Sydney Mitchell News

Sydney Mitchell has recently launched its new email newsletter, e-script, which compliments its already existing paper newsletter, entitled Script.

View issue one.

The Government is today releasing details of its proposed shake up of Licensing Laws with a Consultation on its proposals expected to last no more than 6 weeks just as MP’s start their summer recess.

Romanian Solicitor Ligia Bob recently qualified to become the only dual qualified (England and Romania) lawyer to work in a firm within the West Midlands, according to Law Society statistics. With only 39 firms in the country with a Romanian qualified lawyer, Ligia is pretty unique.

Trained and qualified whilst at Sydney Mitchell LLP, Ligia remains at the firm and specialises in commercial litigation and employment disputes.

Ligia moved from Romania in March 2007 and at that time was unable to speak any English.

We are pleased to announce that our Licensing partner Peter Adkins is yet again in demand for his skills at providing training on all elements of the Licensing Act 2003.

Peter has been contacted by a number of Local Authorities concerning training for new committee members following the recent local council elections.

Many authorities have found they need to admit new members to the committees, which are limited to 15 in number, and these new members will all require training if they are to prove effective and to avoid unnecessary (and costly) appeals!

As a result of this interest, Pe

Dean Parnell, Partner at Sydney Mitchell, has recently become the 191st President of the Birmingham Law Society. He takes over the role from previous President Bernard Shepherd, who stood down on the 27th April. The Birmingham Law Society is now the largest Local Law Society in the Country representing over 3000 solicitors, barristers, legal executives, trainee solicitors and paralegals in 200 practices in Birmingham and the Greater Midlands. It is a membership organisation offering a number of benefits that are relevant to today's Legal Community.

Midlands based legal firm, Sydney Mitchell Solicitors have signaled their intention to provide expert legal services to an even greater number of people with the professional redevelopment of their website. Due to the extensive range of legal services provided the decision was reached to enhance the user friendliness of their website by working with Receptional Internet Marketing consultancy.

We all have choices in life. We choose whether to marry or live with another person. We choose where to live even if there are constraints placed upon us as to what we can afford. We choose to make compromises in our relationships, in our décor style and as to what our money is spent upon. We choose our children’s names and all our lives have an impact upon those children who like a sponge absorb all that they see, hear and are encouraged to do. There are however times in our lives when some choices are taken from us, such as death, illness, redundancy and divorce.

Professional advisers have, quite rightly, in the past suggested that if you live in a leasehold property it makes sense to consider applying to lengthen the term of your lease. With property prices having recently fallen the cost of doing this has also reduced so there is every reason to consider such action as a "good investment" for the future.

If you live in a house or maisonette it may be possible to purchase the freehold but as Derek Cook from Sydney Mitchell Solicitors explains, there are potential problems as regards lease extensions.

Sydney Mitchell has been appointed by the administrators of First Quench Retailing Limited to deal with the disposal of properties nationwide.

First Quench, which operated a number of well-known off-licence brands, including Threshers and Wine Rack, went into administration in October 2009. Richard Fleming, Mick McLoughlin and Ian Corfield of KPMG, the appointed administrators, subsequently instructed Sydney Mitchell as one of only two firms to deal with the sale of the First Quench portfolio.

In an environment of rising taxes, knowing what you can do to protect your assets for your family’s future is essential. One way of doing this is to set up a trust, but what is a trust?

A trust arises where assets are transferred by one party (“the settlor”) to other individuals (“the trustees”) to hold for the benefit of others (“the beneficiaries”). The trustees owe a duty of care to the beneficiaries when managing the trust assets.

Daniel Blood and Simon Jobson both from Sydney Mitchell Solicitors recently visited Birmingham's Children's hospital bringing festive cheer with some Christmas gifts for the Children at the hospital.

Daniel Blood and Simon Jobson, both associates at the West Midlands firm raised funds that the Partners at Sydney Mitchell Solicitors matched for a worthy cause.

Over £500 worth of toys for a wide age range were purchased from local retailer, The Entertainer, with the retailer generously providing some free toys.

Sydney Mitchell has helped save 120 jobs by finalising the acquisition of two casinos in the region.

The Castle casino in Wolverhampton and the Rubicon in Dudley both went into administration in March of this year. With the assistance of Sydney Mitchell both have now been acquired by casino chain Casino 36.

Casino 36, which currently has a casino in the North West of England, has been looking to expand by acquiring new sites. With the appropriate expertise in order to manage the two casinos, the take over made perfect sense.

