How do you prove that you are married when a valid marriage certificate is not available? This question may not often arise, but it does sometimes happen that a marriage certificate cannot be produced, which can be particularly problematic when…
Under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, an organisation is guilty of the offence of corporate manslaughter (corporate culpable homicide in Scotland) if the way in which it manages or organises its activities causes a death and amounts…
Although pre-nuptial agreements are persuasive rather than binding in the British courts, a recent ruling of the High Court on a French ‘pre-nup’ illustrates clearly the current approach of the courts. It involved a very wealthy French couple who married…
When an adjudicator in a construction dispute gives a ruling, the decision can only be appealed on a limited number of grounds. One of these is ‘breach of natural justice’, which means that the adjudicator’s decision is so obviously flawed…
Three sisters who challenged their late father’s will have lost their battle at the High Court. The will was made the day George Wharton, who was suffering from terminal cancer, was discharged from hospital, in anticipation of his marriage to…
When a financial services company went into administration and came under investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the emails of one of its directors were copied by the FSA, which wished to use them in evidence. The FSA sought…
A court ruling that a spouse’s lottery winnings were not ‘matrimonial property’ so were not subject to the usual rule of equal division between the spouses when the marriage broke up received much publicity recently. The normal rule on divorce…
According to a recent ‘Which?’ report, landlords are lazy when it comes to making sure that costs such as insurance premiums and the like, that are passed on to their tenants, represent good value for money. In some cases, it…
A recent case in the Court of Appeal shows that ‘buyer beware’ is still a valid principle. Just because someone is paid for introducing you to someone else does not necessarily impose on them a duty to inform you of…
