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…
The courts often employ the concept of commercial common sense in interpreting ambiguous or poorly drafted contracts – but that does not mean that they will relieve the unwise of the consequences of their bad bargains. That was the unfortunate…
It is a widespread (and incorrect) belief among the owners of smaller businesses that competition law is something which applies only to very large firms. Although most competition law investigations and legal actions are brought against larger companies with the…
Too many people, buying or selling a 'knock-off copy' of a branded item may seem a relatively minor matter but, given that brand owners invest billions of pounds annually in promoting their brands, it is unsurprising that the law 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…
Business partners who failed to define their working relationship in writing – instead reaching agreements orally over bottles of red wine in a pub – paid the price when a dispute over money erupted and made its way to the…
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…
