A bisexual prison officer who was taunted by colleagues as ‘gay’, ‘poof’ and ‘vermin’ was victimised and unfairly dismissed. That was the decision of the Employment Tribunal in a case involving 40-year-old Ben Plaistow and HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes. Mr Plaistow began working at the prison in September 2014. Within a few weeks he
A group of homeowners whose flats are overlooked by the Tate Gallery have lost their claim that their privacy was being infringed by tourists who were able to see into their balconies. The flats are in a development close to the Tate Modern art gallery in central London. Their living areas look directly on to
The High Court has allowed a family to correct an error in a trust fund that would have had costly tax implications. The case arose out of financial arrangements outlined in the will of a man who died in 2015. He bequeathed £4.2m to be held on trust for the benefit of his widow and
The government is considering a stamp duty surcharge for non-UK resident homebuyers to reduce house price inflation and provide funds to help the homeless. The Treasury is conducting a study to consider how a new 1% increase to stamp duty costs for non-UK residents buying residential property in England and Northern Ireland would work. This
The Family Court has ruled that a 10-year-old boy who was abducted by his father and taken to England should be returned to his mother in Portugal. The mother and father, who also had a daughter aged 16, had separated in 2009 and subsequently divorced. In 2014, the father relocated to England but travelled to
A financial broker has succeeded in preventing a commercial lender from approaching its clients. The case involved Medenta Finance Ltd, which specialised in financial products in the medical and dental market. It had acted exclusively for Hitachi Capital UK Ltd. Under a 2011 agreement, Hitachi provided finance for the sale of products through suppliers introduced
The government is planning a new system for buying and selling homes that it hopes will reduce the number of failed transactions. Currently, house buyers can have an offer accepted for the purchase of a home but then pull out at the last minute causing great inconvenience to the seller. The same problem can happen
Nearly half the people in England and Wales still believe in ‘common law’ marriage, with many cohabiting couples unaware of the risks they run if their relationship breaks down. A survey carried out by the National Centre for Social Research and Exeter University found that only four out of 10 people realised that cohabitation does
The High Court has outlined the issues to be considered when deciding whether a teenage father should be told that he has a child if the mother doesn’t want him to know. The case involved a mother who had become pregnant at 13 but was unaware of her pregnancy until her waters broke. Her family
The government is planning more protection for pregnant women and new parents to prevent them losing their jobs when they return to work after having children. It’s put forward proposals that the legal protection against redundancy for pregnant women and new mothers on maternity leave is extended so that it continues for up to six