Getting the Christmas Party Right

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

It’s that time of year again. Love them or hate them, the invitations to office Christmas parties will be arriving soon. For employers, parties pose a particular challenge.
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No Delaying New Rights for Agency Workers

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Despite calls from some quarters that the Government should delay the introduction of the new Agency Workers Directive, it appears that, after all, it came into force in the UK on 1 October 2011 without any changes. The effect is to provide equal tr...

Confidential Information and “Perpetual Injunctions”

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

A recent court case, The Hedgehog Golf Company v Hauser, has opened up new ground with regard to the extent of ex-directors’ obligations preventing them from revealing information about their former company to a new employer. In the case, an ex-dire...

High Court rules thousands of gym contracts are unfair

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

In a recent ruling, the High Court has held that minimum contract length terms and a number of other key terms in thousands of gym membership contracts, recommended and enforced by Ashbourne Management Services Limited, are unfair and hence unenforc...

Pensions “Black Hole” Deepens (Again)

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

As if the plunging stock market hasn’t reduced pension fund values enough, pensioners have been further hit by a recent ruling in the High Court which re-enforces pension funds’ discretion not to grant annual increases if they don’t have to.
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Claiming for Riot Damage

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

If your property has been damaged in the recent riots, you may well find that your insurance policy will not cover your losses. Most policies exclude damage resulting from 'riot', which in law, means when 12 or more people are present at the ...

Local Law firm backs Consumer Panel call for will writing to be regulated

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The Legal Services Board’s [LSB] Consumer Panel has thrown its weight behind the Law Society’s campaign to ensure that all will-writers should be fully regulated.
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Companies Look Out: Bribery Act In Force

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Companies need to be on the alert: there will be no ‘grace period’ after the Bribery Act comes into force from Monday 4 July 2011.
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Stop insurance companies selling personal injury lists

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

A local law firm today set out its support for former Justice Secretary Jack Straw''s report into fees for lists of accident claims paid to insurance companies, where he called for them to be abolished.
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Credit Card Agreement Enforceable

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT

In a recent case, the Court of Appeal decided a debtor, Patrick Brophy, must pay his credit card bill, following the failure of his bid to overturn a High Court decision.
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Payment Protection Insurance Saga Continues

Mon, 30 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The High Court last week dismissed attempts by Britain’s banks to overturn new rules on the sale of Payment Protection Insurance. But what is PPI? PPI is designed to cover a person''s loan or credit card repayments if they fall ill, have an accident ...

Divorce and Hidden Assets

Mon, 16 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The sensational allegations in the Scot Young divorce case has prompted us to urge parties contemplating divorce to be careful. William Donnelly, a partner says: "The current Scot Young divorce case just highlights the need to be honest about all the...

Default Retirement Age changes Creep Up on People

Wed, 04 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The law on age and retirement has changed. The Government has phased out the default retirement age (DRA) as of April 2011. Andrew Bryan, a partner says: "This is an important change that both employers and employees need to get to grips with quickly...

Payment Protection Insurance Complaints Soar

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Complaints about the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI) accounted for more than half of all new cases referred to the Financial Ombudsman service in the second half of 2010. The overall number of PPI complaints increased in the run up ...

Concern over new planning enforcement regime

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Changes proposed in the new Localism Bill could bring uncertainty and chaos to the property market. The Bill proposes changes to the planning system including strengthening authorities’ powers to tackle abuses of the system. The Bill will allow local...

Separating couples to be forced to consider mediation option

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

From April separating couples will be required to consider whether their disputes can be settled by mediation rather than through the courts, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly has announced. Under a new protocol, agreed with the judiciary, all parti...

When is a Holiday not a Holiday?

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:00 GMT

As we all know, the Cabinet has agreed that the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton on Friday 29 April 2011 will be marked by a public holiday. However, the announcement of an extra bank holiday does not increase any entitlement to holiday ...

You can’t take it with you! But You Can Leave Trouble Behind You

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

You can’t take it with you, so don’t leave your bereft family to fight over it. A new BBC series shows that writing a will is one of the most important financial and personal decisions a person should make. The series, You Can’t Take It With You, is ...

Confusion over when to charge the increased standard rate of VAT of 20 per cent

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Why is nothing ever simple?! We all know the standard rate of VAT increased from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent on 4 January 2011.However, it’s clear that some businesses are confused about what invoices to apply the new rate to. For any sales of stand...

