Latest News
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by a casino company against a ruling that it had failed to show that apportioning VAT on overhead costs by reference to floor space gave rise to a fairer and more reasonable result than the standard,...
The Upper Tribunal (UT) has allowed a landowner's appeal against the rejection of his application to be registered as the proprietor of a parcel of land on the basis of adverse possession. The landowner and the owner of adjoining land both carried on...
The High Court has rejected a son's claim that he was entitled to inherit his father's farm based on promises his father had made during his lifetime. The son's claim that his father's last two wills were invalid was also rejected. The father had died in...
The Court of Appeal has dismissed a supermarket chain's appeal against a decision of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) upholding the validity of a trade mark it was alleged to have infringed. The mark was registered for goods and services...
A man has secured compensation for hearing loss as a result of noise exposure during his time in the Royal Navy. Despite being regularly exposed to high levels of noise from weapons and machinery, he was not provided with adequate hearing protection. Over...
The government has announced the rates of the National Living Wage (NLW) and National Minimum Wage (NMW) which will take effect from 1 April 2026. In announcing these increases, the government has accepted in full the recommendations made by the Low Pay...
A holidaymaker has obtained five-figure damages for injuries she suffered in a fall on a flight of stairs in her hotel during a package holiday. She was on her way to the hotel's restaurant when the accident happened. The lighting in one of the flights of...
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) have fined a self-employed lead generator £200,000 for sending unsolicited text messages regarding debt reduction schemes and energy saving grants. The lead generator had previously come to the ICO's...
When deciding what is in the best interests of a patient who lacks capacity to make decisions about their care, the courts will take into account any wishes and feelings the patient has previously expressed, as well as the medical evidence. Recently, the ...
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has found that the Employment Tribunal (ET) did not err in law in rejecting a postman's complaints of discrimination because of something arising in consequence of disability and unfair dismissal ( Kirby v Royal Mail...
A man who had to have a finger on his left hand amputated following a workplace accident has obtained a compensation settlement. The 65-year-old man, who worked as a manufacturing technical manager, was investigating a problem with a packaging machine when...
From 1 December 2025, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) deposit protection limit is increasing from £85,000 to £120,000. If you hold deposits or savings with a UK-authorised bank, building society or credit union and it goes out...
Under Section 168 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 , a landlord under a long lease may not serve a notice of forfeiture on a tenant in respect of a breach of covenant unless the tenant has admitted, or the appropriate court or tribunal has...
A woman who was forced to give up a promising career as an athlete after undergoing foot surgery has secured damages. After experiencing pain in her toe, she consulted a foot and ankle surgeon and was told that she had a small bone spur. The surgeon assured...
From January this year, new reporting provisions were introduced in family courts in England and Wales, following a successful pilot scheme. The government has published guidance on the new regime for parents and family members involved in family court...
Damages have been obtained for a former nurse who suffered a broken ankle when she stepped into a pothole. She had gone out for a walk and was crossing the road when she walked through what she thought was a puddle but was actually a deep pothole filled...
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an umbrella company's appeal against determinations issued by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in respect of Income Tax (IT) and National Insurance Contributions (NICs), finding that the company did not have overarching...
A man who suffered permanent disability after he was involved in a collision while riding his motorbike has secured substantial compensation. He sustained a spinal cord injury in the collision and was left with no motor or sensory function below his chest....
A homeowner has succeeded in his application for a boundary determination after his neighbours extended their driveway and built a fence in front of his window. The homeowner had bought his house in 2021. A few months later, the neighbours had dug up part...
The High Court has upheld the validity of a codicil to a woman's will which left the family farm to her two daughters and dismissed claims by her grandsons that she had promised the farm to them. The woman had passed away in 2020 at the age of 96. A will...
If a UK domain name held by someone else is similar to your own name or trading style, you can seek to have it transferred to you by making a complaint to Nominet UK through its Dispute Resolution Service (DRS). To succeed in a DRS complaint, however, it is...
An elderly woman who slipped on a wet floor in a supermarket has obtained compensation for the injuries she sustained. She was walking past the fresh flower stand when she slipped on water and petals that had fallen onto the floor. The accident left her...
A woman who was dismissed from her job at a company that provided accountancy services has been awarded £14,120 in compensation after the Employment Tribunal (ET) found that she had been unfairly dismissed ( Lanuszka v Accountancy MK Services Limited ...
