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The courts have the power to order claimants to provide financial security to ensure that the defendants can recover their costs if the claim is unsuccessful. Recently, the sons of a deceased man sought security for costs from a woman from Thailand who...

If you discover that someone else has registered a UK domain name which is similar to your business's own name or trading style, you can make a complaint to Nominet UK through its Dispute Resolution Service (DRS). Recently, an architectural company succeeded...

The Court of Appeal has ruled that a 15-year-old child should be allowed to legally change their given name , overturning an earlier decision of the High Court. At the age of 12, the child had told their parents that they believed themselves to be...

A case in which the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) refused a company permission to make a late appeal against demands for import duty and VAT serves as a warning to businesses to ensure they understand their potential liabilities and, if they wish to appeal a...

A person who is in adverse possession of registered land may apply to the Land Registry to be registered as its owner on the basis of ten years' adverse possession of it, ending on the date of the application. If the application is opposed by the existing...

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has rejected an appeal against the dismissal of an employee's complaint that unauthorised deductions had been made from his wages because he did not receive an additional day's pay or a day off in lieu when he worked on...

The Income Tax rates and allowances for the 2025/26 tax year are largely unchanged from the 2024/25 year. The Personal Allowance – the amount you can earn before you begin to pay Income Tax – remains at £12,570. It reduces by £1 for...

Under Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 , where a landlord undertakes qualifying works with a cost of more than £250 per lease without consulting the leaseholders, the contribution from each leaseholder will be limited to that sum....

The Family Court has granted a husband's application for a divorce he obtained in India to be recognised by the English courts . The husband and wife were both Indian nationals who now had British citizenship. They had married in India in 2010 and had...

The Court of Appeal has handed down its judgment in a case which clarifies how the test of whether members of a limited liability partnership (LLP) have significant influence over its affairs for the purpose of determining whether they are 'salaried...

The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court has rejected a supermarket chain's application for summary judgment on its claim that a trade mark it was accused of infringing was invalid. A company claimed that the supermarket chain had infringed a trade mark...

A TV producer's partner who was left nothing in his will has commenced High Court proceedings seeking financial provision from his estate. The producer passed away in 2019, at the age of 58. He had been in a long-term relationship with his partner and had...

As part of its Working Minds campaign, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has called on employers to support workers' mental health during Stress Awareness Month. Employers are encouraged to focus on one of the campaign's five Rs for each week of April....

The Court of Protection recently granted an application by two NHS trusts for authorisation to carry out a planned caesarean in respect of a woman who was due to give birth. The 29-year-old woman had treatment resistant paranoid schizophrenia. She had...

In a case in which a man was named as a girl's father on her birth certificate but was subsequently discovered not to be her biological father, the High Court has ruled that the effect of a declaration of non-parentage was to render his acquisition of...

The Upper Tribunal (UT) has upheld a landlord's appeal against a civil penalty imposed on him for managing an unlicensed house in multiple occupation (HMO). The property had five bedrooms which were let to individuals who did not form a single household....

The Court of Appeal has reinstated an earlier ruling of the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) that a taxpayer was not resident in the UK for Income Tax purposes during the 2015/16 tax year due to exceptional circumstances that prevented her from leaving the country....

The Upper Tribunal (UT) has ruled that a taxpayer could not claim relief from Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on a loan to a company that had been discharged in exchange for new shares, because the loan was no longer 'outstanding' when the claim for relief was made....

It is always advisable to check the service charges you are asked to pay rather than simply assuming they are correct. This point was illustrated by a recent case in which four leaseholders obtained refunds of service charges relating to electricity costs...

The National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2025 came into force on 1 April and provided for the following changes to the National Living Wage (NLW) and the National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates: The NLW, which applies to those aged 21 and over,...