Recent Articles

Who Holds The Keys?

Giles Peaker, Solicitor
Solicitors Journal - 16 February 2010
The uncertainties over which social housing organisations fall within the scope of human rights law as ‘public bodies’ is both a prompt to tidy up their operations and an opportunity for tenants to call them to account...

Stress: The Importance

David Marshall, Partner
Managing Partner - December/January 2010
Claims for workplace intimidation and harassment were among those expected to increase as the economic downturn impacted on everyone's workload. Law firm HR policies could usefully include information about effective time and stress management...

Planning Ahead

Stephanie Prior, Partner
Personal Injury Law Journal - December 2009/January 2010
Stephanie highlights the possible effects of the new pensions rules on personal injury claims...

Law and Science

Stephanie Prior, Partner
Medicine, Science and the Law - January 2010
Stephanie looks at four recent cases...

An Overview of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009

Mariko Wilson, Personal Injury team
On 12 November 2009 The Coroners and Justice Act 2009 received Royal Assent. The Act includes the first major reforms of the coroner system for over 100 years as well as provisions aimed at improving the experience of victims of crime and witnesses who come into contact with the judicial system...

Compensation Culture: The latest McFarlane v McFarlane

Margaret Hatwood, Partner
Family Law Journal - January 2010
In Miller v Miller; McFarlane v McFarlane described as the paradigm case for an award of compensation, the House of Lords said that not only did the court have to have regard to the s 25 Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (MCA 1973) criteria but to three additional strands namely needs, compensation and sharing...

Update on Developments in Employment Law

Mark Cornish, Partner
Mark reviews the latest developments in Employment Law following the Equality Bill 2009, the contents of which are intended to come into effect in Spring 2010...

Partnerships and Bankruptcy

Fahri Ecvet, Commercial team
When people enter into business partnerships, they do so with ambition, drive and a single minded focus on success. They rarely conceive of the possibility of business failure or bankruptcy. But it often happens...

Divorce - Forum Shopping

Kim Beatson and Camilla Fusco, Partners

Everyone who works with international clients knows that relocating abroad can be a very unsettling experience. The family faces a big task of finding a new home, getting it furnished, settling the children in a new school, coping with a new culture and adjusting to new jobs...

Finding the Time

Amanda Hopkins, Solicitor
Personal Injury Law Journal - October 2009
Amanda Hopkins delves into the ambiguities of limitation periods...

Tracing the Faultline

David Marshall, Partner
Solicitors Journal - 6 October 2009
David reviews how the courts determine causation and calculate compensation in stress at work claims...

Ancillary Relief and the Public/Private Divide

Somaya Ouazzani
Family Law Journal - September 2009
Ancillary relief has for many years seen the courts adjusting the private financial lives of family members: however, it has now begun to look to the public side of that ideological divide...

Taking Liberties

Stephanie Prior, Partner
Personal Injury Law Journal - July/August 2009
Stephanie examines recent changes to mental health laws, with a focus on the deprivation of liberty safeguards...

Law and Science

Stephanie Prior, Partner
Medicine, Science and the Law - October 2009
Stephanie looks at four recent cases...

Family Courts Open their Doors

Victoria Jones, Family Department
On 27 April 2009 the law changed allowing the media access to family hearings for the first time. Other court rooms have long been open to the press but family courts have always been the exception...

Interim Payments - First Orders

Stephanie Prior, Solicitor
Personal Injury Law Journal - May 2009
Stephanie investigates the guidance on interim payments presented by Cobham Hire Services Ltd v Eeles...

Saving Your Legacy

Christopher McNeill, Solicitor
Overseas (Journal of the Royal Over-Seas League) - June-August 2009
Now that the nil rate band (NRB) for paying inheritance tax (IHT) has increased to £325,000, and it produces less than 1% of annual revenue, it can no longer be viewed as a wealth tax...

House of Surprises

Giles Peaker, Solicitor
Solicitors Journal - 1 December 2009
The House of Lords delivered ground-breaking judgments in 2009, the question now is how housing lawyers will live with them, and whether the new Supreme Court will take a different approach to human rights defences...

Holmes-Moorhouse - The Housing Act and Children Act collide

Patricia Carr, Solicitor
This article analyses the decision in the Holmes-Moorhouse case and discusses what advisors for applicants and local authorities should do in the light of the decision...

What Can You Do If You Are Concerned that Someone Vulnerable Might be Exploited?

Peter Walker, Partner
People are living longer. As a result, there are more people with learning difficulties, dementia or other cognitive illnesses who have substantial assets that they have built up during their lifetime or that they have inherited...

Wound Up

David Marshall, Partner
Solicitors Journal, 21 April 2009
With stress at work claims on the rise, practitioners need to consider the preparatory work required to win them, says David Marshall...

Stressing the Issue

David Marshall, Partner
Solicitors Journal, 21 April 2009
David Marshall considers the calculation of damages in occupational stress claims...

Accurate Costs Estimates: the Reynolds case

Shelley Cumbers, Solicitor
Family Law Journal -  January 2009
In the Queen's Bench Division case Reynolds v Stone Rowe Brewer (A Firm) [2008] EWHC 497, Tugendhat J addressed not only the importance of providing accurate costs estimates for clients from the outset...

Practice Trends: Housing Law

Giles Peaker, Solicitor
Solicitors Journal, 25 November 2008
During 2008 there were some major housing law cases, shaping practice into 2009, while proposed new legal aid contracts from 2010 will involve big decisions in the coming year for most practices...

Left Out in the Cold

Debra Wilson, Partner
Solicitors Journal -  7 October 2008
The government-approved tenancy deposit schemes should provide a successful dispute resolution mechanism, but solicitors should be involved in the on-going consultation over its actual...