Taxpayers who are unsure how to deal with any correspondence they receive from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) would be well advised to seek professional assistance, as was demonstrated by a recent case in which the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) refused a...
A man who suffered loss of vision after a delay in diagnosing an eye infection he developed following cataract surgery has secured compensation. The man had been seen by ophthalmologists on several occasions after undergoing the operation, with symptoms...
The Supreme Court has ruled in favour of a developer which had unsuccessfully applied to the local council for discharge of conditions attached to a grant of planning permission. The developer wished to build a mixed-use development that included 650...
A manufacturer of glass bottles has been fined £600,000 following an incident in which a worker was burnt by molten glass and hot water. The worker had been using a shovel loader to clear waste molten glass and hot water from the floor. There was no...
The Court of Appeal has granted a wife leave to pursue an application for financial relief in England against her former husband, more than a decade after their Russian divorce. The couple were both Russian nationals and had lived in Russia throughout...
A man whose home suffered damage because of problems with its foundations has been awarded provisional damages of more than £423,000 from the housebuilder from which he bought the property. The four-bedroom detached house, which the man had...
The importance of being aware of the rules that apply to arbitration proceedings was highlighted by a recent High Court case in which an appeal against an arbitration award was struck out on the basis that it had been brought out of time. A seller had...
A man who was severely injured when he became trapped by his car at a car wash has obtained a six-figure compensation settlement from the Motor Insurers' Bureau (MIB). While the man was waiting for his car to be cleaned, an employee of the car wash moved it...
Compensation has been obtained for the family of a former receptionist who died of mesothelioma. The woman had worked for an aerospace company for about 40 years. In her initial role as a receptionist, she went around the factory at least once a day to...
With the Employment Rights Bill likely to become law shortly, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has published four consultations seeking views on how some of the Bill's provisions should be implemented. The DBT is seeking views on how the duty on...
The High Court has refused to make a Deprivation of Liberty order sought by a local authority in respect of a 17-year-old boy. The boy was estranged from his parents and had been accommodated by the local authority since shortly after his 16th birthday....
A woman's family have secured compensation after staff in the care home where she was a resident failed to recognise signs of pressure sores, leading to her death from sepsis. The woman suffered from dementia and had been living in the care home for nearly...
Although Multiple Dwellings Relief (MDR) from Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) was abolished with effect from 1 June 2024, cases dealing with its availability are still working their way through the courts. Recently, two purchasers of a house with an attached...
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have launched a tool to check whether a project involves Research and Development (R&D) for tax purposes. R&D tax reliefs support UK companies working on innovative projects in science and technology. For...
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has upheld a woman's appeal against a decision that a colleague who had subjected her to sexual harassment had not been acting in the course of his employment for the purposes of Section 109 of the Equality Act 2010 ....
Compensation has been secured for a woman who was injured when the flight she was on encountered strong turbulence. She had stood up to go to the toilet when the pilot announced that there was a risk of turbulence, but before she could return to her seat,...
The Family Court has ruled that four children should continue to live with their father , in what it described as a very long-running dispute between him and the children's mother. The children, aged between eight and 13, had lived with their mother after...
The risks of rebranding without carrying out thorough clearance searches were amply illustrated by a recent ruling of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) on a trade mark dispute . A financial services company had begun to use the name 'Wise'...
A young man has obtained a substantial compensation settlement after a car he was travelling in was hit by a lorry, leaving him with life-changing injuries. He and four friends were on their way back to university from a sports tournament when the accident...
A will purported to have been made by an elderly woman during lockdown has been declared invalid because she had not signed it in the presence of two or more witnesses, as required by Section 9 of the Wills Act 1837 . The will was dated 25 April 2020,...
A food producer has agreed to compensate an employee who was electrocuted while working at one of its factories. Having plugged in a portable vibration bed machine that had been placed under a conveyor belt, the man leaned forward to check that it was...
While the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) is in principle a 'no costs' jurisdiction, it may make an order in respect of costs if a person has acted unreasonably in bringing, defending or conducting proceedings. Recently, the Upper Tribunal (UT) upheld a...
Where the record of a property's title at the Land Registry contains a mistake, Paragraph 5(a) of Schedule 4 of the Land Registration Act 2002 allows the register to be altered to correct it. The First-tier Tribunal (FTT) recently granted a homeowner's...
The Employment Rights Bill is expected to become law in the near future. On 15 September 2025, the House of Commons considered the amendments made to the Bill by the House of Lords. The Bill has now returned to the Lords for further consideration. The...
