Damages to Rise
Lord Judge, the Lord Chief Justice has announced that damages awarded in PI, nuisance and defamation cases will rise by 10% from next year. “We take this opportunity to declare that, with effect from 1 April 2013, the proper level…
Redundancy: headcount reductions
An Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decision clarifying the statutory definition of redundancy will be welcomed by business owners. The EAT confirmed that it is not necessary to have a reduction in the number of employees carrying out work of a…
Staff on sick leave can reclaim lost holiday
The Court of Appeal has ruled that workers who have been on sick leave for more than a year are entitled to reclaim their holiday allowance in the next leave year, regardless of whether they have formally requested it. The…
A Smell By Any Other Name
A case brought by a group of residents who live near a tip was recently heard by the Court of Appeal. The residents complained that the smell of the tip was a nuisance that blighted the everyday enjoyment of their…
Chancel Repair Liability: Registration
A recent case in which the owners of a farm faced ruin because their property was saddled with an ancient responsibility to maintain the local church received a great deal of publicity, and has prompted a change in the applicable…
Fatherhood and Child Contact
The Court of Appeal recently ruled in a case which asked whether fatherhood is sufficient to warrant contact with a child and decided that the answer is ‘no’. The case was unusual. It involved a married couple who wanted to…
Flood Insurance Ending
In 2009, the Government and the Association of British Insurers entered into an agreement, the Statement of Principles on the Provision of Flood Insurance, which committed home insurance providers to making flood insurance as widely available as possible. This agreement…
Health and safety: parent company liable
Businesses with subsidiaries should be notified of the first reported case in which a parent company was found liable to an employee of its subsidiary on tort law principles. The Court of Appeal held that the parent company owed a…
Revised Guidance for Service Companies
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have published new guidance intended to help personal service companies determine their correct employment status. HMRC will take a risk-based approach to consider how likely it is that they need to check whether IR35 applies…
Company convicted of manslaughter
A Northern Irish company has been prosecuted under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007) and fined £187,500, plus £13,000 costs, over the death of an employee. The employee was killed after being hit by…