Act standard
11/01/2012
The British Standards Institution (BSI) has launched a new specification for an anti-bribery management system, designed to help businesses reduce the risk of prosecutions under the Bribery Act 2010.
Software that 'emulates' other software does not breach copyright
11/01/2012
The Advocate-General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has given his opinion that writing software that emulates the functionality of other software is not a breach of the copyright in that other software.
Government auto-enrolment pension rules deferred for small businesses
11/01/2012
The government has announced that businesses with 50 or fewer employees will not have to introduce the new auto-enrolment pension schemes until 2015, rather than the original date of 2014.
Directors disqualified for misleading HMRC
11/01/2012
Directors who were economical with the truth in dealings with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have been disqualified from acting as directors on grounds their conduct meant they were unfit to be directors.
Government announces proposals for major employment law reform
06/01/2012
The Government has announced radical proposals for reform of employment law, designed to safeguard workers' rights while reducing unnecessary demands on business.
Deceitful directors personally liable for company's debts
06/01/2012
The Court of Appeal has decided that directors who put off a company creditor with lies and tall tales can be personally liable for their company's debts to that creditor under the law of deceit, even if their statements are made orally and not in writing.
Employers beware critical remarks about employees
05/12/2011
An employee has won a constructive dismissal claim against her employer after seeing criticism of her leadership skills by her Chief Executive in an internal email sent to her by mistake.
Employers still unclear over sick workers' rights to holiday pay
05/12/2011
Recent inconsistent legal decisions over the holiday pay rights of workers on long-term sick leave mean that employers are still uncertain over their obligations.
Guidance on how courts will interpret contract terms in dispute
05/12/2011
The Supreme Court has given guidance on when a court will apply a 'commercial common sense' test to interpret contract terms in a contractual dispute.
Landlord loses out because of defective letter about cost of works
05/12/2011
A landlord's letter notifying tenants that they must contribute to works carried out has been ruled ineffective by the court because it did not specifically state a figure for the costs of those works.
Court gives guidance on database legal protections
05/12/2011
The courts have given guidance on when unauthorised use of parts of a database by a third party amounts to extraction or reuse of a 'substantial part' of that database, which is an unlawful infringement of the database owner's 'database right'.
European Court clarifies 'informed user' test necessary to register a product design
05/12/2011
The European Court of Justice has clarified how to identify an 'informed user' - the hypothetical user of a product whose impression of it compared to other products determines (among other things) whether it can be protected by registration as a registered design.
Uncontested application to transfer domain name fails for lack of evidence
05/12/2011
Fashion giant Karen Millen has failed in its attempt to have a domain name transferred to it using the domain name Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), a quick and inexpensive procedure trade mark owners can use to stop domain name owners from abusing their trade mark.
Employers should be sure of non-entitlement to work before suspending migrant workers
05/12/2011
A foreign employee has won a claim for unlawful deduction of pay against an employer who suspended her because he honestly, but mistakenly, believed that she was no longer entitled to work in the UK.
Updated governance guide for small charities and voluntary bodies
05/12/2011
Trustees and directors of small charities and voluntary bodies will welcome the publication of updated, free guidance on governance issues for their organisations.
New guide to help stop employees' infringing intellectual property rights
05/12/2011
The Intellectual Property Office has published guidance to help businesses stop their staff infringing other people's intellectual property rights - for example, by downloading unauthorised software - whether they do so for work or personal reasons.
Campaign outside tribunal hearing can result in costs award
05/12/2011
Carrying on a campaign about an Employment Tribunal dispute outside the court room - sometimes called a 'campaign beyond the proceedings' - can result in a costs award against the campaigner by the Tribunal, according to a recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decision.
Liabilities of rugby clubs for injury to players
05/12/2011
The courts have recently given guidance on the circumstances when a rugby club can be liable for injury caused to a player during training.
Businesses must make sure agency workers share in tips from customers
03/11/2011
Restaurants, hotels and other employers whose staff are tipped by customers must now make sure that their longer-serving agency workers are entitled to their share when the tips are divided among the workforce.
Employee's dismissal for derogatory Facebook comments about work unfair
03/11/2011
Employers should not dismiss employees for making derogatory comments about their work on Facebook or other networking sites without making sure the dismissal is reasonable in all the circumstances, following a recent Employment Tribunal (ET) decision.
Employee refusing offer of alternative employment gets nothing for loss of earnings
03/11/2011
An employee who unreasonably refused an offer of alternative employment had not mitigated their losses as required by law, and was not entitled to any compensation for loss of earnings.
Seller's failure to reply to pre-contract enquiry on sale of land lets buyer off the hook
03/11/2011
A buyer of land has been given the right to get out of the contract after the seller failed to update his reply to one of the buyer's pre-contact enquiries about planning issues, even though the contract contained a common clause saying he couldn't.
Landlady still can't use foreign decoder to show Premier League matches in UK
03/11/2011
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled in part in favour of a Portsmouth pub landlady saying that contracts and laws stopping UK residents from using foreign decoders to access Premier League football matches are against EU law - but that they still can't be shown without permission because of copyright laws.
Charity Commission publishes update to Equality Act guidance
03/11/2011
The Charity Commission has published an update to its guidance on the application of the Equality Act exception, for charities whose objects would otherwise be discriminatory under the Act.
Employers may be able to vary new employees' pay following TUPE transfer
03/11/2011
An employer may be able to vary the pay of TUPE-protected employees following transfer to it of a new business, to get rid of a disparity between their pay and that of comparable employees in the sector.
Personal liability of club committee members highlighted
03/11/2011
Members of the governing bodies of clubs and other unincorporated associations should take note of a recent court decision confirming that a committee member of a rugby club could be liable to pay a club liability of £147,000 personally, or be made bankrupt.
Retracting dismissal notice given by mistake not so easy
03/11/2011
An employer that intended to give a dismissal notice at the time, but later tried to unilaterally retract it when it discovered it had made a mistake, has been told by the court that it cannot do so.
