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On Friday 29th January 2016, the High Court dismissed a heterosexual couple’s application for judicial review of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 stating that the legislation did not discriminate between heterosexual and homosexual couples. Case information Rebecca Steinfield and her partner of 5 years, Charles Keiden argued that heterosexual couples, like same sex couples, should
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that an employer had been entitled to dismiss an engineer who used the company’s email system to communicate with his family. However, businesses should not see that as a green light for casual monitoring of staff emails. The case involved a Romanian company that set up
The number of people challenging what they consider to be unfair wills has risen by 20% over the last 10 years. There is also a growing tendency for people to consider that they are entitled to inherit their parents’ wealth, even if their parents want to leave some or all of their money to charities,
Businesses can expect to face major financial difficulties over the coming year, according to research by the insolvency specialists, Begbies Traynor. The company’s Red Flag Alert, which monitors the financial health of UK companies, found that 268,898 businesses ended the final quarter of 2015 suffering significant financial distress. That was a 17% increase on the
Thousands of divorce settlements may have to be recalculated due to an error on a form on the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) website. The error involves Form E, which is shown on the website and is used to record the financial details of divorcing couples including their assets and liabilities. It’s been discovered that the
A court has refused to return an abducted child to his mother even though he was taken illegally by his father. The court accepted that it was against the boy’s interests to be sent back to his mother and that he had made it clear that he did not want to live with her because
The government decision to end the special arrangement that helped to fund insolvency litigation has met with widespread criticism from business and legal professionals. The trade body R3 said it would amount to a “half-billion-pound pay day for rogue directors”. The controversy arose when the government confirmed that from April this year, insolvency litigation will
A company director has been disqualified for eight years after failing to account for missing assets and funds at a time when his business was struggling to stay afloat. The company went into liquidation owing nearly £600,000. An investigation by the Insolvency Service found that when the debts started to mount up, the director had
The government has begun a review to find ways to reduce the regulation burden on construction firms. It’s part of a move to meet the growing demand for new houses. Ministers say they want to hear the views of all those involved in building homes, including developers, planners and trade associations. The aim is to
Ministers have urged employers to start preparing now for the National Living Wage (NLW), which comes into effect on 1 April this year. Research carried out on behalf of the government suggests that 93% of businesses support the move but many haven’t yet started to prepare. They’re being urged to follow four simple steps. •