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UK businesses could face fines of up to £500,000 if they fail to meet tough new website privacy laws which come into force this month.
There are no exceptions to the law for smaller businesses.
The regulation will come into effect on 25 May 2012 and will mean that visitors to the website will have to give permission for the website to download 'cookies'.* Read more
We are delighted to be supporting the London Legal Walk on May 21st 2012. Our team of walkers will be raising funds for the London Legal Support Trust by taking part in the 10k walk around some of London's legal landmarks.
This event is one of the largest gatherings of the legal community with walkers including members of the judiciary, law firms, chambers, government departments, in-house legal teams and law schools who will all be walking with their clients, friends, family, colleagues and even a few pets! Read more
Legal disputes between landlords and tenants have skyrocketed since the credit crunch.
The number of disputes between landlords and tenants settled in the High Court (Chancery Division, London) has jumped by more than eighteen-fold from 4 in 2007 to 73 in 2010 (latest data available).
With only a fraction of claims being dealt with by the High Court (generally those with a high value or those involving complex arguments), the total number of landlord/tenant disputes across the UK is likely to be substantially higher. Read more
An imminent High Court judgement will determine if a person declared bankrupt could be forced to draw his pension and hand it to his creditors, says, Damon Watt, Principal of EMW.
So far a bankrupt's pension has not been considered as an income, and therefore susceptible to an income payment order*, as long as the pension hadn't been drawn. But what if the bankrupt is entitled to draw his pension but chooses not to?
The case of Raithatha -v- Williamson heard at the High Court in front of Mr B Livesey QC will establish whether a bankrupt, of pensionable age under his scheme, but not of "state" pensionable age and still employed and working, can be forced to draw down his pension. Once the pension is drawn down, the pension annuities (and any lump sum) received by the bankrupt are considered as an income and therefore susceptible to an income payment order. Read more
New Head of dispute Resolution, Head of Real Estate and Head of Asset Based Lending
Moving to larger offices
We have appointed three partners and a consultant as part of the continued expansion of the London office.
The move includes the appointment of four lawyers to senior roles:
With the London office more than doubling in size in just three years, we will be moving to larger offices in the new year. Read more
Proportion of bankruptcy orders initiated by creditors has leapt 52%
The proportion of bankruptcy orders initiated by creditors against individuals has jumped by a half in the last two years.
The percentage of bankruptcy orders initiated by creditors reached 21% of all bankruptcy orders in Q3 2011, up from 13.8% in Q2 2009.
The increase in creditors’ petitions is less an indication of hardening attitudes towards debtors and more a recognition that a growing group of borrowers cannot keep up with the minimum payments needed to service their debts. Read more
British engineering attracting foreign investment despite slow economy
We and Five Corporate Finance have acted on the sale of Rail Door Solutions Ltd, a Milton Keynes-based rail engineering company, to Gebr. Bode GmbH & Co. KG.
Bode is a subsidiary of Frankfurt-listed Schaltbau Holding AG, a leading German transport company.
The purchase of Rail Door Solutions (RDS) will be undertaken in a number of stages with Bode progressively increasing its shareholding in RDS to 100%. The two parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price. Read more
We have acted on the £15.75 million sale of Community Waste Recycling Limited, a London-based specialist materials recycling and paper trading company, to Viridor, one of the UK’s leading recycling, renewable energy and waste management companies.
Viridor is part of the FTSE-250 Pennon Group.
Community Waste Recycling is the third fastest growing company within the recycling sector, according to the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management. The company processes 90,000 tonnes of materials per annum, and employs 163 staff. Read more
Winners for the third time
We have won “Corporate Law Firm of the Year” for the third time in four years, at the 2011 Insider Central and East of England Dealmakers Awards.
Also shortlisted for the award were Shoosmiths, SNR Dentons and Tollers Solicitors.
Insider Media’s Dealmakers Awards took place on Thursday 17 November and acknowledge the outstanding achievements of law firms and other members of the corporate finance and M&A advisory community. Read more
Bearward Engineering – turnover of £50million, 600 employees
We advised Bearward Engineering on its sale to Wabtec Corporation, a leading US engineering company.
Bearward Engineering is one of the largest producers of industrial radiators in the world with about 600 employees and annual turnover of around £50 million.
Based in Northampton, Bearward Engineering designs and manufactures cooling systems and related components, including radiators and charge air coolers. Read more
Disputes over “restrictive covenants” fuelled by increase in empty space
Landlords cite competition law changes
Growth in the amount of empty retail space has led to a huge increase in the number of law suits over commercial leases.
The number of cases in the High Court in London over restrictive covenants has more than doubled over the last year, jumping from 11 in 2009 to 25 in 2010. There was only one such case in 2007. Read more
Public sector cuts and new Agency Worker Regulations likely to mean further claims
Employment Tribunal claims relating to part time workers trebled in the last year alone.
Employment Tribunal cases brought under the Part Time Workers Regulations jumped from 530 cases in the year to March 2010 to 1,600 cases in the year to March 2011. Read more
We have been reappointed to Barclays PLC’s specialist Lending and Finance Panel. We were first appointed to the panel in 2007 and reappointed in 2009.
