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This story caught my eye this week as it has been reported that the multi-millionaire hairstylist Vidal Sassoon has cut out his adopted son David out of any inheritance of his vast fortune. Sassoon died in May last year following a battle with leukaemia,...
For existing home owners and those with dreams of becoming home owners one day, the Budget 2013 provided some welcome relief to what is often an uphill struggle to find the hefty deposit now needed to get on, or move up, the housing ladder. In his Budget...
A landlord’s requirement to consult leaseholders about major service charge works has always been a difficult area for landlords. A small error in any stage of the consultation process could render the consultation defective and as a result limit the...
If you are an employee who has recently been dismissed, or an employer who is currently defending a claim for unfair dismissal there is one very important question to ask. How much compensation could the Tribunal award? Following a successful claim for...
In the recent case of R v Huhne & Pryce, a wife had taken penalty points on behalf of her husband which resulted in both parties being convicted of perverting the course of justice. The motivation for this at the time of the original speeding offence...
Iris Jolly died in October 2010, leaving her whole estate, worth around £500,000, to her two friends Richard and Pamela Phythian. She was said to have done this because her relatives were not taking enough notice of her in her final years. Iris was 80...
The High Court last week handed down their judgment in the case of Schrader v Schrader [2013] EWHC 466 (Ch), which was a Will dispute over the estate of Jessica Schrader, who had died in January 2008, at the age of 98. Jessica has made a Will in April 2006,...
The rate of business insolvencies has fallen in January 2013 to its lowest rate since June 2007 according to figures from Experian’s Insolvency Index. It is also reported that personal insolvencies have dropped by over 13% over the past 12 years. ...
The Telegraph has recently reported that gagging orders (also known as ‘compromise agreements’) which prevent NHS whistleblowers raising concerns about patient safety are to be banned. NHS staff leaving their employment will instead be given a...
Drivers who were convicted of speeding on the M42 motorway may be able to challenge the conviction. The warning comes after the Crown Prosecution Service alerted Warwickshire Police to the fact that the font used to display variable speed limits on some...
A defendant can plead guilty and then seek to challenge that conviction as being unsafe as evidenced in the case of SAS sniper Danny Nightingale. The lawyers for Mr Nightingale argued that he had been placed under ‘improper pressure’ to plead...
The health and social care system is struggling to deal with patients with dementia according to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which has just published its Care Update (Issue 2: March 2013). According to the CQC’s findings, in 78 of 151 Primary...
The Court of Appeal is to consider again the case of Kevin Lane, after instructing the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to review ‘particular points’ relating to the conviction. Kevin Lane was convicted of the murder of a local business...
Some deaths at Royal Bolton Hospital may have been wrongly attributed to septicaemia, a report has found. It was revealed by the Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group that in March 2011 to April 2012 there were 800 recorded cases of septicaemia at the...
The Banking Reform Bill is being debated in Parliament today. The Bill was implemented in the wake of the LIBOR rigging scandal and the interest rate swap (IRS) mis-selling which has affected thousands of businesses in the UK. LIBOR rate rigging relates...
There have been 26 deaths involving blind cords across the UK since 1999, 13 of which have occurred since the start of 2010. Research indicates that most accidental deaths involving blind cords happen in the bedroom and occur in children between 16 months...
Council Tax Benefit currently provides 5.9 million low-income families (more than any other means-tested benefit or tax credit) with support towards their Council Tax liability. From April this year however, the full refund of council tax support will no...
A press release from the OFT today details its findings following a review of the pay day loan market and its providers. As a result of those findings 50 payday lenders are being given 12 weeks to clean up their business practices or they risk losing their...
The following article was first published on Lexis®PSL Crime on 8 February 2013. Click here for a free 24 trial of Lexis®PSL. 08/02/2013 Crime analysis: What next for disclosure of convictions, cautions and warnings? Mike Pemberton, partner...
The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is expected to tell the Commons today of the “shocking underperformance” of the NHS, leading to an estimated 30,000 premature deaths each year in the UK. His comments are prompted by a report published in The...
The Department of Health has recently surveyed 101,000 doctors, nurses and paramedics of which, 37% of them revealed they would not recommend their own hospital to friends or family. The study found that there were only eight Trusts where 90% or more of the...
Thousands of potential victims of trafficking were identified in the UK in 2011. Around 22% of the trafficked individuals are trafficked for the purpose of forced labour.Thousands of potential victims of trafficking were identified in the UK in 2011. Around...
It has been reported that the government is backing the insolvency profession by creating proposals to prevent suppliers holding struggling business to ransom. Suppliers such as utility providers can terminate a contract where a business enters into a formal...
Tewkesbury Council in Gloucestershire has defended plans to provide a specially adapted six-bedroom home to a resident with 11 children. The controversial announcement has been labelled a ‘scandalous’ use of public money. But despite which view...
In R v Fletcher (2012), an IPP sentence was quashed and a restricted hospital order substituted in its place as the Judge had not properly been informed as to the appellant's mental state. The original reports focussed on mental illnesses which...
