One of the things that the family court seeks to do when divorce settlements are being made is to achieve finality. Where a settlement has been agreed by the court, it is normally difficult to vary it unless a significant…
The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) has published three guides, aimed at employers and employees, on ensuring equality of treatment in the workplace. These are: Equality and discrimination: understand the basics. This outlines what employers and employees and their…
Poaching of key staff is a perennial problem for service companies. In a recent dispute between two insurance broking firms, a firm which had the bulk of a specialist insurance team 'poached' by a competitor went to court to prevent…
A blind athlete who suffered catastrophic injuries when he fell out of a window whilst staying with friends during the Henley Regatta has won the right to £2 million in compensation to pay for the lifetime of care and support…
When Employment Tribunal (ET) fees were introduced in July 2013, the public service trade union Unison was quick to challenge the lawfulness of the new regime on the basis that it would make it 'virtually impossible, or excessively difficult' for…
Claims by dependants who are excluded from estates from which they might reasonably expect to benefit can, in appropriate circumstances, be made under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. However, divorce settlements normally contain a clause which…
Giving false evidence to any court can have serious consequences, as an errant ex-husband may be about to discover. Ex-spouses are often reluctant to pay their debts to their former partner and, in one extreme case, a husband who claimed…
Merely making contributions to the family finances has, yet again, been ruled by the Court of Appeal to be insufficient ground to make a declaration that a long-term cohabitee is entitled to a share in the family house. The case…
The wheels of justice have a reputation for moving slowly, but a case in which three directors quit a technology company, taking a cohort of its strategic staff with them before setting up in rivalry, showed just how quickly the…
A science teacher whose career was blighted by disclosure of false and damaging information to his employers by the police has won an important High Court ruling that what happened amounted to a violation of his human rights. The teacher…
