Legal News
20.08.10
The question as to whether employees who are off work due to sickness for more than a year are entitled to paid statutory holiday under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR) was dealt with in the case of Stringer and others v HM Revenue and Customs. more...
16.07.10
An accountant who defrauded his employer of nearly £900,000 over a decade was ordered to repay £150,000 and was sent to prison for three years. more...
15.07.10
A company that sought to give as evidence in court ‘without prejudice’ comments made by the company with which it was in dispute met with a firm rebuff from the Court of Appeal recently. more...
28.06.10
New rates for the National Minimum Wage (NMW) will come into force on 1 October 2010. more...
27.06.10
On 28 April, Companies House introduced a new ‘Company Name Availability Search’ as part of its WebCHeck service, which will return the ‘same as’ matches as defined in the Companies Act 2006. This will allow anyone wanting to set up a company to ascertain straight away whether the company name they are considering using is likely to be available. If so, don’t forget to check that the appropriate Internet domain name is also available!
The new facility can be found at: http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/miscellaneous/nameAvailability.shtml
26.06.10
Litigation can be expensive and there are good reasons in many cases for achieving a resolution by mediation when possible. The best course of action will depend on the individual circumstances of the case. more...
25.06.10
When senior employees leave a company, the commercial risks presented can be considerable. A recent case on this subject concerned a director who left the company he worked for and then set up in competition with it. more...
24.06.10
The Bribery Act 2010 received Royal Assent on 8 April 2010. It is an offence under the Act to bribe another person or to allow oneself to be bribed, and specifically it is an offence to bribe foreign public officials. more...
23.06.10
They promised we wouldn’t like it and they were right. Other than freezing Council Tax, there was precious little to cheer in the Budget other than the hope that it may have the desired effect of reducing the yawning deficit in the public finances. more...
16.06.10
Our own Jacqui Balchin, who heads HilliersHRW Solicitors' Personal Injury Department took time off to announce the winner of The Employee of the Year award at the FSB Bedfordshire Small Business Awards. more...
16.04.10
With the economy seeming to be slowly improving, businesses will be thinking about financing the expected expansion of trade. Borrowing cost often dominates the thinking, but it isn't all about the cost of the loan. more...
14.04.10
An attempt to register a Community Trade Mark (CTM) failed recently when the EU General Court agreed that the proposed mark 'CITRACAL' was too similar to an existing Spanish trade mark for a similar product. more...
31.03.10
During the recession, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have been willing to make ‘time to pay’ agreements with businesses struggling to meet their tax liabilities as they fall due. However... more...
30.03.10
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require all employers to carry out an assessment of workplace risks that could harm employees and to do whatever is 'reasonably practicable' to control these risks. more...
29.03.10
Lord Justice Jackson’s eagerly awaited final report outlining proposed changes to the British system of civil litigation has been published and promises a massive shake-up of the current system, which is considered to impose excessive costs on losers in litigation. more...
28.03.10
It hasn't taken the unscrupulous, long to realise that using blogs to 'plant' favourable comments about their products can be an effective way of duping readers for commercial advantage. more...
27.03.10
The Patents Act 1977 normally provides that an employee who creates Intellectual Property (IP) as a result of their work for their employer does not own the IP thus created. Although the patent rights will remain with the employer, the employee is able to claim compensation where these confer a ‘substantial benefit’ on the employer. more...
26.03.10
Companies House has announced that from now on its ‘WebCHeck’ company search service will be available all day every day…so, if a company owing you money is causing you to lose sleep, you can at least download their accounts in the middle of the night.
The WebCHeck service is available at http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk
26.03.10
British Sky Broadcasting Ltd was less than pleased when problems with the integration of its customer relationship management system led it to cancel its contract with IT firm Electronic Data Systems Ltd (EDS). That was as nothing, however, when it discovered that EDS had made false representations about the analysis it had done as part of the tender process under which it was awarded the work. more...
25.03.10
This budget summary looks at the most important changes announced by the Chancellor which will affect individuals. more...
24.03.10
This may well be Chancellor Alistair Darling’s last Budget, no matter what the outcome of the election in May. It certainly was a political Budget, with the most highly paid facing significant increases in tax and in National Insurance Contributions (NICs) from 2011, but some unexpected good news for smaller businesses. This summary looks at the most important changes announced by the Chancellor which will affect businesses. more...
20.03.10
When a partner retires, there will almost always be an amount due from the partnership to the partner or vice versa. A partnership agreement therefore normally contains a provision that the final partnership accounts for any period will bind the partners, so that there is agreement over the amount due to or from the retiring partner. more...
