Separating couples wills soon be able to apply for £500 vouchers to pay for mediation to help them settle disputes without having to go to court. Mediation is often a quicker and cheaper way of resolving disputes, which can spare families the trauma of attending court and the impact this can have on children. It
Royal Mencap Society (Respondent) v Tomlinson-Blake (Appellant) Two “sleep in” care workers appealed to the UK’s highest Court, the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the decision that they are not entitled to the national minimum wage (NWM) for the duration of their “sleep in” shift. A “sleep in” shift typically means that the employee is
The Family Court has ordered that two children who were wrongfully removed from Italy by their mother must be returned to their father in Rome. The father and mother had married in 1998 and their eldest son was born in England in 2008. The family moved to Italy in 2011 and their youngest son was
An office manager who was made to pick up dog mess and had the boss’ son throw a ball at her head has won her case of unfair dismissal and sex discrimination. Eleanor Stevenson, who had once been a contestant on the BBC’s The Apprentice, began working for environmental services company Edenbeck in June 2016.
The High Court set out the principles that should apply when sharing family property in a divorce settlement. The case involved a couple who had been married for 33 years and had three adult children, who were independent. Both the wife and the husband had been independently wealthy before the marriage. The wife had non-matrimonial
The Treasury has agreed to make changes to the administration of Inheritance Tax following complaints from the public that it is too complex, old fashioned and needs to be simplified. The announcement comes after more than 3,500 people responded to a public consultation carried out by the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) on behalf of
Two major home builders have been told to remove contract terms that mean leaseholders have to pay ground rents that double every 10 or 15 years. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched enforcement action against 4 housing developers in September 2020. These included Countryside Properties and Taylor Wimpey, for using possibly unfair contract terms,
The wishes of a 12-year-old boy were not enough to prevent him from being returned to his father, especially as it was likely that he had been unduly influenced by his mother. That was the decision of the Court of Appeal in a case involving a boy who was born in England and had lived
Britain has an enviable record of supporting good causes, yet many people are still unaware that they can use their wills to give to their favourite charities and gain some tax benefits at the same time. A survey carried out by the Law Society just after the first lockdown restrictions began to ease showed that
The High Court has ruled that a wife had not been entitled to access her husband’s private information during divorce proceedings. In giving the ruling, the judge warned couples not to resort to unlawful practices to gain an unfair advantage. The issue arose after the husband suspected that the wife had accessed and misused his