Negligent mistakes are sometimes made in busy hospital accident and emergency departments and, where injuries result, doctors would agree that fair compensation should be paid. In a case on point, lawyers representing a girl who had both legs amputated after twice being sent home from
An architectural designer who was controversially found to owe friends a duty of care, although she had provided her services in respect of a garden landscaping project free of charge, has defeated their six-figure professional negligence claim. A couple with whom the designer was on
In big money divorce cases, much is made of the distinction between the so-called sharing principle and needs-based assessments of financial entitlements. However, as a High Court ruling in one such case clearly showed, family judges are in fact focused on just one thing –
Crime may appear to pay handsomely in the short term, but when the law catches up with wrongdoers they are routinely stripped of everything they have dishonestly gained. In a case on point, a man who engaged in a multi-million-pound VAT fraud failed to protect
Mental or physical conditions that give rise to a tendency to commit various criminal acts are excluded from the protection that normally applies to disabilities under the Equality Act 2010. An instructive case on point concerned a council worker who walked out of a shop
Planning conditions may be inconvenient, but those who persist in breaching them can expect to be prosecuted and severely punished. In one case, a bar owner and his company received fines of £146,000 after flagrantly defying planning enforcement notices. The man had obtained planning consent
A great many companies pay their directors largely in dividends, rather than through the PAYE system, as a more tax-efficient means of remunerating them. As a Court of Appeal insolvency case illustrated, however, it is vital to remember that companies that do not make profits
One very good reason why you should sign an up-to-date and professionally drafted will is to ensure that your chosen beneficiaries are accurately identified. A High Court case on point concerned gifts to a cottage hospital that did not exist and to equally illusory maternity
Party walls and the joint responsibilities that go with them are frequently a bone of contention between neighbours. That was certainly so in an instructive High Court case concerning the flank wall of a house that adjoined a communal garden. The house had formerly been
Traders who engage in commercial practices that are likely to mislead an average consumer are subject to criminal sanction – but what if the ‘customer’ concerned is not a consumer but a trading standards officer? The High Court considered that issue in a case of
