Articles
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has announced that all Civil Service employees will be entitled to full parental pay from April 2015, when they choose to share parental leave. Currently, only mothers are entitled to full pay in this situation...
In yesterday’s Autumn Statement Chancellor George Osborne announced a significant overhaul of the rules governing Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), which will save money for 98 per cent of house buyers from today...
Under new Government plans, separated parents who refuse to pay child maintenance could be declined credit as a result...
Our client, who is an accountant, was sacked from his job with just one week’s notice. As he had no formal employment contract in place, the terms of his employment were therefore ‘implied’. We are now pursuing a wrongful dismissal claim for insufficient notice on behalf of our client in a civil court...
The trade union Unison has again been unsuccessful in its bid to overturn employment tribunal fees, but has been granted permission to appeal. The union’s first application to overturn employment tribunal fees was also rejected in February.
The European Court of Justice, the highest court of the EU, has ruled that obesity can constitute a disability – in some circumstances, where it could hinder ‘full and effective participation’ at work.
The Law Society has warned that over a million unmarried couples face the threat of inheriting nothing should their partner die without making a Will if they have dependent children. This applies equally to same sex couples who have not married or entered into a civil partnership...
A report launched by the Confederation of British Industry at their recent conference has called on the government to improve living standards by increasing the national insurance threshold and also by extending free childcare to working parents of one and two year olds...
UK lender the Halifax has said the number of first-time buyers rose to its highest level in seven years in 2014 to some 326,500. This is a leap of 22% over the previous year, and is being attributed to cheap mortgage rates and government schemes such as Help to Buy which only requires a small deposit compared to a traditional first-time buyer mortgage.
Relationship support charity OnePlusOne has released research showing that some 26% of British parents who live with their partner and children have contemplated divorce or separation in secret...
In a recent announcement, the Government is increasing the amount of compensation payable for employment law claims...
An employment tribunal has ruled that a heart specialist was unfairly dismissed after he raised concerns about a hospital’s failings which led to a patient’s death, including staffing shortages, workplace bullying and ‘appalling’ equipment...
The use of social media in our day to day lives can no longer be ignored. Unfortunately these accounts still need to be monitored after someone passes away...
The Supreme Court made a decision on 11th March 2015, which emphasised the importance of obtaining a clean break consent order, at the same time as parties get divorced...
A lawyer from the Midlands has helped a man to uphold his right to inherit under the will of his partner, the ecologist Elizabeth Walker, following a legal challenge by her daughters...
A study by ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) has found that agency workers are unaware of their employment rights, or and afraid of asserting them...
A new campaign has been launched for women who have been discriminated against at work while pregnant or due to having had a baby...
Bankruptcy is a confusing and complex area which can have adverse legal consequences. When they elect to make themselves bankrupt, many individuals fall into pitfalls that they did not foresee...
Good legal advice is increasingly crucial if working mothers are to avoid discrimination as they return from maternity leave, claims a Leicestershire employment lawyer...
Families with holiday homes in Europe have been advised to update their Wills following a change to EU succession laws, which now make it easier for British families to bypass prescriptive inheritance laws in countries such as France and Spain...
What are Terms and Conditions? I suspect there are a few of you scratching your heads and thinking of the screen you have to accept whenever you update your Apple Phone. Strictly speaking, they are and you’re right to think so. But what you really want to know is what they mean and what legal effect they have...
Leicestershire law firm Lawson-West has received dozens of calls from HSBC customers who are worried about their Wills following the bank’s decision to pull out of probate services...
The Chancellor announced yesterday that shared parental leave and pay will be extended to working grandparents, in order to increase flexibility for working parents and help them with the costs of childcare during the first year after their baby is born...
The worry of what will happen to your children when you pass away is something that concerns most parents. Unfortunately there is no guarantee that your children will be looked after by someone they are close to or indeed who you can trust when you pass away...
The Supreme Court has this morning ruled in favour of two ex-wives who want their divorce settlements re-analysed on the basis that their husbands misled them about how much they were worth...
We were asked recently to help a client challenge their neighbour’s planning application for a back garden development. The neighbour’s plan was to build a large ‘bungalow’ – we use the term ‘bungalow’ with some caution as in reality this was a two storey property utilising a mezzanine floor for bedrooms and bathrooms...