Over the past four years, we have successfully collaborated with Barclays on a range of transactions including corporate loans, acquisition finance and property finance. Read more
Homeowners reluctant to move in uncertain economic conditions
Extending current homes a safer option than selling and buying bigger
Homeowners appear to be increasingly turning to building extensions to their current houses as the economic uncertainty makes it risky to move to a bigger place.
The number of planning applications[1] for home extensions has jumped 5.4% from 191,000 to 201,000 over the last 12 months to June 2011 – the first rise for four years. Read more
EMW has been re-appointed as one of a small number of law firms to Santander UK plc’s national legal panel.
Santander has also expanded EMW’s remit substantially, doubling the number of service areas where EMW will be able to tender for work.
Following an extremely competitive tender process culminating in an e-auction, EMW has been re-appointed to advise on employment, corporate and regulatory/compliance related issues. The additional service areas for which it is eligible for this year are commercial contracts, asset lending and corporate lending. Read more
EMW has advised Enviroparks, a new energy from waste company, on £2.25m of fundraising and in securing planning approval for a major (£150m) waste recycling plant in Wales.
Enviroparks will develop and run new energy from waste plants using the latest thermal treatment processes to maximise the useful energy generated.
The financing was provided by Hotbed, the UK’s leading private investor syndicator. Read more
Burden of employment claims likely to increase substantially as public spending cuts take effect
37% of employment appeals are against public sector organisations despite public bodies employing just 22% of the UK workforce, reveals research by EMW, the commercial law firm.*
The percentage of employment appeals in the public sector is now 24% higher than five years ago. In 2006, the public sector accounted for 30% of employment appeals.
EMW says that public sector employers are bracing themselves for a jump in employment claims in the next 12 months as the job cuts announced by the Government take place.
EMW explains that redundancies, cuts in benefits and the introduction of active performance management are likely to heighten animosity between public sector workers and their employers. Read more
Green shoots for the construction sector, highest number of planning permissions for retail and food & drink developments
The number of major commercial property planning applications approved by planning authorities in England has shot up by 16% since last year. Read more
Hampson Industries PLC found guilty of fraudulent misrepresentation following dispute over M&A deal
Employees disgruntled over smaller payouts
Employers are seeing their legal bills soar as laid-off workers take them to court to dispute the size of redundancy settlements.
The number of redundancy pay cases accepted by Employment Tribunals rocketed by 76% to 19,000 in the year to April 1 2010 and a further 8,600 cases were accepted in the six months to October 1 2010[1].
Employees might be taking action against their ex-employers because, having been part of a second or third wave of redundancies, they have received a less attractive compensation package than colleagues who lost their jobs first. Read more
On 30 March 2011 EMW's head of Intellectual Property, Mark Finn, was invited by the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) to give a lecture to their members at their London HQ on the subject of recent developments in Designs Law. Mark's lecture covered recent UK and European case law, including the leading UK case on the subject (Dyson v Vax ) where Mark successfully defended EMW client Vax against Dyson, the UK Patents Court rejecting Dyson's claims that the Vax design infringed a Dyson registered design. Feedback on the lecture was excellent and Mark is being invited back next year to give a further update.
The decision of Mr Justice Lindblom has today been handed down in respect of the second challenge launched on behalf of Cala Homes against the SoSCLG’s Statement and its associated Letter from the Chief Planner both of 10 November 2010.
That Statement and the Letter were issued immediately following the decision of Mr Justice Sales earlier that day to the effect Read more
Competition for contracts becomes fiercer as fears over public sector cuts rise, number of complaints investigated by the Government also rises
New research by EMW has revealed that there has been a sharp increase in the number of complaints from businesses challenging the way in which the Government hands out public sector contracts.
The number of complaints made to the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), the Government body responsible for public sector procurement, jumped 84% to 57 in the twelve months to September 30 2010 up from 31 in 2009. The number of complaints investigated by the OGC also rose 29% from 21 to 27. Read more
A new law means that employers could be sued by their staff if they suffer discrimination from customers, warns EMW.
The new Equality Act 2010, due to come into force on October 1 2010, will enable staff to seek damages from employers who fail to take reasonable steps to protect them from any form of discrimination by a third party such as a customer.
EMW explains that this is a dramatic extension of a law introduced in 2008 by Harriet Harman that meant employers could be liable if their staff encountered discrimination on the grounds of sex.
The new law will cover discrimination on the basis of race, age, religion, disability and sexual orientation as well. Read more
EMW has been appointed as one of a small number of law firms to support Santander Asset Finance, the UK Corporate Asset Finance arm of Santander UK plc.
Santander's UK Corporate Asset Finance arm is part of Santander Corporate Banking which provides lending to SMEs and corporates through finance and operating leases and, hire purchase. Read more
One of the first "streamlined" trials in the Patents Court
EMW has successfully defended Vax, the floorcare specialist, against a registered design infringement case brought by Dyson, the vacuum cleaner manufacturer. Read more
© EMW 2012