The UT (Lands Chamber) has heard an interesting appeal from the FTT (Property Chamber) involving breach of covenant of a lease. A property was converted into flats without planning permission – the court had to consider whether a term could be implied into the lease that a tenant would comply with its legal obligations. The …
Continue reading “Covenant – not implied”
Property practitioners must keep a close eye on the progress through the legislature of the Renters Rights Bill. Much legislation on leasehold and other matters has been proposed in recent years and has fallen by the wayside – but the government seems committed to this Bill which will see the biggest change to the private …
Continue reading “Renters Rights Bill – progress”
The new family court reporting provisions have now been rolled out across all family courts in England and Wales as of 27 January 2025. The rollout, approved by the FPR Committee, follows a successful pilot which began two years ago. According to a judiciary statement, there have been no known breaches of anonymity in reporting …
Continue reading “Practice – reporting provisions”
The employment tribunals have recently considered a number of cases involving unlawful deduction from wages (see our Dec 2024/Jan 2025 edition, p17). The EAT has heard a case involving incorrect calculation of holiday pay over three years. The case summary is as follows: ‘SUMMARY UNLAWFUL DEDUCTION FROM WAGES The Respondent conceded that it calculated the …
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The EAT has heard a case arising from a redundancy exercise where a claimant on maternity leave thought that the job had been kept open. The case summary is as follows: ‘Unfair Dismissal The claimant was on maternity leave when a redundancy exercise took place in which 21 team leader posts were reduced to 16. …
Continue reading “EAT – redundancy and maternity leave”
An LA has been severely criticised by a judge in the course of his ruling refusing a birth mother direct contact with a young girl. Adoption lawyers may be aware of a growing appetite for permitting direct contact post-adoption – but the judge in this case refused it for several reasons. A birth parent can …
Continue reading “Adoption – post-adoption contact”
The courts will not set aside an adoption order unless there are highly exceptional circumstances. Here, the birth mother (A) sought to have adoption orders set aside in respect of 12 and six-year-old siblings (she had previously made several unmeritorious applications in relation to the children). A also applied for contact orders with the children. …
Continue reading “Adoption orders – revocation”
In excluding evidence as inadmissible hearsay, the trial judge had erred in law in principle. At issue in this case was whether certain evidence was inadmissible hearsay. The four defendants are awaiting trial for money laundering offences. The case against them is that they purchased Apple gift cards to launder the proceeds of frauds perpetrated …
Continue reading “Evidence – hearsay”
New mandatory disregards to the financial eligibility tests for criminal legal aid have been introduced (under The Civil and Criminal Legal Aid (Financial Resources and Contribution Orders) (Amendment) Regulations 2024). From 20 November 2024, applications for criminal legal aid made from that date are affected. Clients already receiving legal aid (and paying legal aid contributions) …
Continue reading “Legal aid – means testing”
The SC has heard a tragic case which considered the extent of the tort of negligence. The case summary is as follows: ‘Background to the Appeal The law on the tort (that is the civil wrong) of negligence draws a fundamental distinction between liability for acts and omissions or, put another way, between making matters …