July 2009 Archives

From 1 August, junior doctors will no longer be required to work more than 48 hours a week. 

At least, that's the plan.  This week, The Independent reported that the Royal College of Surgeons wants the new restriction on working hours to be postponed if the NHS shows any signs of buckling under the strain of swine flu.

Soon, the House of Lords will be no more.  Well, the judicial branch, at any rate.  From October, its powers will transfer to a new "Supreme Court of the United Kingdom" and its "law lords" will become "justices."  Plans to reform the legislative branch of the House of Lords are significantly less advanced, by the way...

Anyway, in its final case, the Lords considered the plight of Debbie Purdy and her husband Omar Puente.  Ms. Purdy suffers from primary progressive multiple sclerosis, for which there is no known cure.  Some time in the future, Ms. Purdy expects the disease will become unbearable and she will want to end her life.  By that time, however, she will be unable to do so without assistance.

Normally, when a marriage ends, the spouses appoint solicitors who conduct negotiations on behalf of the parties at arms-length, either by letter or telephone.  The divorce process can drag on for a long time and, in many cases, causes needless delay, frustration, and acrimony. 

The collaborative family law process offers an alternative.

This week, BBC's Panorama programme investigated the burgeoning "trauma industry" in the UK, and Ros Wynne-Jones commented in The Guardian that: "No Win, No Fee Britain ... now suffers PTSD at the click of a mouse, with personal injury claims websites listing the symptoms and then a Start Claim button."

While earlier this year, The Independent reported that "ambulance-chasing claims firms are preying on victims of crime, road accidents and financial mis-selling by cashing in on hundreds of millions of pounds worth of compensation."

In response to the furore over unfair no win, no fee arrangements, the Ministry of Justice recently proposed an amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill, currently being examined in the Lords; it seeks to regulate aspects of "damages-based agreements" - sometimes referred to as "contingency fee agreements" - which allow lawyers to claim a percentage of awards won on behalf of their clients.

Welcome news for the UK economy on Monday, as the British Bankers' Association (BBA) released financial data for the month of June.  This showed lending to small businesses rose by £391 million, 50,000 new small business banking relationships were established, and deposits from small business grew by £577 million.

Chancellor Alistair Darling has, however, asked the BBA to do more to help small businesses: "in some areas there have been improvements, [but] in others there's an awful lot more to do."

Insolvency Service statistics show that 4,941 companies went into liquidation in the first quarter of 2009.  Many of them were refused vital credit from crisis-stricken lenders still reeling from the global banking collapse.

Members of the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee have criticised the Home Office for ignoring warnings about sham colleges selling places on bogus courses to economic migrants posing as students.

In March, the Home Office announced it had screened out almost a quarter of foreign student applications from independent schools, colleges and universities.

Last Thursday, Richard Desmond, owner of the Express and Star newspapers, lost a highly-publicised defamation action against Tom Bower.

What is defamation?

Defamation occurs when a person makes a statement about another that damages their reputation.  The tort has two prongs: "libel" and "slander."  Libel is defaming somebody in print; while slander is spoken defamation.

In a landmark ruling, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has won a case against estate agents Foxtons, which could revolutionise the way businesses contract with consumers.

A council worker has won £66,000 in compensation from Conservative-controlled Mid-Sussex District Council for unfair and wrongful dismissal, the Daily Mail reports.

Roger Mills, of East Grinstead, West Sussex, had worked for the council for 14 years and had a spotless record.  But, he had "personal differences" with his new boss, Shaun Morley, who used taxpayers' money to hire private detectives to spy on him.

After four months of surveillance, Mr. Mills was sacked for gross misconduct for "spending time at home during work hours."  However, Mr. Mills had a long-standing arrangement allowing him to work from home.

The full depth and severity of the recession and its knock on effect on the employment landscape were revealed in a new report published last week by Acas, the employment relations service.

In its annual report - which provides a snapshot of the UK job and employment market - figures show that Acas received over 78,000 conciliation cases from the Employment Tribunal Service - almost a fifth (18%) more than last year.  There was also a significant (22%) increase in unfair dismissal conciliation cases.  In total, Acas received 55,000 cases which involved a claim for unfair dismissal this year, a rise of almost 12,000.

Ed Sweeney, Acas chairman, told The Telegraph the figures underlined the strain that businesses and individuals have had to face over the last year.  He added: "The consequences for many employers and workers have been clear: job insecurity, battles over pay and tensions in the workplace.

"At ACAS, there's no doubt we've been seeing the real human costs of this economic change.  Our helpline which has long acted as a barometer for the state of the workplace, showed a dramatic increase in calls for advice on redundancy and lay-offs, from employers and workers alike."

Latest figures from the Land Registry show house prices have fallen 15.9% since last year.  Meanwhile, residential rents are rising.  This has persuaded many owners to ride out the current recession by renting property rather than selling it.  According to The Telegraph, "renting is the new elastic ... no longer the preserve of the can't-haves and students, it's being favoured by families, job movers and young executives."  Before you dip your toes into the rental market, however, you need to know the law:

On Tuesday, The Times reported that increasing numbers of non-Muslims are turning to Sharia courts to resolve civil disputes.  The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal claims as many as 5% of its cases involve non-Muslims who use the courts because they are "less cumbersome and more informal than the English legal system."

Turns out 5% equates to a meagre 20 cases this year.  Still, the story does raise big legal questions:  First, concerning the validity of religious tribunals, whose rulings are legally binding under the Arbitration Act (provided the parties agree to that condition before arbitration begins).  Second, regarding state entanglement with religion, since it falls on the state to enforce the Sharia rulings should a party failure to comply with one.  And, third, respecting resolution of disputes outside the courtroom.

