News & Events

News
Events

News: 2011

Employers beware critical remarks about employees

05/12/2011 An employee has won a constructive dismissal claim against her employer after seeing criticism of her leadership skills by her Chief Executive in an internal email sent to her by mistake.

Employers still unclear over sick workers’ rights to holiday pay

05/12/2011 Recent inconsistent legal decisions over the holiday pay rights of workers on long-term sick leave mean that employers are still uncertain over their obligations.

Guidance on how courts will interpret contract terms in dispute

05/12/2011 The Supreme Court has given guidance on when a court will apply a ‘commercial common sense’ test to interpret contract terms in a contractual dispute.

Landlord loses £632,000 because of defective letter about cost of works

05/12/2011 A landlord’s letter notifying tenants that they must contribute to works carried out has been ruled ineffective by the court because it did not specifically state a figure for the costs of those works.

Court gives guidance on database legal protections

05/12/2011 The courts have given guidance on when unauthorised use of parts of a database by a third party amounts to extraction or reuse of a ‘substantial part’ of that database, which is an unlawful infringement of the database owner’s ‘database right’.

European Court clarifies ‘informed user’ test necessary to register a product design

05/12/2011 The European Court of Justice has clarified how to identify an ‘informed user’ – the hypothetical user of a product whose impression of it compared to other products determines (among other things) whether it can be protected by registration as a registered design.

Uncontested application to transfer domain name fails for lack of evidence

05/12/2011 Fashion giant Karen Millen has failed in its attempt to have a domain name transferred to it using the domain name Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).

Employers should be sure of non-entitlement to work before suspending migrant workers

05/12/2011 A foreign employee has won a claim for unlawful deduction of pay against an employer who suspended her because he honestly, but mistakenly, believed that she was no longer entitled to work in the UK.

Updated governance guide for small charities and voluntary bodies

05/12/2011 Trustees and directors of small charities and voluntary bodies will welcome the publication of updated, free guidance on governance issues for their organisations.

New guide to help stop employees’ infringing intellectual property rights

05/12/2011 The Intellectual Property Office has published guidance to help businesses stop their staff infringing other people’s intellectual property rights – for example, by downloading unauthorised software – whether they do so for work or personal reasons.

Campaign outside tribunal hearing can result in costs award

05/12/2011 Carrying on a campaign about an Employment Tribunal dispute outside the court room – sometimes called a ‘campaign beyond the proceedings’ – can result in a costs award against the campaigner by the Tribunal, according to a recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decision.

Liabilities of golfers and golf clubs for injury to other players

05/12/2011 The Scottish courts have recently given guidance on the circumstances when a golfer and a golf club can be liable for injury caused to another player.

Liabilities of rugby clubs for injury to players

05/12/2011 The courts have recently given guidance on the circumstances when a rugby club can be liable for injury caused to a player during training.

Cohabitees’ ownership of property in equal shares can change as relationship changes

05/12/2011 The Supreme Court has ruled that a £30,000 home brought by a co-habiting couple in equal shares, later worth £245,000, is now owned by them in 90:10 proportions as a result of their actions since the purchase.

Businesses must make sure agency workers share in tips from customers

28/10/2011 Restaurants, hotels and other employers whose staff are tipped by customers must now make sure that their longer-serving agency workers are entitled to their share when the tips are divided among the workforce.

Employee’s dismissal for derogatory Facebook comments about work unfair

28/10/2011 Employers should not dismiss employees for making derogatory comments about their work on Facebook or other networking sites without making sure the dismissal is reasonable in all the circumstances, following a recent Employment Tribunal (ET) decision.

Employee refusing offer of alternative employment gets nothing for loss of earnings

28/10/2011 An employee who unreasonably refused an offer of alternative employment had not mitigated their losses as required by law, and was not entitled to any compensation for loss of earnings.

Seller’s failure to reply to pre-contract enquiry on sale of land lets buyer off the hook

28/10/2011 A buyer of land has been given the right to get out of the contract after the seller failed to update his reply to one of the buyer’s pre-contact enquiries about planning issues, even though the contract contained a common clause saying he couldn’t.

Landlady still can’t use foreign decoder to show Premier League matches in UK

28/10/2011 The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled in part in favour of a Portsmouth pub landlady saying that contracts and laws stopping UK residents from using foreign decoders to access Premier League football matches are against EU law.

Charity Commission publishes update to Equality Act guidance

28/10/2011 The Charity Commission has published an update to its guidance on the application of the Equality Act exception, for charities whose objects would otherwise be discriminatory under the Act.