Books and films are replete with fictional tales of innocent people being misidentified and convicted of serious crimes. Such events are, in the real world, extremely rare but, as a Court of Appeal ruling showed, they are always possible. The case concerned a troubled young man who was found guilty…
Contract Adjudicator’s Award Survives High Court Jurisdiction Challenge
There would be very little point in submitting disputes to contract adjudicators if their decisions were not binding and treated as final. As a High Court ruling emphasised, however, their jurisdiction is not unlimited and, save where otherwise agreed, they only have the power to consider disputes arising under one…
High Court Ponders Habitual Residence Test in Case of Orphaned Schoolgirl
The legal concept of habitual residence is a notoriously slippery one, but the ease of global travel has rendered it ever more important in the field of family law. The point was powerfully made by the case of an orphaned schoolgirl who was born in Britain but whom a US…
Received Negligent Financial Advice? Consult a Solicitor Without Delay!
If you believe that you have suffered loss due to negligent financial advice, there are powerful reasons why you should consult a lawyer straight away. In a case on point, an elderly couple who claimed to have been ill-advised to enter into an interest-only mortgage came within an ace of…
Employers – Are You Ready to Deal with Sexual Harassment Complaints?
Employers who do not have robust procedures in place for dealing with complaints of sexual harassment put themselves in harm’s way, both in reputational and financial terms. A building company found that out after mishandling a woman’s complaint that a colleague sexually molested her in the aftermath of an office…
Carers Not Entitled to National Minimum Wage for Hours Spent Asleep
Carers are often allowed to sleep during night shifts, keeping a listening ear – but not a waking eye – open for when their charges need them. In a ruling that answered what has long been an open question in the law, the Supreme Court found that, when assessing whether…
‘Simple’ Clause in Commercial Property Lease Triggers High Court Dispute
Commercial property leases can be long and complex documents, but it is often their most apparently simple clauses that give rise to dispute. That was certainly so in a High Court case concerning an airport hotel owner who was required to pay for its gas and electricity supplies ‘at no…
Woman Jailed for Pursuing Fraudulent £5.7 Million Clinical Negligence Claim
Against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, fraudulent compensation claims against the NHS appear nothing short of obscene. As a High Court case underlined, perpetrators can expect both financial ruin and, in extreme cases, imprisonment. The case concerned a woman who suffered injury due to a delay in diagnosing and…
This is Why You Should Make a Will When You’re Still Hale and Hearty
There are very good reasons why you should instruct a solicitor both to draft your will whilst you are still hale and hearty and to regularly update it. A High Court ruling served as a sad example of what can happen otherwise. The case concerned a devoted couple who built…
Radio Presenter an Independent Contractor, Tax Tribunal Rules
The vexed distinction between employees and independent contractors is a constant source of dispute, not least in the realm of tax. Each case has to be decided on its own unique facts and, in one case, the Upper Tribunal (UT) ruled that a radio presenter was genuinely freelance and was…