In a recent case heard at York Crown Court, a woman stole her sister's £50,000 inheritance by moving money out of their mother's bank account over a period of six years before she died. She is currently waiting to be sentenced for theft, and has been ordered to repay the money within six months...
Far from being confined to the playground, bullying is very much a feature of some people’s working lives as adults and can make the workplace a miserable and tense environment...
In a ruling hailed as game-changing, an ex-wife has been told by a judge that she cannot sue her former husband for another two years, following an “obsessive and unjustified” legal campaign she had conducted against him...
The widely publicised case of a disinherited woman who successfully contested her mother’s will has led more people to check their own wills, reports a Leicestershire law firm...
Dr Raj Mattu was employed as a cardiologist at the Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry in 2001, when he made ‘protected disclosures’ about dangerous overcrowding in patient bays which could have led to avoidable deaths...
Currently there is no such thing as a ‘no fault divorce’ which means that when a marriage breaks down, the person who starts divorce proceedings has to decide which factor to issue those proceedings on. If they are not prepared to wait for a period of separation, then blame has to be laid at their partner’s door...
A study by business experts has found that women suffer a ‘motherhood penalty’ which leaves them with poorer pay and lesser job prospects for decades after taking maternity leave...
The number of couples applying for a divorce is expected to rise significantly in January, with Monday 4th January seeing a surge in people seeking advice from family solicitors...
The European Court of Human Rights yesterday ruled that employers are allowed to read personal messages sent by staff during working hours over private messaging platforms...
Jo Edwards, the Chair of family law organisation Resolution has told MPs that the proposed steep rise in divorce fees would constitute a ‘tax on divorce’ and could not be justified in relation to the actual cost of proceedings...
Gender pay reporting is a regulatory framework announced by the Government, it means that businesses with over 250 employees will berequired to publish the mean and median gender pay gaps as well as the number of men and women in each quartile of their pay distribution...
One of the most frustrating moments as a probate lawyer is receiving a letter from the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) requesting a schedule of assets and liabilities as they are investigating payments made to the deceased. Often this process is drawn out and incredibly time consuming for all involved...
Social media is massive and very difficult to escape – it’s everywhere. Businesses use it to promote their services and individuals use it to chat with friends or to mull over the events of that day...
Nick Robertson, the founder of online shopping company ASOS, is one of the UK’s richest men. When he and his wife split up she wanted £110 million of his fortune whereas he thought she should receive £30 million, claiming that both ‘non-matrimonial property’ and his ‘special contribution’ should be taken into account. ASOS was founded in 2000 and the couple married in 2004...
In 2015, the average salary for men was £29,934 and £24,202 for women – a difference of £5,732 per year...
A recent case at the Employment Appeals Tribunal found that it does not count as discrimination if an employer discontinues an employee’s childcare vouchers during their maternity leave...
The process of getting divorced begins with a petition, the information detailed on the petition includes the names of the couple who wish to divorce, details about their children and the reason that the marriage has broken down. As part of the 2016 budget there will be an increase of 34% in the fees required to apply for the petition...
The well- known rule of forfeiture states that if you are responsible for the murder or manslaughter of a person, you cannot benefit from their estate...
The Ministry of Justice has published figures to show that since the introduction of fees payable for employment tribunals the success rate has fallen. Based on 21,500 cases in the third quarter of 2015/16 the figures show that 6% of cases were successful and 6% were not, whereas in 2012/13, 11% of claims were successful and 7% were unsuccessful...
As we have previously reported, the national living wage is going up from April 2016. Currently the rate is £6.70 per hour which will increase to £7.20 per hour next month for workers over the age of 25...
Changes introduced by the Children’s and Families Act 2014 have been in force since mid-April 2014. One such change has seen the introduction of compulsory attendance at a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM) for couples who are looking to begin Court proceedings in relation to their children or their finances...
Jonas Gutierrez was playing for Newcastle United football club when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2013. When he was well enough to return to the club after treatment he was loaned out to Norwich City for the remainder of that season...
Philip Rostant, who is a leading judge that specialises in employment law, has said that the only way to deal with discrimination of overweight people in the workplace is to introduce legislation so that they are able to sue their colleagues if they are rude or abusive about their weight...
