When faced with litigation, maintaining your silence is not an option and you should take legal advice straight away. In one case, a failure to respond to legal documents left a man facing a £4.1 million judgment without having put forward any defence to the
Commercial arbitrations can sometimes hit an impasse but the High Court has the power to intervene and put them back on track. A judge did just that in one case in which agreement could not be reached as to who should be appointed to the
Personal friendship is sadly not always a good foundation for business relationships. In one case, a falling out between workplace colleagues who had been socially close for almost 20 years ended up being fought out before employment tribunals. The two men had established a successful
In a decision of interest to employers and tax professionals – and football fans – a tribunal has ruled that payments made to two professional players by a Premiership club in order to persuade them to accept the early termination of their contracts were not subject
High risks yield high returns but it is always vital for investors to check the bona fides of those to whom they entrust their money. In one case, members of the public backed the work of an inventor who turned out to be a convicted
Brochures designed to generate sales inevitably paint products in a positive light but, in a ground-breaking victory for a ‘buy to let’ borrower, the Court of Appeal has emphasised that they can create binding commitments that may prevail over inconsistent contractual terms. The borrower had
The approach of the courts to restrictive covenants in employment contracts is perceptibly toughening – as two trainee agronomists found out after they resigned from their jobs and went to work for a direct competitor. The pair’s contracts contained covenants which banned them for six
There is a thriving market in desirable Internet domain names and it operates on a first come, first served basis with no regard for national boundaries. One Englishman found that out the hard way when his surname was snapped up as a web address by
In what a judge described as a legal ‘whodunnit’, the High Court was called upon to decide whether building subcontractors bore responsibility for faulty installation of a plumbing unit which caused £6.5 million in flood damage to a luxury home. There was no dispute that
The freedom to picket and protest peacefully is jealously guarded by law. However, one High Court case, involving an industrial dispute between office cleaners and their employer, strikingly showed that there is no carte blanche for noisy, aggressive or disruptive behaviour which conflicts with the
