The purpose of this article is to explain how the court distributes assets and income on divorce. There is no standard formula for calculating appropriate financial provision on divorce. Instead, the Court has a duty to consider all the circumstances of the case to take into account a range of specific statutory factors set out […]

Here we focus on victims of domestic abuse in this article, and asks the question, should they be cross examined by alleged perpetrators? For a number of years there has been a debate about whether alleged perpetrators of domestic abuse should be allowed to cross examine their victims in the family court. This situation arises […]

  The squeaky wheel. On 15th January 2018, construction specialist Carillion confirmed that it was entering compulsory liquidation. It had debts estimated at £900,000,000; much of which was owed to unsecured creditors who will now receive nothing. For any of the 30,000 suppliers unlucky enough to have been in business with Carillion and still be owed […]

The process behind the proposed redundancies at General Electric in Stafford. General Electric announced in December 2017 that it will be slashing 1,100 jobs across its UK operations, mainly in Stafford and Rugby (with up to 500 jobs going at the Lichfield Road site in Stafford). This sadly brings into focus the law and the […]

Here we provide some useful advice for couples who may not be looking forward to the Christmas holidays. Tick tock, tick tock! The big day is nearly upon us and many of us will be rushing round to get everything sorted before the 25th of December. It is an exciting – if a little hectic […]

Chancellor Phillip Hammond has delivered the 2017 Budget in which he said: “The dream of homeownership should be a reality for all generations” and in line with this has abolished stamp duty for first-time buyers for house purchases up to £300K. Over the next 5 years, £44 billion will be provided to support the housing […]

Ending Assured Shorthold Tenancies [under Section 8 and Section 21 of Housing Act 1988] With the demand for social housing at record levels and social housing stock at historically low levels across the country, obtaining a possession order is becoming harder and trickier for landlords. With the courts and Judges being meticulous when considering possession […]

IR35 legislation was introduced in 2000 specifically to challenge the tax position of those individuals who provide their services via an intermediary service Company. The advantage to the individual of such an arrangement is that they pay less Income Tax and National Insurance than a directly employed worker. These types of service company arrangements continue […]

Crucial to the determination of whether IR35 applies or not is the question of ‘Whether an individual would (for tax or NICs purposes) have been an employee of the client if they had been working directly for the client?’ If the answer is no then the intermediary and individual will not be caught by the […]

If your business employs staff directly, or you’re self-employed, here are two types of contracts that will help you to clarify how your business operates, in order to avoid the risk of IR35 applying. What emerges from the case law and guidance is that the contracts the parties have in place and the reality of these […]