The Court of Appeal's decision in Oakland v Wellswood (Yorkshire) Ltd has finally been released after much anticipation from insolvency practitioners and businesses alike. The Court has held that Mr Oakland's continuity of employment is preserved by virtue of Section 218 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. Therefore any employee of a company in administration employed by the buyer after a pre-pack sale will be able to rely on this same provision to maintain continuity of service.

 

In a recent case a company director, Paul Edward Raine, was prosecuted for committing what the courts deemed a serious and deliberate breach of section 216 of the Insolvency Act 1986. This states that it is an offence for someone to become a director of another company under or known by a prohibited name within a period of five years if they were a director of the insolvent company at any time during the year before it went into liquidation.

A recent, bitterly contested ‘big money’ divorce case shows how reluctant the courts are to upset financial settlements on the basis of contingencies and reinforces the point that bad behaviour is not a basis for changing the division of the assets.

It involved, as do so many high profile cases, a man who was successful in the City and his wife. The couple had lived together for five years before they married in 2003, but the marriage broke down in 2005. The couple had one child.

Despite talk of 'green shoots' of economic recovery and an improving market, the Insolvency team at Sydney Mitchell are expecting a rise in Insolvency cases heading their way.

Already insolvency statistics show that there is a 39.1% increase from last year in company insolvency's. This includes administrations, compulsory liquidations and creditors voluntary liquidations. Individual insolvency's are also on the increase with a rise of 27.4% from last year. This figure includes bankruptcies, IVAs (Individual Voluntary Arrangements) and DROs (Debt Relief Orders).

This month Dippalli Naik from Sydney Mitchell looks at the recent changes to Employment Law Legislation and how it could affect your business.

Changes are set for 1st October when employers are no longer able to pay tips and service charges through the payroll in order to meet the minimum wage. This change will be set to benefit those working in the restaurant trade where tipping is commonplace. But will inevitably put pressure on the employers who have historically been paying the tips through the payroll in order to make up the pay to meet minimum pay requirements.

The recent case in which the Court of Appeal ruled that a German heiress was able to rely on a pre-nuptial agreement made with her husband was widely reported as meaning that the traditional view of the courts, that ‘pre-nups’ are little more than persuasive, was shattered.

However, the circumstances of that case were somewhat unusual and the comments of LJ Thorpe, the judge who issued the leading opinion, make interesting reading.

A Court of Appeal decision over a divorced couple's pre-nuptial agreement could pave the way for such agreements to become legally binding in England and Wales.

In a case heard before the Court of Appeal in April 2009 involving Katrin Radmacher, a German heiress, the Court of Appeal has overturned an earlier court decision to award her ex-husband £5.8m of her £100m fortune despite their pre nuptial agreement.

When did your company last have a health check?

Reviewing your core business documents is one of those tasks that is so easy to put off. It is never the right time, and there is always something more urgent to deal with.

But ignore it at your peril and you are only storing up problems for the future.

A recent report by commercial property agents King Sturge (KS) may concentrate the minds of commercial landlords, who may be faced with a substantial reduction in income if they have to find new tenants in the event that existing ones terminate their leases.

The Government has announced new National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates that will apply from 1 October 2009.

For workers aged 22 and over, the rate will increase from £5.73 to £5.80 an hour. The rate for 18- to 21-year-olds will rise from £4.77 to £4.83 and for 16- and 17-year-olds the rate will increase from £3.53 an hour to £3.57.

The accommodation offset will rise from £4.46 per day to £4.51 from 1 October 2009.

Dismissal by reason of redundancy may be fair or unfair. In particular, it will be unfair dismissal if the selection of a particular individual for redundancy was unfair or if there was a total failure to consider suitable alternative employment. Prior to the repeal of the statutory dispute resolution procedures, a dismissal by reason of redundancy was automatically unfair if the statutory procedures required before an employee could be properly dismissed were not followed.

From 6 April 2009, the statutory right to request flexible working arrangements is extended to parents of children aged 16 and under. Employees with caring responsibilities for children aged up to 6 (18 and under where the child is disabled) and carers of adults already have this right.
An employee must have completed 26 weeks' continuous employment with their employer in order to qualify for the right and can only make one request in any 12-month period.

There is a statutory procedure which must be followed when a request for flexible working arrangements is made.

Section 4A(3) of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) states that an employer is exempt from the duty to make reasonable adjustments for a disabled person if the employer does not know, and could not reasonably be expected to know, that the person has a disability and is likely to be put at a substantial disadvantage compared with a non-disabled person by any workplace provision, criterion or practice or by any physical feature of the workplace.