-
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) can take a very strong line when it discovers that price information is passing between competitors with the result that the competition between them is diminished. This can include situations in which information about...
-
A businesswoman whose business fell victim to the recession has persuaded the family court that it would be appropriate for the settlement she had agreed to pay her ex-husband to be varied. The total settlement was £450,000, made up of: ...
-
Many people fail to make a will, thus causing problems for surviving family members. However, difficulties can also arise when a person makes several wills, particularly if these contain drafting errors. A recent case concerned a woman who died having...
-
When a shipyard worker was injured in an accident, he received a £7 million settlement from his employer. The ultimate cause of the accident was a defect in the design of equipment (a platform) that he was using, which had recently been installed at...
-
A businesswoman who was belittled as being ‘no more than a receptionist’ by her multi-millionaire husband has had her £2.7 million divorce settlement upheld after the Court of Appeal ruled that her ‘exceptional’ contribution...
-
When an elderly and ill woman was put under continual pressure by her brother-in-law to change her will in favour of his children, whom she rarely saw, her resolve finally cracked and in a bid to have a quiet life, she instructed her lawyers to draw up a new...
-
There are many potential benefits of buying a franchise, such as having access to well-established business and accounting systems, centralised marketing and a proven business model. Being part of a well-known national brand also has an appeal for many...
-
Changes in the system for dealing with child maintenance claims will soon be fully implemented, with cases currently dealt with by the Child Support Agency being transferred to the Child Maintenance Service. As part of this arrangement, a new formula has...
-
Who can challenge a company’s decision that has been improperly made? This question was the subject of a court hearing recently , when the owners of the ‘ultimate economic interest’ in shares in a company sought to overturn a decision the...
-
For a will to be valid, one of the conditions imposed by the Wills Act 1837 is that two witnesses must attest the will by signing and acknowledging the signature of the person making it (the ‘testator’) and must do so ‘in each...
-
The Court of Appeal has overturned a decision of the lower court to hand out suspended prison sentences to two non-residents who failed to pay child maintenance as ordered by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC). One of the miscreant...
-
When chocolate giant Cadbury sought to use the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 (SOGA) to make the firm that designed, built and installed a fire detection and control system that failed to prevent a major fire fully liable for its losses, the Court...
-
Many people will have read the recent reports of a 67-year-old lady, Marlene Howes, who was prosecuted for allegedly fraudulently claiming pension tax credits and for allegedly concealing that she had received a £50,000 legacy under her mother’s...
-
A mother who objected to her children being adopted by a gay couple has failed to convince the Court of Appeal to return them to her care . The Court ruled that there was no reason to doubt the prospective adopters’ ability to provide the...
-
When an offer to settle a legal dispute is made (called a ‘Part 36 offer’ by lawyers) and the court subsequently orders payment of a higher figure (in which case the award is said to have ‘beaten the offer’), the general rule is that...
-
When an elderly woman left a will that excluded one of her sons, who had been charged with (but not convicted of) several counts of fraud in relation to a business he ran with her other son, the disinherited son claimed that she had lacked the mental...
-
A man who was made bankrupt has failed in an attempt to persuade the court that, following his discharge from bankruptcy, he should be relieved of the duty to make payments due to his ex-wife. He had been ordered to pay her the sum of £450,000...
-
A recent case involving supermarket chain Somerfield (now part of the Co-Op) shows the wisdom of thinking through the implications of a contract before undertaking it. The supermarket chain made an agreement with a company called ParkingEye to monitor...
-
When an executor becomes responsible for administering the estate of a person who has died, he or she is required to gather in the assets of the deceased and to discharge from them any amounts owed by the deceased. A recent news item shows how important it...
-
When a Scottish council computerised its pension records, it failed to ensure that the paper records were appropriately disposed of – and the result was a £250,000 fine. After the work was completed, files were discovered to have been dumped in...
-
When a married, middle-aged multimillionaire became enamoured with a much younger woman, leading to an acrimonious divorce, a dispute over the family assets was inevitable. The husband had inherited an estate that included more than 1,500 acres of land and...
-
When an academic who had retired to Cornwall bequeathed the bulk of his estate to charity, the will was opposed by his nephew. The man, a widower, had realised that he needed help and could no longer live alone after a lawnmower disappeared from an...
-
When a child maintenance assessment is made, the court is entitled to rely on all the information available to it to set the appropriate liability to pay maintenance. This may or may not mean relying on disclosures of earnings made to HM Revenue and Customs...
-
Employee theft is often an exclusion in commercial insurance policies. When fashion retailer Ted Baker found that it had suffered a major loss due to employee theft of stock, AXA, the company’s insurer, declined to meet the claim on the ground that...
-
The son of a baronet who has fought his father through the courts for years over the sale of the family’s estate and his alleged right to support from family trusts has at last won a court decision in his favour . In making his decision, the judge...