Earlier this month, the UK Government published a wide-ranging white paper, A Better Deal for Consumers - Delivering Real Help Now and Change for the Future.  One idea in the paper is to appoint a new Consumer Advocate to enforce consumer rights and wage war against rogue businesses.  Jill Insley at The Guardian calls the proposal "genius."  The chief executive of consumer watchdog Which?, Peter Vicary-Smith, also welcomed the white paper, but cautioned: "The jury is out on the creation of the role of Consumer Advocate, for the devil is in the detail.  It will be interesting to see how the role will fit in with the organisations and roles that already exist."

Yesterday, Reuters described how workers from collapsed French car parts manufacturer New Fabris threatened to blow up their plant to increase redundancy payouts.  This follows a series of "bossnappings" earlier this year when workers held company executives hostage in a bid for better compensation.

This being England, it simply wouldn't be cricket to do things like that.  But, seriously, if you are made redundant you need to know your employee redundancy rights, make the most of your payout, and try to get the best deal possible.

What is redundancy?

Redundancy occurs when an employer needs to reduce the workforce for some reason unrelated to the conduct or capability of the individual(s) concerned.

Generally, your job must disappear for you to be made redundant, but it can also happen if someone else's job disappears and they are moved into your job, making you redundant.

This is known as "bumping," which often happens when a more senior employee is prepared to take a more junior role to avoid redundancy.  An employer may find it hard to justify bumping as fair, however, which could lead to a claim for unfair dismissal.

Employee redundancy rights & redundancy rules

Employees have a number of legal rights in relation to redundancy, including:

Last week, The Telegraph reported that fathers who have doubts over paternity of their children will soon be able to buy an over-the-counter DNA test to check.  The kit costs £30 and contains swabs to collect saliva samples from the father and the child.  Once collected, the samples are sent to a laboratory in New Mexico for analysis, which costs an additional £119.  UK consumers can already buy the kit over the internet and the product has been available over-the-counter in America since late 2007.  Based on retail sales there and internet sales here, distributor International Biosciences expects UK retail demand for the kits to be "immense."

New research reveals 11 million Brits are thinking of leaving the UK within the next two years to live abroad.  If you're one of them (or you're already an expat), there are three essential things you need to think about:

HM Revenue & Customs will collect a jaw-dropping £2.2 billion in inheritance tax (IHT) this year because of estate planning failures.  Apparently, 81% of us have no plan to reduce the amount of IHT paid from our estates when we die.  The government literally hits the jackpot when we pass away, collecting IHT at a rate of 40% on what's left of our estates over and above the IHT threshold (currently set at £325,000).

Henry Porter recently criticised Britain's border security as "nasty and absurd" and surmised "there is clearly some kind of campaign against poets with strange sounding names and of Muslim origin."  This week,  Immigration Minister Phil Woolas described the criticism as "at best naive, and at worst designed to deliberately misinform people."  "Immigration rules are designed to be firm but fair [and] they apply to everyone regardless of race, gender, age, or background," he added.

On 29th June, shortly after Michael Jackson's death, his family filed court papers in Los Angeles claiming he died "intestate," meaning he left no will.  However, two days later, MJ's attorney produced a will written in 2002.  The Jackson family did not see the will prior to its filing and had no knowledge of its contents.  Their attorney said: "We wish we had known about it sooner." 

Writing a will - and leaving instructions on how to find it - is one of the best things you can do for your loved ones while you are still alive.  However, at least one in three people in the United Kingdom die without doing so.

The recent deaths of Sir Edward and Lady Joan Downes at a Dignitas clinic in Zurich have reignited the debate on assisted suicide.  Under current UK law, aiding and abetting suicide is a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison.  Consequently, more than 115 British citizens have travelled to Dignitas to die, and, according to Baroness Jay, "one Briton a fortnight travels abroad for an assisted death in a jurisdiction where it is legal."

In many instances, loved ones accompany these so-called "suicide tourists" and, depending on each individual's condition, actively facilitate their death.  Last year, for example, Daniel James - paralysed from the chest down as a result of a rugby injury - persuaded his parents, Mark and Julie James, to take him to die in Switzerland.

Nationwide, Britain's biggest building society, has announced a new 125% loan-to-value (LTV) mortgage deal for customers in negative equity.  The deal means Nationwide customers can borrow up to 95% on a new property and carry over up to 25% of the loss incurred on their existing property.

The Bank of England estimates that negative equity currently affects between 700,000 and 1.1 million households in the UK.  But, some commentators have questioned whether the resurrection of 125% mortgages makes sense, particularly given the mountain of toxic debt that still looms large over the global economy.

Jonathan Davis, a Chartered Financial Planner and Managing Director of Armstrong Davis, believes the return to 125% LTV lending is a "joke," which will cause Nationwide further losses if house prices fall.

In recent months, a large number of recession-hit organisations have asked their employees to agree to temporary short-time working as a way to avoid redundancies. 

A few bad eggs have changed working conditions unilaterally, however, to spur employees into resigning, or devised other illegal schemes to shed staff without redundancy pay.

Where you feel forced to resign because of your employer's unlawful behaviour, you may be able to claim for constructive dismissal. 

This week, a Conservative think-tank - the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) - published a report proposing a compulsory three-month "cooling off" period before a spouse can initiate formal divorce proceedings.  The report also advocates mandatory "information meetings" to compel couples to "reflect on their marriage," "explore the possibility of reconciliation," and receive counselling on "the implications of divorce."

The Telegraph reported that David Cameron would endorse the proposals, drawn up by ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, way back in November 2008.  Thus, with the Conservatives set for a landslide victory in next year's general election, many of the ideas enunciated in "Every Family Matters" could soon become law.