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 |
Redundancies involving senior staff often involve a compromise agreement under which the employee agrees to compromise their right to take a case to the Employment Tribunal in exchange for a payment. When a compromise agreement is being negotiated, it is very important to take legal advice, which raises the question of the allowability of legal fees.
In the past, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have dealt with this by way of an extra-statutory concession, which allows the employer to pay the employee’s professional fees and claim a tax deduction for the expenditure and the employee is not deemed to have received a benefit in kind for tax purposes, provided certain formalities are observed.
HMRC have now sought to regularise the position, but the draft regulations that have been published do not appear to extend the concession to compromise agreements which cover the compromise of certain types of potential claims, such as those under the Equality Act or those undertaken following a successful conciliation by ACAS.
Representations have been made to HMRC and it is to be hoped that the revised regulations will cover all forms of compromised claims.
Posted May 15th, 2011 in Employment |
Landlord hit with big bull for failing to consult with tenant
A very sizeable bill of £270,000.00 for necessary repairs on a residential block which would have otherwise been recoverable from leaseholders was found to be irrecoverable for a failure to consult.
This is an important Court of Appeal ruling based on the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and which applies to leases granted from 2003 onwards. The Act provides that a Freeholder must consult with long leaseholders before work is carried out. In the absence of consultation, the freeholder can only recover nominal amounts. The freeholder has one final option in these circumstances, having gone ahead without consulting, which is to apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal for special dispensation waiving the consultation requirement.
Tags: lease, Northampton solicitors, Property law
Posted May 14th, 2011 in Uncategorized |
Not many prosecutions are brought under the Consumer Protection From Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, which are designed to protect consumers form the activities of unscrupulous traders.
Recently several companies were taken to court by the Office of Fair Trading for breaches of the regulations.
One of the companies offered invitations to claim ‘prizes’ by sending unsolicited letters to people. The ‘prizes’ which were the subject of the prosecution were either an LCD TV (allocated to less than 1 per cent of the applicants) or a ‘Zurich watch’ which was allocated to more than 99 per cent of the respondents. The Zurich watch actually contained a movement made in Japan.
To obtain the prize, it was necessary to obtain a ‘prize code’. This was done by the ‘prize’ recipient telephoning a premium-rate number – which cost £8.95. They then had to send a further £8.50 because the watch was an ‘electrical item’. The total cost to the consumer was therefore £17.45 and the supplier made a profit of approximately £7 on each ‘prize’.
The court concluded that there was in reality, no prize: the claimant had bought the watch.
In each case, the OFT found that the Regulations had been breached and that the ‘prize’ element of the promotion was a sham.
There are many unscrupulous traders in the market and promotions that offer ‘free prizes’ are seldom genuine. There are also examples of companies that target vulnerable people (i.e. the recently bereaved).
If something looks too good to be true, it is almost certainly because it is. Do not commit yourself without thinking through your options.
Posted May 12th, 2011 in General |
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled that it is necessary to construe the wording of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 – and the Equality Act 2010 which supersedes it – in a manner which incorporates the legal principle of proportionality. The obligation to afford special treatment to a pregnant woman or a woman who is on maternity leave should not therefore extend to favouring her beyond what is necessary to compensate her for any disadvantages occasioned by her condition. The treatment should constitute a proportionate means of achieving this aim (Eversheds Legal Services Ltd. v de Belin).
John de Belin was made redundant following a redundancy exercise involving himself and another employee, a Ms Reinholz. Ms Reinholz was absent on maternity leave on the date selected for measuring one of the criteria used. This was ‘lock up’ – a measurement of the time between undertaking a piece of work and the receipt of payment from the client. Eversheds therefore accorded her the maximum score, in accordance with what was said to be its general policy applying to candidates for redundancy who were on maternity leave or away on sabbatical. The fact that Ms Reinholz was given the maximum lock up score tipped the balance in her favour and Mr de Belin was selected for redundancy.
The EAT held that the means adopted by Eversheds went beyond what was reasonably necessary in the circumstances. There were other ways of removing the maternity-related disadvantage to Ms Reinholz without unfairly disadvantaging Mr de Belin. In the EAT’s view, the most satisfactory way would have been to measure the lock up performance of both candidates as at the last date on which Ms Reinholz was at work, as this basis would have reflected her actual performance.
This case raises several questions for employers, not only with regard to the selection criteria used in any redundancy process but also regarding any differences between maternity and paternity pay arrangements. We can advise you to ensure your policies and procedures get the balance right.
Posted May 5th, 2011 in Employment |
Infringement of a trade mark need not be a visual issue: a trade mark can be infringed when the sound of the trade mark is infringed..
The case arose when the international toy manufacturer Hasbro alleged that its trade mark ‘PLAY-DOH’ had been infringed by a company selling ‘Play Dough’, an edible dough for children. The marks were not similar in appearance, nor were the products physically identical.
The defendants argued that PLAY-DOH had become synonymous with modelling clay and was thus so generic in meaning that it had lost its distinctiveness. It would not therefore qualify for trade mark protection. They also argued that if the words PLAY-DOH could be extended to cover ‘Play Dough’, then they lacked ‘distinctive character’, which is a necessity for a trade mark to be enforceable.
The court rejected both arguments.
It is good sense to make sure that you research trade marks before you start to use any trading style.We can assist you to make sure that you do not infringe others’ trade marks, and help you to protect your own trade marks and the rights attached to them.
Posted April 28th, 2011 in Commercial Litigation |
With all the hoop-la about the proposed change to the ‘no win, no fee’ regime, another set of proposals, which may well be of greater importance for many people has slipped under the radar of the popular press.
A new consultation paper proposes changes to the limits on claims to be heard by the lower courts. The proposals include:
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the limit of a claim which can be dealt with in the small claims court is to be increased from the current £5,000 to £15,000; and
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the minimum limit for a case to be sent to the High Court is to be raised from £25,000 to £100,000; and
In addition, the online system for settlement of smaller road traffic accident cases is to be adapted for use in all small personal injury cases up to £50,000 in value and trialled for use in claims for clinical negligence against the NHS.
Posted April 28th, 2011 in Civil Litigation, General |