When buying holiday homes abroad, it is absolutely vital to employ solicitors who are entirely independent of the vendors. One case that resoundingly proved the point concerned a development of luxury homes in Italy that was alleged to have been a money laundering front for
Construction contracts frequently require works to comply with recognised standards set by independent bodies – but what happens if those standards are wrong? The Supreme Court tackled that issue in the context of two offshore wind farms that began to fail soon after their construction,
Companies are, on pain of criminal sanction, required by to keep their shareholder registers open for public inspection. However, as a Court of Appeal test case made clear, shareholders are entitled to expect that their personal data will only be used for proper purposes. Pursuant
Local authorities are under intense pressure from central government to do their bit in meeting the burgeoning need for more new homes. That was illustrated in one High Court case in which a council succeeded in overturning a planning inspector’s ruling that it did not
The impact of the UK’s human rights obligations on employment law is still a subject of much debate almost 20 years after the advent of the Human Rights Act 1998. In one important case, the Court of Appeal upheld a trade union’s plea that the
Terminating the employment of senior personnel can be legally complex and costly and, even when professional advice is taken, things can go wrong. The point was made by a case concerning a consultancy group that dispensed with the services of its CEO in acrimonious circumstances.
Rights of way across the land of others can become established if they have been used openly and without force for at least 20 years. However, such use must also be without permission and, as one case showed, that can often prove a sticking point.
Relentless demand for housing in urban areas means local authorities are reluctant to approve developments that entail the loss of even a small number of residential units. The point was made as the High Court scotched two proposals to knock multiple Central London properties into
When private land is compulsorily acquired by public authorities, former owners are entitled to compensation equal to its open market value, which includes any development potential. That point was made in a Court of Appeal case concerning a field that was needed by a local
The award of public contracts is automatically suspended if disputes arise as to the fairness of the tendering process. In deciding whether such suspensions should be continued until trial, however, judges have to strike a tricky balance between public and private interests. One such case