Online Feedback

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Client satisfaction is extremely important to Churchers. We want to make sure that we can offer the best service possible to all our clients, always. One way we strive to obtain our ever improving service is from feedback provided by clients.
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Seasonal Opening Hours

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT

With the end of year festivities fast approaching, we would like to make everyone aware of our opening hours for all our offices here at Churchers Solicitors over the seasonal period:

December 24th: 9:00am to 1:00pm

Claims for Damages: Acceptance of Offers and Counter-Offers.

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT

When a claim is brought for damages for injury, both parties need to be aware of the position with regard to acceptance or rejection of offers and counter-offers of compensation.
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Right to Buy a House Even if Not Living There

Sun, 21 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Did you know that a tenant may have the right to buy the freehold of a house even if they don’t live there? Because of a recent decision in the Court of Appeal, this may be the case even if the “house” is not being used as a residence.
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Mothers Human Rights Claim Disallowed

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Council Did Not Breach Mother’s Human Rights in Baby Care Case
A mother whose child has been taken into care without due cause is not necessarily entitled to compensation.
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Consumer Protection Guidelines

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Local clients often find themselves badly treated by retailers. Now you might be in line for a better deal. The Office of Fair Trading has published guidelines for retailers.

Jeremy Patterson says
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Competition law and "legal professional privilege"

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT

For decades, English lawyers have lobbied the EU to try to have the law altered so that legal advice from an employed in-house lawyer was regarded as “privileged” (not to be seized or seen by EU investigators in competition law cases) in the same way...

European Contract Law

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The European Commission has published a Green Paper on contract law. Following on from that, the UK Government has issued a Call for Evidence which will lead to the UK’s response early next year.

Andrew Bryan, partner, says:-
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Whose Contract Terms Apply?

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Do you have terms and conditions of sale and purchase for your business? If not your legal position may not be properly protected.

Matthew Bailey says:
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Guides to Equality Act 2010 Published

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Are you an employee or do you employ people? Either way the Equality Act 2010 which is due to come into force in October 2010 may affect you. The Government has now published guides to the Equality Act.

Andrew Bryan says:
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New Bribery Act Coming Into Force

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Companies need to revise their policies and guidance to employees in the light of the Bribery Act 2010. The government has recently announced that the implementation date will be April 2011 which does not leave much time to revise procedures. ...

Divorce and Disclosure

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Some men and women lie about their income and assets on divorce and were in marriages where neither spouse knew the financial position of the other, as they kept this secret from each other during marriage. Although the English courts may give more ...

Buying and Selling a Business

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Parts of the economy are picking up and business sales and purchases are on the increase. The new tax rules on business sales have led to some queries to lawyers. Not all have got off to the bad start from which Ocado has recently suffered on its re...

Sorting out your legal affairs in 2010

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The Supreme Court (formerly “the House of Lords”) decided in March that local residents who regularly walked over a Council owned Golf Course and took their dogs for walks there could register it as “Common Land” under the Commons Act 2006. It is ra...

Forming Contracts – Tekdata – the Battle of the Forms

Sun, 04 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

At the end of last year the Court of Appeal had to look at a legal issue which arises very frequently in practice – whether a seller’s or a buyer’s contract terms apply. This is known as the “battle of the forms”.
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Bribery Bill Passed

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

A new law on bribery is set to come into effect later this year when the Bribery Act 2010 comes into force. On 7th April the Bribery Bill passed its third reading in a “wash up” session in the House of Commons after the general election date was decl...

A New Tax Year – Finance Act 2010

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The new tax year is a good time to put your personal tax affairs in order. Are you taking full advantage of all personal tax reliefs? Have you taken lawful tax avoidance measures to reduce the amount of tax you, or indeed your company, are paying? ...

Terminating Contracts - Shell and stuff

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

In March, the court looked at termination of contracts in a case which could be very important in many other contract termination situations. Shell failed to recover $15 million as the termination of the agreement was not done in the matter in which...

Data Protection - All Change

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Personal data about all of us is held by employers, companies and others. The Data Protection Act 1998 provides protection for that data. In 2010 it was announced that penalties for breach of the legislation may rise to £500,000 and the registration ...