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The government is planning to appoint a Small Business Commissioner to help firms tackle late payment problems and unfair practices carried out by larger companies. The move comes after research by Bacs showed that small and medium-sized businesses are owed a total of £26.8 billion in overdue payments and that £10.8 billion is spent per
A businessman has failed in his attempt to overturn an injunction preventing him from competing with his former company and trying to poach its customers. The court heard that the businessman had been both a director and a shareholder of the company until 2013 when his employment was terminated. He sold back his shares and
The government is setting up a £26m fund to help developers speed up the process of providing starter homes for first-time buyers. The homes will be offered exclusively to buyers aged under 40 with a discount of 20% on market values. The £26m will be used to identify and purchase sites and prepare them over
The number of unmarried couples in the UK has more than doubled in the last 20 years, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics. Many cohabitants believe that they have the same legal protection as married couples but, unfortunately for them, this is not the case. They have few automatic legal rights,
The summer holiday season is drawing to a close. Employees have exhausted their holiday entitlement and are counting down to Xmas. Employers finally get a break from juggling workloads and arranging cover – but what about the employees who could not take their holiday because of sickness? Two scenarios that employers can face: 1. Your
A brother and sister have been removed as executors of their mother’s will because they could not work together and no longer trusted each other. The two siblings had been appointed as executors by their mother and were the main beneficiaries of her will. The brother lived in the same street where his mother had
Under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, a husband or wife can seek a divorce from their spouse if they can show that there has been an “irretrievable breakdown” of their marriage. This “irretrievable breakdown” has to be proven on one of five facts, either: 1. Adultery;2. Unreasonable behaviour;3. Desertion;4. Separation of two years with consent;
There has been an 11% increase in the number of landlords prepared to write off unpaid rent in order to speed up the process of eviction, according to figures released by Thomson Reuters. Researchers say the number of accelerated procedure notices jumped from 26,929 in 2013/14 to 29,821 in 2014/15. Speaking to the Solicitors Journal,
A hotel chef has won £11,000 compensation after he was “unfairly dismissed” for biting two police officers during a drunken row. The Employment Tribunal heard that James Harvey was the head chef at a hotel in Guernsey. Last March, he got into an argument with his girlfriend at the hotel and was accused of assaulting
A company had a multi-million pound contract terminated because it failed to foresee the extent of ground contamination on a development site and failed to carry out its own checks. The case involved a construction company that entered into a contract with the government of Gibraltar to construct a road and tunnel. The contract incorporated