-
Disputes in the EU - Rules on Applicable Law
Where a dispute has a foreign element, one of the common problems is deciding under what jurisdiction legal action should be taken. This is avoided in many commercial contracts by specifying the applicable law in the contract, but in consumer contracts there... -
Administration of Troncs
The long-running series of disputes between employers in the hospitality industry and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) concerning the taxation of employees’ tips and their National Insurance (NI) status seems to have been concluded by the issue of ... -
Advice on Acquisitions Deductible
One common area of dispute between companies and the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is that of deductibility of expenses. One of the hottest areas of dispute is often whether an expense is a trading expense (deductible as part of the day-to-day running costs... -
Age Discrimination - Life After the Abolition of the Default Retirement Age
As a result of recent changes in the law, the last date on which an employer could lawfully notify an employee of a retirement dismissal using the statutory Default Retirement Age (DRA) provisions laid down by the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 ... -
Age Discrimination - Qualifications and Pay Structure
It is indirect discrimination for an employer to apply a provision, criterion or practice that is, on the face of it, age neutral but which puts people in a particular age group at a disadvantage, unless it can be shown to be a proportionate means of... -
Are You Data Friendly?
Many businesses regard the Data Protection Act 1998 as something that merely requires a lot of form filling and the payment of fees, but there is a lot more to it than that. The purpose of the Act is to protect a person's right to privacy with regard to... -
Assured Shorthold Tenancies Rights of Residential Landlords and Tenants
Assured Shorthold Tenancies - Rights of Residential Landlords and Tenants -
Bank Deposit Protection Rules for Businesses
In December 2010, new limits were announced for the levels of protection available for different investments underwritten by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS protects the deposits of small companies, which are those which meet... -
Bribery Act Guidance
The Government provides guidance for businesses on complying with the Bribery Act 2010 , which came into force on 1 July 2011. The Act was originally scheduled to take effect in April 2011, but its implementation was delayed to allow the final version of... -
Business Relief - Traps for the Unwary
Most business people know that for family businesses there are generous Inheritance Tax (IHT) reliefs, which generally operate to make assets used in the business exempt or partially exempt from IHT. The reliefs take various forms, but are have been... -
Buying from an Administrator - Take Care
With businesses becoming insolvent in large numbers, opportunities abound to acquire assets from their administrators. However, the low prices sought for the assets are due, at least in part, to the additional risk to the purchaser. Here are some of the... -
Can We Stop Them
Restrictive covenants (clauses which are normally found in contracts of employment and partnership agreements, which restrict the right of a person to compete with his or her firm) have always been a difficult area of law. The courts are able to strike out... -
Case Report: Dismissal due to stress contributed to by the employer
In McAdie v Royal Bank of Scotland [2007] EWCA Civ 806 the Court of Appeal endorsed the EAT's approach in finding that an employer could fairly dismiss an employee for ill-health capability despite the fact that the employee's stress-related illness was... -
Case Report: Ownership of contact lists - PennWell Publishing (UK) Ltd
The high court has held that where a journalist employee created and kept all his contacts (including those made before joining the employer) on his employers computer system, that list of information belonged to the... -
Case Report: Part-timers - dealing with bank and public holidays
McMenemy v Capita Business Services Limited (Inner House, Court of Session) This case considered the fraught issue of how to deal with bank and public holidays for part timers. Capita employed Mr McMenemy on a part-time basis to work on Wednesdays,... -
Case Report: Sick pay and disability discrimination
O'Hanlon v Commissioners for HM Revenue & Customs (CA) The Court of Appeal has confirmed the EAT's decision that when Mrs O'Hanlon's entitlement to sick pay had been exhausted under HM Revenue & Customs' sick pay policy, the employer's failure to... -
Case Report: TUPE and service provision changes
A recent employment tribunal decision, involving an employee at a PR agency, is the first time to our knowledge that the courts have looked at the provisions of the 2006 TUPE Regulations on service provision changes. This legislation introduced a new... -
Case Report: Unfair Dismissal - What weight should be given to a previous warning?
