Blog Articles
This week is migraine awareness week. Many employers do not understand the awful effects of migraines and they could do more to support staff with the condition.
Yesterday (5/9/17) there was a landmark decision by the European Court of Human Rights who ruled that a worker had his rights breached when his private emails were monitored by his employer without his knowledge. .
This case involved an engineer in charge of sales between August 2004 and August 2007. As part of his role, he was asked to set up a Yahoo Messenger account to handle customers’ queries.
Employers are being urged to offer support to workers who give birth to premature or ill babies.
The conciliation service Acas has urged employers to be flexible in giving time off to parents so they can attend hospital appointments.
A recent report carried out by XpertHR concluded that employee absence has increased to 6.6 days per person, per year meaning that employers are losing out on a rate of 2.9% productivity due to staff not being at work.
Roughly speaking, this means employers with 1,000 or more staff loose on average 8.8 days per employee.
If you are unsure about what you should tell your conveyancer, err on the side of caution and give us the information. If you don’t - and it turns out to be important - it could lead to delays in the process and in the worst cases, the sale or purchase falling through.
As we have previously reported, supermarket chain Asda was taken to an employment tribunal last year due to a high volume of pay discrepancies between male and female staff.
There has been a 10% increase in private law cases reported to Cafcass (the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) for applications for divorce, separation and child arrangements.
The abolishment of Tribunal Fees has paved the way for the possibility of people getting a second chance to pursue their claims if being unable to fund the fees prevented it previously being heard.
When you first instruct us, we will ask you questions about the property. We’re not being nosey – we just need to understand every part of your move. This is to ensure you get what you want and expect.
We know you’re excited about your move and we also know it’s easy to forget things. You might not think to tell us something because you don’t think it’s important for the house purchase. But by letting us know things such as requirements to park a caravan or commercial vehicle or plans to extend the property in the future – you could stop delays in the process later on.
Newspaper stories published on Tuesday, report that the majority of his £17 million wealth has been left to his wife of 34 years in order to avoid Inheritance Tax. The reports have also said that current UK law states that spouses can hand over their assets without being taxed – something the Wills and Probate team at Lawson-West are keen to put into perspective.
At Lawson-West, we are able to offer clients a number of funding options. One of the most accessed, especially for Employment law matters, is ‘no win no fee’. But what is it and what does it mean?
On Thursday 3rd August we had a big party at Dominus Way for our clients and contacts commemorating 40 years of Lawson-West being in business.
Client feedback is so important to us because it provides the opportunity to deliver constructive criticism and to make suggestions if there is something we can do better, or to let us know they are pleased with the service we provide and the results we achieve.
We are aiming to raise vital funds for nine of the UK’s best loved charities, after signing up for Will Aid, the annual charity will writing campaign.
Ella also told us about the Canine Care Card, a card that a person registers that reflects their wishes for their dog to be rehomed by the Dogs Trust if they pass away first.
This scheme is so valuable and will hopefully encourage people who may have been reluctant about rehoming a dog (perhaps due to age) that it will continue to be cared for when they are no longer able to care for the dog themselves.
A good Landlord and Tenant relationship can often mean that the renewal of a commercial lease is done so privately and without the help of a Solicitor.
The daughter of a successful London businessman recently went to court to claim £300,000 of his estate after she was left out of his will...
A case taken to the High Court has ruled in favour of a mother who wanted to prevent her parents bringing up her children after she gave them up for adoption. She did not even want them to know she had given birth to twins and this ruling means they never will.
The Law Commission for England and Wales has said that current will writing methods need to be modernised, they have suggested that electronic communications such as text messages and emails could be used as a will in certain circumstances.
A female City trader, who earned over £10.5 million in bonuses over five years, has won her case at the Appeal Court to overturn the original ruling that her ex-husband was entitled to half of their £5.45 million fortune.
Recent surveys have discovered four out of five local authorities do not provide sufficient care for the older generations in their community, with the shortage affecting some of the most vulnerable in society...
Recent statistics show that 32% of British people are adding provisions to their Will to ensure that their social media pages are maintained and updated after they die...
In short, the answer is no. We often hear the phrase quickie divorce used by the media which gives the impression that the rich and famous have the ability to divorce in seconds, rather than months...
