Archive for the: Blog Posts category

Kitsons Family Law Solicitor, Carolyn Croft, has been involved in a UK first - involving the power to submit a request to the court of another country for authorisation to exercise jurisdiction under Article 9 of the 1996 Hague Convetion.

The case included disputes surrounding the living and contact arrangements for two boys (A & B) after their parents' separation. After separating in July 2014 the mother who is originally from Norway, wanted to go back to her home country with both children. The English family court had concluded in 2015 with the mother consenting for one of the children...

A Supreme Court decision in the case of R (on the application of Unison) v Lord Chancellor has declared that the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal Fees Order 2013 (Fees Order), which imposes fees for employment tribunals, to be unlawful and prohibitive as it prevents access to justice. The Fees Order was found to be unlawful under both domestic and EU law. It has been called a landmark ruling and is perhaps one of the most important judgements in employment law in the last 50 years.

As a result of the ruling, from 26^th July 2017 tribunal fees cease to...

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (“BEIS”) has published two reports looking at how successfully the implementation of the new rules surrounding national living wage and national minimum wage has been.

The first report, called National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage, provides information on the subjects of compliance and enforcement. The report highlights that, following the implementation of the National Living Wage, 360,000 workers received less than the National Minimum Wage.

In order to resolve this and encourage efficient enforcement, HMRC resources were increased by £7 million – from £13 million to £20 million – for the year 2016/2017,...

S39(1) Senior Courts Act 1981 (“the Act”) allows the Court to make an order requiring a person to execute a conveyance, contract or document. If that person fails to execute such documents then a person nominated by the Court can sign on behalf of that person if they neglect or refuse to comply with the order or they cannot be found.

In the case of Welch v Welch [2017] Mr Welch obtained an order  which required his wife to sign the Conveyancing documentation in the sale of their property (a property in which Mrs Welch only held a 1% beneficial ownership). Despite the...

The Government plans to ban the sale of new-build Leasehold houses under drastic changes amid the concerns regarding the growing trend of extortionate ground rent increases. Leaseholds on new-build houses would be outlawed, while ground rents could be dramatically reduced, under Government plans subject to public consultation.

Presently, purchasers of new-build Leasehold houses have been at risk of unacceptable rises in ground rents to scales simply unaffordable. These Leaseholds have been criticised heavily for being unfair and penalising those who manage to make it onto the property market. With the ground rents increasing, the property may then become impossible to...

It has been announced by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions that six million individuals in the UK will be forced to wait a year longer than anticipated to receive their state pension.

The change, which affects men and women born between 6 April 1970 and 5 April 1978, follows recommendations made in the Cridland Report – an independent review of State Pension arrangements after 2028 carried out by John Cridland CBE.

The government anticipate that the changes will save the taxpayer £74 billion by 2045/2046, and while it was initially due to...

Following the news this week, where the BBC released a list of their highest paid male and female earners, large companies will be considering the reputational impact the release of such information will have on their businesses.

The Gender Pay Gap Regulations 2017, mean employers in the private, public and voluntary sector with 250 or more employees will be required to publish their “gender pay gap” by April 2018. 

Companies will have to publish a number of calculations to both their website and a government website, which include:

1. average gender pay gap as a mean and median average;
2. average bonus gender pay gap...

Thakkar –v- Patel [2017] EWCA Civ 117; a reminder of the cost consequences where there is a failure to mediate

It is known that the courts have a wide discretion on what costs orders to make during proceedings and after trial. Ordinarily, the successful party will recover its costs, however as the recent case of Thakkar –v- Patel [2017] EWCA Civ 117 (‘Thakkar’) reiterates, the importance of Alternative Dispute Resolution (‘ADR’) should not be underestimated as in certain circumstances even an unjustified delay to engage in ADR can result in successful parties having a cost order made against them!

In 2013,...

Due to the introduction of the Immigration Acts 2014 and 2016, statutory provisions have been introduced requiring residential landlords to check the immigration status of prospective tenants before letting out their property for use as their only or main home. If the immigration status is not checked, the landlord could face a fine of up to £3,000 or a prison term of up to 5 years.

What are the requirements?

• Immigration status of the tenant and all adult occupiers of the property need to be checked to ensure that their status allows them to be in...