That has been a controversial issue in some recent cases. In Airbus UK -v-Webb the Claimant was employed as an aircraft fitter who had previously been given a final written warning in respect of being found washing his car in company time. It was made clear... -
Changes to Family Friendly Legislation
The Work and Families Act introduces measures intended to give more choice to families attempting to balance work and caring responsibilities. It imposes significant new obligations on employers. The period of statutory maternity pay has been... -
Collective Redundancy Consultation
Employers should be aware of the potentially serious financial consequences of failing to consult when making collective redundancies. If an employer is proposing to make redundant 20 or more employees at one establishment within a period of 90 days or... -
Collective Redundancy Consultation - Obligation to Consult in Special Circumstances
A recent case before the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) dealt with a situation that is quite common in the construction industry, whereby problems encountered on site require adjustments to the working and staffing arrangements in order to adapt to the... -
Companies Act 2006 Overview
The Companies Act 2006 became fully effective from October 1st 2009. Here are some useful sources of information on the Act. For more information and advice on your circumstances, contact us. Companies House Overview . Changes which came into... -
Companies Act Model Articles - Think First
Since the Companies Act 2006 came into effect, the incorporation of a company has been straightforward as the Act provides an easy to use set of model articles of incorporation. However, before you rush off and buy an ‘off the... -
Company Name Rules
You cannot incorporate a company using any name you like. Some names are prohibited (for example, those which suggest a connection with the Government or the Crown) and names will not be allowed if they are too similar to the names of existing companies. It... -
Company Disclosure Rules
The Companies (Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2008 set out the the requirements as to where and when company trading names, names of directors etc. need to be shown. The Statutory Instrument implementing the changes is both short and straightforward. In... -
Company Formation Checklist
You may have come across advertisements which make forming a company sound very easy, but before you go ahead there are some serious issues to think through. If you have decided that a company is the best vehicle for your new venture then here is a... -
Company Late Filing Fees
Companies filing their accounts after the due date are subject to late filing penalties which were last changed in February 2009. Private companies are required to file their accounts within 10 months of the end of the accounting period. Those that file... -
Company correspondence - do you know about the new rules
Company correspondence - Do you know about the new rules? Company law in England and Wales is in the process of being shaken up, with the Companies Act 2006 having received Royal Assent in November 2006. The Act is being introduced in phases, but due to... -
Compensation for Loss of Light
Following a recent case in which a dispute regarding a property owner’s right to light was unexpectedly dealt with by the granting of an injunction against a developer, a more recent case has offered guidance on how much compensation might be payable... -
Compromise Agreements
As a general rule, ‘out of court settlements’ of employment disputes are not legally binding in that they cannot exclude an employee's right to take the matter concerned to an Employment Tribunal (ET). A formal compromise agreement is one of the... -
Compromise Agreements - Tax Position Clarified
A compromise agreement is an agreement made between an employer and an employee who is having their contract of employment terminated. It sets out the terms under which the termination will take place and contains a provision that the employee will receive a... -
Considering Outsourcing
These days more and more processes are being outsourced (run by external contractors under a service agreement) by more and more businesses. It is particularly common to outsource IT functions and telephone call management. Outsourcing can offer many... -
Contaminated Fuel - Making a Claim
It has recently emerged, that the petrol contamination scare which has caused hundreds of cars in the South East to break down may be caused by silicone... -
Contractors Are Your Responsibility
A handbook produced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) outlines the responsibilities of both the contractor and the client in situations in which work is carried out by contractors rather then employees. It does not apply to circumstances in... -
Costs Awards in Employment Tribunal Proceedings
Costs orders are the exception, rather than the rule, in Employment Tribunal (ET) proceedings. However, where a claimant acts unreasonably in pursuing a claim, the ET can make a costs award in favour of the other party. In Dunedin Canmore Housing... -
Court of Appeal: Final word on the requirement of fairness for bank charges?
