Legal Aid controversy continues
There are many aspects to the ongoing argument about legal aid cuts. Perhaps the most compelling is simply that the proposed cuts will not result in costs savings for taxpayers, but instead higher costs on the state.
Aside from the moral arguments about potentially removing access to justice for between 500,000 to 650,000 cases, Citizens’ Advice advise that for every £1.00 of legal aid spent on benefits advice, the state saves up to £8.80, and for every pound of legal aid spent on employment advice, the state saves up to £7.13.
Posted June 15th, 2011 in Uncategorized |
Health & safety law hampering the UK ?
A survey of some 6,000 businesses has unsurprisingly found that many consider that UK health & safety law compliance costs are making British business uncompetitive. Clearly, this is a controversial area as healath & safety is vitally important but few would argue against simplifying the rules, which are overly complex. Calls for this are increasing following the publication of Lord Young’s report, “Common sense, common safety” which is well worth a read and which has led to the beginning of a different approach being rolled out over the next 18 months by the Health & Safety executive.
Posted June 15th, 2011 in Uncategorized |
Human Rights & School discipline
Is there any area of law left not susceptible to a challenge on Human Rights grounds ?
Many would say that some rights for teachers to be able to discipline school pupils are long overdue, and the Government seems to have acknowledged this in the Education Bill. However, before this Bill can even become law, commentators are suggesting that the proposed laws, including rights for teachers to search pupils for weapons or drugs or delete photos from mobile devices may breach human rights. As with many potential Human rights arguments, parts of the Human Rights laws can be argued either way. A pupil may argue that their right to privacy is being breached but the school can counter argue that it has a duty to other pupils to prevent bullying or harassment. All in all, this is common sense gone mad !
Posted June 15th, 2011 in Uncategorized |
When a family is being housed, the provision of separate, self-cont
ained flats with no common living areas does not mean that accommodation had been made available such that the members of the applicant’s family could ‘reside together’ in the ordinary meaning of the phrase.
Posted May 19th, 2011 in General |
Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd., which became the first company to be convicted of corporate manslaughter (under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007) in February of this year, has lost an appeal against its conviction.
The company was convicted following the 2008 death of geologist, Alexander Wright, 27, who died when a trench he was working in collapsed.
Posted May 19th, 2011 in General |
Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), which was sold aggressively by many of the clearing banks during the debt boom
of the 1980s and 1990s, has led to large provisions being made for losses as the banks have abandoned attempts to fight mis-selling claims.
Thousands of customers w ere sold PPI policies, which undertook to cover loan repayments on lo an in the event that the borrower became unemployed or fell ill and was unable to make the repayments. The policies were extremely profitable for the banks because the claim rates were very low and the policy costs were high.
However, following widespread complaints and successful litigation, the banks have abandoned their struggle and have earmarked more than £5 billion to meet claims.
Posted May 19th, 2011 in Civil Litigation, General |
Keeping company records up to date is not always a top priority for the directors of smaller companies. However, failing to keep the shareholders’ register up to date can have a downside if a share transfer has occurred but the new owner’s name is not entered into the register of members.
The problem is that under the Companies Act 2006, except in very limited circumstances, the person shown as a member in the register of members is a member and a person not shown isn’t – until the register is rectified.
This can have practical effects such as making notices of meetings invalid, invalidating votes of shareholders and so on and can affect, as it did in a recent case in the Supreme Court, whether or not one retains the rights attaching to shares transferred for financial purposes into the names of nominees.
Contact us for advice on company secretarial and company law matters.
Posted May 17th, 2011 in General |
The number of businesses in the UK which are suffering from ‘significant’ or ‘critical’ financial problems on the first quarter of 2011 has risen to 186,000, according to a report by insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor. This is an increase of 26 per cent over the figure for the third quarter of 2010 and is 15 per cent more than the same quarter in 2010.
Another report shows a 4 per cent jump in the number of retail businesses at ‘high risk’ of insolvency and there has also been a 15 per cent increase in the number of retails using company voluntary arrangements compared with 2010.A
report by accountants PwC also revealed an increase of more than 12 per cent in corporate insolvencies with retailing the worst-hit sector.
Things are tough in retailing and the building industry was recently identified as having had a particularly bad winter.
For advice on managing your trade risk, contact us.
Posted May 16th, 2011 in General |
First Injunction to include social media
Up to now, injunctions forbidding certain specified actions have not included social media but often have included other forms of media such as TV, radio or print.
The groundbreaking High Court Order which includes facebook and twitter, in fact does nort relate to a celebrity case but instead a court of protection case, which will typically relate to sensitive issues relating to children or others who are legally vulnerable.
It should be remembered that part of the difficulty with social media and the internet generally is that there can be jurisdictional issues. Whilst an injunction order may include and relate to legal entities which are not UK based, it is another matter whether in reality there will be implications for non-compliance by an entity outside the jurisdiction.
Posted May 14th, 2011 in Uncategorized |
IT Security breach prevention tips, practical & legal
1. Familiarise yourself with IT and data security law
2. Carry out regular reviews of your online security, test firewalls, keep a proper log of all passwords and change them regularly
3. Always ensure all computers in your network have string and up-to-date anti-virus software
4. Consider levels of access to information in your organisation, review and update regularly
5. Don’t forget physical security;
6. If you allow remote access to your network all the above considerations also apply to the remote location for access
7. Train staff and enforce policies consistently
Posted May 14th, 2011 in Uncategorized |
