Search Results

Supreme Court delivers key judgment on the availability of Wrotham Park “negotiating” damages

02 July 2018

The Supreme Court has considered an important question in relation to damages. In what circumstances can damages for breach of contract be assessed by reference to the sum the claimant could hypothetically have received, known as Wrotham Park damages, in return for releasing the defendant from the obligation he had failed to perform?

Two wrongs don’t make a right: Court of Appeal decides illegality is no defence to professional negligence claim

16 October 2018

For public policy reasons, the Court of Appeal has held that the defence of illegality was not available to a firm of solicitors that failed to register a property transfer to a client involved in mortgage fraud. The court decided that there was no risk that enforcing the client’s negligence claim would undermine the integrity of the justice system and she was entitled to damages, in spite of the fraud.

Court of Appeal holds employer liable for wrongful disclosure of personal data by ‘rogue’ employee

24 October 2018

The supermarket chain Morrisons had an internal auditor who went rogue. Aggrieved at an internal disciplinary process, he disclosed payroll data on the internet relating to about 100,000 of his colleagues. He was tracked down, charged and sentenced to eight years in prison. But was Morrisons liable to the employees whose information he had leaked?

IPO doesn’t see anything wrong with Specsavers’ trade mark (Brands & IP Newsnotes - issue 3)

23 October 2016

Specsavers has managed to get its application to register “should’ve” (as in, “should’ve gone to Specsavers”) past the examination stage at the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO).

This is my advice. By the way, it might be wrong!

05 March 2018

When do solicitors have to warn their client that the advice they are giving may turn out to be incorrect? The Court of Appeal has recently considered this issue.

Protecting confidential information – what steps can a company take when information is disclosed to the wrong person?

05 August 2019

The High Court has entered judgment in default in favour of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in a claim brought to protect its confidential information and privileged material accidentally emailed by an employee to the wrong person. The Court had previously granted the ASA an interim injunction to prevent disclosure of the information by the recipient, pending a hearing of the claim. This case highlights steps employers can take to protect confidential information in these circumstances.

Written statement of employment particulars – new rules from April 2020

29 January 2020

Employers need to be providing new-form written statements of employment particulars (sometimes called section 1 statements) from April this year. This article summarises what is changing and what employers should do to prepare.

Supreme Court upholds requirement to record variations in writing

24 May 2018

Rock Advertising Limited v MWB Business Exchange Centres Limited is an important case. In fact, the opening paragraph of Lord Sumption’s judgment describes it as an “exceptional” appeal, raising “truly fundamental issues” of contract law.

Joanna Hunt writes for HR Magazine: EU nationals in the UK: Brexit and beyond

02 August 2017

Joanna Hunt has written an article for HR Magazine as the government announces its long overdue plan for EU nationals and their family members.

Emma Richardson writes for Essential Retail: Tackling mental health in the eCommerce sector

07 October 2019

Emma Richardson has written an article on Mental Health in the ecommerce sector for Essential Retail.

How can I get my supplier to give me the goods I’ve paid for? Rebecca Harries writes for The Times

09 September 2021

I paid for some goods and the seller has not provided them. We had a contract and I don’t want compensation or money back, I just want the goods. I cannot get them elsewhere. What can I do?

A customer refused to pay full price. Can we make them? Frances Simm writes for The Times

06 October 2021

We’ve started supplying a new customer under our standard contract terms, but when they had our goods they demanded we accept a lower price and wouldn’t return what we’d sent. We were relying on their payment to meet some other costs so we accepted payment at the lower price. Is there anything we can do?

What we can learn from contrasting ASA decisions on ‘green’ almond milk ads: Brinsley Dresden writes for The Grocer

19 November 2021

Environmental claims should be based on an analysis of the full lifecycle of a product, including production, transportation, and retail.

Have we reached the bottom of the market? Jonathan Martry writes for The Sphere…

13 October 2023

It’s now been a year since the ‘mini budget’ of September 2022 rapidly brought the end of the Q2/ Q3 2022’s improving market conditions.

Immigration reform will attract talent - Declan Groarke writes for the Law Society

20 May 2024

Measures aimed at strengthening Ireland’s appeal as a top destination for skilled international workers have been approved. Further changes with the same purpose may also be in the pipeline writes Declan Groarke.

Did Dilyn the dog eat the writ?

14 May 2021

The WRC’s Report on its 2020 Decisions and Recommendations

13 January 2022

The Irish Workplace Relations Commission (the “WRC”) has issued a “first of its kind” report analysing the decisions and recommendations issued by the WRC in 2020. This report highlights some trends that will be of interest to employers. In this article we summarise the key points and discuss some takeaways for employers.

WRC orders UCC to pay Professor €300,000 after he was unfairly dismissed

30 April 2024

In the recently published case, Wim Naude v UCC, a Dutch economics scholar, who was hired as a Professor of Economics by University College Cork (‘UCC’) during the Covid-19 pandemic, was awarded €300,000 by the Workplace Relations Commission (‘WRC’) after it held that he had been dismissed unfairly and without warning for failing to relocate to Cork.

Michael Burd is quoted in The Law Society Gazette: Exit Wounds

19 March 2018

Michael Burd is quoted in the write up of the latest Gazette roundtable held last week.

Brexit and data protection - would it make a difference

07 June 2016

The UK’s data protection legislation is currently derived from the EU’s 1995 Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC). In May 2018, this will be replaced by the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which will be directly applicable across the EU (together with a new Data Protection Directive for the police and criminal justice sector).