The Court of Appeal has now heard the ongoing litigation brought by the Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”) concerning the fairness of bank charges and has concluded that unarranged overdraft charges are subject to the rules of fairness. An... -
Damages for Wrongful Dismissal
The Court of Appeal has ruled that an employee who suffered a loss as a result of findings of personal and professional misconduct made against him in disciplinary proceedings that were conducted in breach of his employment contract, which would not... -
Data Loss - What to Do
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued guidance for organisations that lose personal data, having reported that it has been notified of nearly 100 such incidents to date. One of the less intuitively obvious suggestions is to think... -
Data Protection Act 1998
On 24th October 2007, all remaining provisions of the Act come fully into force including the need for Manual filing systems in existence before 24 October 1998 being required to comply fully with the Data Protection Directive... -
Data Protection Guidance for Landlords
The Information Commissioner's best practice guide for landlords - written to to assist them in complying with the Data Protection Act can be downloaded from the Information Commissioner’s website . The guide includes a checklist which is intended to... -
Dealing With Breach of Patent
When you discover that a business has breached your patent, what should you do? The answer to this question has two elements. The first is based on what you can do in law and the second is based on business strategy. Firstly, before picking a fight with... -
Dealing With Subject Access Requests
The Data Protection Act 1998 gives individuals the right to access information held about them by organisations. The Act governs how organisations can use the personal information they hold – including how they acquire, store, share or dispose of it.... -
Dealing with Employee Absence
Employee absences can be both costly and disruptive. It is advisable to have systems in place to measure and analyse these costs so that you can identify problem areas. Are there patterns of absence? Does a particular department have a below average record?... -
Direct Marketing Via E-mail - Regulations
UK law relating to the sending of unsolicited direct marketing material by electronic means are based on the EC Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications . A major aim of the Directive was to cut down on the amount of ‘spam’ that... -
Drug Policy - Recognising the Signs and What to Do
Research findings from Medscreen, based on drug testing carried out over the last ten years across a variety of professions, reveal that there has been a 3,000 per cent increase in the number of workers testing positive for cocaine. More than five per cent... -
E-Commerce Law - Do You Comply?
The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations introduced specific legislation to underpin e-commerce. If your business has an Internet presence then you need to make sure that you are not falling foul of these new rules. The Regulations do not just... -
Employed or Self-Employed?
Whether you are employed or self-employed makes a substantial difference to how you are taxed and the income tax liabilities of an employed person can be very different from those of a self-employed person with similar levels of gross income. The National... -
Employee Fraud - Fraud Act 2006
Employee fraud continues to rise as the recession continues to bite - however, the Fraud Act 2006 provisions make it easier to obtain convictions for fraud a than was possible under the predecessor legislation. Under the Act, fraud offences are: ... -
Employee Fraud: Warning Signs
Employee fraud was a boom area even before the recession started. ‘Targeted’ frauds, often backed by organised criminals, are also becoming more common. In these cases, an employee (often using a stolen identity) is ‘planted’ in... -
Employment Tribunal Statistics - September 2007
According to the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal statistics there was a 15% increase in the amount of tribunal claims last year (1 April to 31 March 2007), and a total of 132,577 claims. They also confirmed the average tribunal awards in...
Commercial Client
Latest News
Clarkson Wright & Jakes Ltd | Valiant House, 12 Knoll Rise, Orpington, Kent, BR6 0PG | Tel: 01689 887887 | Fax: 01689 887888
VAT number 205305119 | Clarkson Wright & Jakes Ltd is a private limited company Company number: 7529406
© Clarkson Wright & Jakes Ltd. Authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) ID Number: 558946
Legal Disclaimer | Accessibility Statement | Privacy Policy | Complaints Procedure | Site Map
search the site
Clarkson Wright & Jakes Ltd | Valiant House, 12 Knoll Rise, Orpington, Kent, BR6 0PG | Tel: 01689 887887 | Fax: 01689 887888
VAT number 205305119 | Clarkson Wright & Jakes Ltd is a private limited company
© Clarkson Wright & Jakes Ltd. Authorised and regulated Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) ID Number: 558946