Read our latest articles, news briefs and legal updates across all our different services.
Constructive dismissal is where an employer has committed a serious breach of contract that the employee’s only option is to resign in response to the employer’s conduct. In order to bring a successful claim, the employee will need to show that: Their employer was in repudiatory breach of their employment contract; They resigned in response
I have less than two years’ employment. Can my employer dismiss me without a reason? Employees can only usually claim unfair dismissal against an employer if they have a minimum of two years’ service. However, there are exceptions to this rule. If an employee is able to establish an automatically unfair or discriminatory reason for
The new ‘No-Fault Divorce’ legislation came into effect from April 2022, but what does this mean and what has changed for separating couples? Thomas Palmer, a solicitor in the Machins Family Team has some FAQs! What was the old divorce law? Under the old law, those starting the divorce process would have to prove their
Victims of domestic abuse will no longer be cross-examined by their attackers in family and civil courts under new measures which have now come into force. The change is part of the government’s Domestic Abuse Act (2021). It places a legal bar on parties cross-examining each other where there is evidence of abuse. It follows
A fashion designer in her early fifties who was passed over for promotion has been awarded £96,000 after making an age discrimination claim. The case involved Rachel Sunderland, who had worked as a knitwear specialist for Superdry since 2015. Sunderland had 30 years’ experience in the industry and had worked for well-known brands such as Fang Bros
A new insurance scheme has been developed to enable people living in high-rise buildings to sell their homes in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy. Following the fire in 2017, mortgage lenders became reluctant to lend to buyers of flats in high-rise buildings, and sales dropped rapidly. To provide assurance, a building industry
An insurance company has been granted permission to transfer the management of three policies to Belgium so that they can be conducted in the European Economic Area (EEA) following Brexit. UK-based insurance policies are no longer able to exercise passporting rights to provide cross-border services and conduct business in the EEA following Britain’s exit from
A couple have won a legal dispute with their landlord after a disagreement over the meaning of the terms of their lease. The case involved a couple, who had leased a flat from AHGR Ltd since 2009. They were leaseholders of a unit in a block of which AHGR was the freeholder. The planning permission
Supermarket chain Tesco has successfully appealed an injunction that prevented it from terminating employees’ contracts in order to offer new contracts on less favourable terms. The issue goes back as far as 2007, when Tesco shut several distribution centres and opened new ones elsewhere in the country. The existing distribution staff were offered an enhanced
The High Court has ruled that a man’s will that existed only in draft form on a computer, but which was signed by two reliable witnesses, should be accepted as valid. This is a highly unusual decision because generally, the original will, signed in the presence of two witnesses present at the same time, must