17.03.10
Every year, staff at HilliersHRW Solicitors organise a project to raise funds for a designated charity. Last year, one of their employees was made aware of a local boy, Jack Burnett, from Bromham, Bedfordshire who had become ill and diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in July 2007 when he was just four and a half. more...
22.02.10
A series of asbestos-related fines marks the beginning of a new Health and Safety campaign. more...
21.02.10
The Health and Safety Executive reports that nearly 11,000 workers suffered serious injury as a result of a slip or trip in the last year. A recent case in the Scottish Court of Session examined the extent of an employer’s liability after an employee slipped and was injured as a result of ice in the workplace car park. more...
20.02.10
The Government ’s tax breaks for 'low emission' cars give the advantage of a 100 per cent first year allowance. There is another way, however, to reduce motoring costs. more...
19.02.10
A recent prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) serves as a warning to company directors and business owners of the importance of implementing comprehensive, safe systems for working at height. more...
18.02.10
The Advocate General has recently given his opinion that the use of a competitor ’s trademark as a ‘keyword’, in order to trigger the appearance of one’s own advertisement when an Internet search is carried out, is not an infringement of the owner’s trademark. more...
17.02.10
If you enter into a business contract in good faith and it subsequently transpires that the contract was incorrectly authorised or otherwise invalid from the perspective of the other party ’s internal regulations, where do you stand? more...
16.02.10
The Pensions Act 2008 contains provisions which will make it compulsory for an employer to enrol qualifying workers aged between 22 and the state pension age who earn more than a "de minimus" amount into a pension scheme and to make contributions to the scheme. more...
05.10.09
The 2007 case involving Persimmon Homes and landowner Chartbrook Ltd. has now been decided in the House of Lords. The case turned on the meaning of an agreement which contained a ‘grammatical ambiguity’, which applied to a formula used to calculate the sum due under a property contract. This led Chartbrook to claim more than £4 million from Persimmon. Persimmon calculated its liability at under £900,000, basing its argument on pre-contract negotiations.
05.10.09
It is rare to see a petition under the Companies Act regarding the payment of excessive remuneration to a director, but the Scottish Outer House of the Court of Session had to deal with just such a case earlier this year.
05.10.09
Dubious business practice will always exist but normally becomes more prevalent and is more often uncovered in times when business is tough. A director who discovers dubious business practices within his company can find himself in a difficult situation. This is especially common when a director finds that the true financial position of a company has been disguised.
05.10.09
In a recent case a company director, Paul Edward Raine, was prosecuted for committing what the courts deemed a serious and deliberate breach of section 216 of the Insolvency Act 1986.
06.07.09
The media can now attend most private family hearings.
However, the media cannot attend hearings where judges facilitate conciliation or negotiation.
In addition there are restrictions on what can be reported and the media cannot see documents referred to.
Judges also have the right to exclude the media in certain limited circumstances.
Whilst there has been some interest from the media particularly in cases involving celebrities, it is envisaged that the novelty will wear off relatively quickly.
06.07.09
The weight to be given to pre-nuptial agreements signed abroad in divorce/financial proceedings in the UK was considered by the Court of Appeal in the case of Radmacher v Granatino.
The Court of Appeal found that the Judge initially dealing with the case did not give sufficient weight to the existence of the pre-nup which was signed in Germany.
Thorpe LJ stated that in future similar cases a Judge should give "due weight to the marital property regime into which the parties freely entered" but "this is not to apply foreign law". It is a "legitimate exercise of the very wide discretion that Judges have to achieve fairness between the husband and wife in ancillary relief proceedings".
13.04.09
HilliersHRW Solicitors LLP is pleased to announce that it acted on the sale of a local group of 3 companies known as the Holywell Group, which held a property portfolio of £9.6m to the AIM listed Hawtin PLC
18.03.09
From 6th April 2009 a completed Home Information Pack will be required from the first day a property is put on the market.
Forthcoming Events
HilliersHRW will have a stand at the Bucks County Show which this year is at Weeden Park, Nr Aylesbury, Bucks. We will be sponsoring the following classes again this year : Hunter Mare, Hunter Foal and Young Hunter.
Novotel Stevenage, Knebworth Park, Stevenage SG1 2AX.
If you or your family members have reached that stage in life where you are concerned about the cost of Care Home fees, who should manage your affairs and looking after the family wealth ...then this seminar is for you.
If you wish to attend this free seminar, please call 01438 346000 or on-line at www.rhg.co.uk to register.
Useful Downloads
A guide to conveyancing.
12 fast facts about employment law that could save you money.
