Secondary Victim’ Claim Fails
When a woman who was injured in an accident at work and who seemed to be making a good recovery collapsed and died three weeks later, as a result of a deep-vein thrombosis and a pulmonary embolism which were related…
New Minimum Wage Rates in 2013
The Government has announced the rates of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) that will apply for 2013/2014. The following changes will come into effect on 1 October 2013: The adult NMW rate will increase from £6.19 to £6.31 per hour;…
Sharp increase in penalty notices issued by ICO
In 2012/13, the number of monetary penalties imposed by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for serious breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations (SI 2011/1208) more than doubled, reaching 23…
Age Discrimination: Retirement at 65
An employment tribunal has decided that a law firm's mandatory retirement age of 65 for partners was a proportionate means of achieving the legitimate aims of workforce planning and staff retention. Therefore, the retirement age was objectively justified and did…
Protection from unfair commercial practices
Businesses that sell directly to consumers should be made aware of a Court of Appeal decision which held that a "commercial practice" can refer to a single act or incident, as well as repeated conduct. This case involved the supply…
Grass-Free Beach is Village Green, Rules Court
The term ‘village green’ may conjure up to most people an image of a picturesque piece of open grass. However, the Court of Appeal has ruled in an important test case that a beach can be regarded as a village…
Promises, Promises
It is quite common when a subsidiary of a group of companies wishes to undertake a substantial contract for the other side to seek assurances of support from the subsidiary’s holding company, or occasionally from another member of the group…
Judge Ends Litigation War
When a divorced wealthy couple sought to wage ‘litigation war’ against one another, running up legal bills of more than £2.7 million in the process, the family judge was unsympathetic. Accusing the pair of trying to engage in ‘forensic points-scoring’…
Hazards of Signing Personal Guarantees
In a ruling which underlines the potential hazards of signing personal guarantees in respect of corporate debts, a businessman has been hit with a bill for more than £330,000 almost seven years after he resigned from the relevant company. The…
Court Steps In to Remedy Land Registry Blunder
A Land Registry error which resulted in two individuals being concurrently registered as freehold owners of the same plot of land has been put right by the Court of Appeal in a test case which raised an important point of…