A woman has obtained compensation after a delay in diagnosing an infection following a mastectomy and breast reconstruction surgery. The woman had undergone an oophorectomy and then a mastectomy after she was identified as being at risk of breast and...
It is essential to ensure that court orders are complied with during divorce proceedings. Recently, the Family Court refused a wife's application for relief from sanctions due to her failure to file and exchange her witness statement in accordance with a...
Supplies between companies in the same VAT group are disregarded for VAT purposes by virtue of Section 43(1)(a) of the Value Added Tax Act 1994 . The Supreme Court has handed down its judgment in a case concerning whether this disregard applies if the...
The First-tier Tribunal (FTT) has come to the aid of a taxpayer who claimed that he had been a victim of fraud in relation to claims for Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) relief, granting permission for him to make a late appeal against assessments and...
The Health and Safety Executive has published statistics on asbestos-related diseases in Great Britain for 2025 . There are currently around 5,000 deaths a year from asbestos-related diseases, including mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis....
The High Court has upheld a woman's challenge to a will allegedly made by her late father, finding that the defendants had failed to establish on the balance of probabilities that it was genuine. The will had purportedly been executed in 2019, the year...
The Court of Appeal has upheld a supplier's appeal against a decision that a contract to supply orange juice pulp wash was partly unenforceable because the price paid for some of the supply was to be agreed at a later date. The ruling provides useful...
The High Court has dismissed a pub chain's appeal against an award of damages of £4,500 to a former employee after it gave out her mother's mobile phone number to her violent and abusive ex-partner. The woman had worked at one of the chain's pubs for...
In a guideline case, the Court of Protection has granted an application by an observer to a hearing for disclosure of the parties' position statements . The proceedings related to a patient who was suffering from a prolonged disorder of consciousness. The...
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has found that, when rejecting a woman's claim because the name of the respondent on the claim form did not match the name of the employer on the early conciliation certificate, the Employment Tribunal (ET) erred in law...
The Law Commission is to review the law relating to the product liability regime set out in the Consumer Protection Act 1987 . The regime was intended to give consumers a straightforward route to claiming compensation for certain harms caused by defective...
In a case relating to the division of assets under a pre-nuptial agreement (PNA), the Family Court has ruled that a wife should be allowed to amend her case to formally plead conduct under Section 25(2)(g) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 . It was common...
The Upper Tribunal (UT) has upheld a company's appeal against a £10,000 fine for managing or being in control of a house in multiple occupation (HMO), finding that there was no evidence that it was a person managing the property. The local authority...
It is wise to seek legal advice before making an application to the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) for a determination of liability to pay service charges. Recently, the FTT was unable to rule conclusively on whether the tenants of two flats were liable to...
Compensation has been obtained for a woman after a dermatologist removed the wrong facial mole. The woman's GP had referred her to an in-house dermatologist after identifying a suspicious mole on her nose. The dermatologist concluded that the mole could...
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has published guidance for organisations on the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 , which received Royal Assent on 19 June 2025. The Act makes changes to data protection law in order to promote innovation and...
A significant compensation settlement has been negotiated for a cyclist who was seriously injured in a road traffic accident. The cyclist was on her way to work when a car travelling in the opposite direction suddenly veered into her path and collided with...
It is important to ensure you fully understand the rules of any tax reliefs claimed and take advice if necessary. Recently, the Upper Tribunal (UT) dismissed an entrepreneur's appeal against a decision that the provision of a Director's Loan Account (DLA)...
A holidaymaker who suffered a broken foot when a defective wardrobe door in her hotel room fell on her has received compensation from the tour operator. The accident happened on the last night of the young woman's holiday in Greece. She and her partner were...
The Employment Tribunal (ET) has ruled that a man who worked for a membership association which acted on behalf of free-range egg producers was an employee rather than a self-employed contractor ( Gooch v British Free Range Egg Producers Association and...
The High Court recently rejected a challenge to the will of a woman who had experienced memory issues prior to making it. The woman had made the will in 2008. She left her interest in her and her husband's house to her elder daughter. After bequests of...
A recent decision of the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) refusing permission to make late appeals against denials of 16 companies' claims for tax relief highlights the dangers of failing to appeal decisions made by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in time. A...
A woman in her 70s who suffered a serious shoulder injury after falling down steps at the golf club where she worked has obtained a compensation settlement. She was dazzled by lights as she was walking down the steps, which did not have a handrail. She lost...
