The Supreme Court has held that a former equity partner of a law firm incorporated as a limited liability partnership (LLP) was clearly a worker and therefore eligible to bring a whistleblowing claim against the LLP. As a result of this decision, LLP members will become entitled to a range Read more…
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published a security report providing best practice on how to avoid eight common IT security vulnerabilities that most frequently lead to data security breaches. This checklist highlights the key legal obligations that a business should consider when dealing with personal data about customers, suppliers, Read more…
Two surveys have highlighted the risk of candidates providing fake references and the fact that a large number of staff fail their probationary periods. This suggests that employers may need to review their procedures for checking references and for assessing probationary periods. The Federation of Small Businesses and BBC1 worked Read more…
Landlords will breathe a sigh of relief following a recent Court of Appeal judgement. In this case, the tenant had exercised a break clause, ending the lease early. It sought a refund of parts of payments it had made in advance for rent, service charge, car parking and insurance charges, Read more…
Although small businesses will not be subject to the pensions auto-enrolment requirements until June 2015 at the earliest, they should nevertheless take note of a recently published Pensions Regulator report. The report highlights key points for employers to consider to ensure they comply with their auto-enrolment duties. It suggests that Read more…
Landlords will welcome the High Court’s comments on when sanctions for non-compliance with the tenancy deposit scheme (TDS) legislation are triggered. The tenant had argued that the section 21 notice served by the landlord was invalid, as, at the time of service, the landlord had not yet protected the deposit Read more…
Tenants should take note of a Court of Appeal decision that emphasises the need to pay close attention to all the requirements of a break clause, including the formal requirements, and to follow them precisely. The court held that a notice purporting to exercise a break clause in a lease Read more…
In this month’s Commercial Property update Max Marrison looks at the future of turnover rent leases. Turnover rents are common in the retail sector and enable landlords and tenants to share the risk and reward of a tenant’s business. A turnover rent arrangement usually involves the tenant paying a base Read more…
A High Court case illustrates that it is not always in an employer’s best interests to immediately place an employee on garden leave, or seek injunctive relief against a departing employee when they leave to set up in competition. Although seeking an injunction is often the knee-jerk reaction of an Read more…
In what appears to be one of the few times that a judge has felt justified in allowing the inspection and imaging of employees’ computers, the High Court has recently ordered that an employer may instruct an independent computer expert to inspect and take images from the personal computers of Read more…