Whilst the Government Help to Buy Mortgage Guarantee Scheme may have ended on 31 December 2016, there is still time to open a Help to Buy: ISA.
There have been two stories in the media recently which relate to the subject of Wills and Probate – an area which Lawson-West are experts in.
A woman who divorced her husband 15 years ago has won the right to remain being supported by her ex because she has spent all of the £230,000 she won in the divorce.
There has been a story is the press recently about a daughter who was written out of her mother's Will. The older lady passed away in 2004 and had been estranged from her daughter since 1978 when they fell out over the daughter’s choice of boyfriend.
Senior judges at the Court of Appeal recently ruled that a woman cannot divorce her husband on the grounds which she cited. The woman states she is "trapped in a loveless and desperately unhappy marriage."
You Gov recently surveyed more than 1,000 cohabiting couples. The results show that 1/3rd believed that purchasing a property together afforded them the same legal rights as a married couple.
Property website Zoopla carried out research which concluded that it only takes people a mere 27 minutes to decide whether or not they wish to purchase the property they are viewing.
Settling finances as part of a divorce can be complex. A Financial Remedy Order covers the financial aspects of your divorce including the house, the car, the savings, the pensions, the bank accounts, the contents of the house, the debts, the income, the outgoings, etc...
In a landmark decision today, it has been decided by the Supreme Court that the Government’s decision back in 2013 to charge Employment Tribunal fees was unlawful and will be quashed.
Recently, the University of Exeter carried out a study that focussed on the attitudes of almost 300 workers regarding a fictional female employee who was expecting a baby and her intentions towards the duration of her maternity leave and return to work.
Is a £1 starting price for a property at auction the lowest on record? A Liverpool based Estate Agency have put the low price on a one bedroom flat in order to help first time buyers get on the property ladder...
The support offered by the employer when she first received the diagnosis was as you would expect – she was shown sympathy, concern and arrangements were made to fit treatments and appointments in around her work.
When a relationship breaks down and the couple decide to divorce, their finances are taken into account as part of the asset division process.
Lawson West Solicitors in Leicester has secured membership to the Law Society's Conveyancing Quality Scheme - the mark of excellence for the home buying process...
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has lost its bid to charge inheritance tax on farmhouses where the farmland and farmhouse are not owned by the same person...
David Cameron has announced recently that the government will put forward proposals for a transferable tax allowance for married couples and civil partners "shortly". This could be as soon as the Autumn...
The government’s department for Business, Innovation & Skills has confirmed that it will look at zero hours contracts, due to concern about their misuse by some employers...
The Law Society recently announced that it would create an accreditation scheme for firms providing Will-writing, probate and estate administration services in order to differentiate solicitors from other providers...
It has been reported that many women fall into debt due to banks refusing to stop ex-husbands raiding joint accounts...
If you buy a property with someone else be it husband, wife, partner, friend or family member, it is important to ensure your intentions as to the co-ownership are clear to avoid possible difficulties in the future...
Our clients were buying a freehold property with a mortgage. The house was located on a private road which we discovered was not an adopted highway and had not been registered at HM Land Registry. Because of this, our clients had no legal right of way over..
It has been reported recently that an Air New Zealand flight attendant who had been dismissed has been forced to hand over her bank records and Facebook pages to bosses in a row over sick leave...
A recent survey by law firm Slater & Gordon has found that over a quarter of mothers in the UK feel discriminated against at work. Of 1,975 women surveyed...
The Office for National Statistics has revealed figures that show the number of divorces among those over 60 is rising. The trend began in the 1990s and contrasts with falling divorce rates for all other age groups.
By the time she died in 2011 at age 104, the daughter of America’s second-richest man, Huguette Clark had lived as a recluse for more than half a century, spending her last 20 years confined to a New York hospital room...
An employment tribunal is considering the case of a female lawyer who was made redundant from her £100,000-a-year job when she asked to extend her six-month maternity leave due to suffering complications giving birth...
Outlining the importance of fathers being involved in their children’s lives, a judge has ruled that a vegetarian mother who stopped her son from seeing his father for reasons which included a fear he might feed him meat must let him see the child or risk the Judge ordering that the child should live with his father...