Construction contracts can go horribly wrong, but few can have been as disastrous as one prestige office development which culminated in giant panes of glass falling into the street, putting the lives of passers-by at risk. The events triggered a storm of damaging national publicity
Judgments given in one EU member state are generally enforceable in all the others, but there are exceptions. One such arose in the case of a three-year-old girl who was removed from Ireland and taken to England by her mother without notice of the move
Whistleblowers perform a public service and the consequences of penalising them for their activities can be severe. In one case, two police officers who were removed from undercover duties after they made repeated and serious complaints about the management of their unit were awarded a
Judges are bent on giving every case fair consideration and only very sparingly use their powers to strike out unmeritorious claims without a full hearing. That point was clearly made by one case in which a businessman claimed that a bank had lured him into
Professionals are rightly exposed to compensation claims if they give negligent advice – but they are not whipping boys who can be blamed for the faults of others. The point was resoundingly made by one case in which a quantity surveying firm comprehensively defeated a bank’s
The departure of trusted workers who set up in competition is a frequent source of fury to employers. However, as one High Court libel case showed, the sensible course is to take legal advice rather than resort to hasty action. The case concerned two men
The presumption in favour of sustainable housing development, contained within the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), is a powerful one – but it does not have the force of statute and can be overcome. The Court of Appeal made that point in blocking plans for
To what extent can civil servants stand in the shoes of their ministerial masters and make decisions on their behalf? The High Court tackled that issue in an important test case concerning the criminal prosecution of an employer who was accused of making 84 warehouse
Where a tenant exercises its right to buy a freehold, the sum payable is calculated on the basis of the property’s open market value, subject to the existence of the tenancy. But what happens if the original tenancy has been extended for a longer period?
No matter how complex or multi-layered they may be, tax avoidance schemes do not always work. A football club found that out to its cost when the Supreme Court ruled that a structure of trusts, by which money was funnelled to its players’ families, did
