In this training video participants and their organisations will be starting to look beyond the immediate impact of Covid-19, now planning for the future of litigation including child abuse litigation.
In this video participants and their organisations will be starting to look beyond the immediate impact of Covid-19, now planning for the future of litigation including child abuse litigation. Our speakers share their experiences and learning over the last 18 months and be ready to answer any questions you have.
Leah Jones understands only too well how legal funding cuts and other cultural changes have led to an increase in litigants in person. Happily most litigants address the claims process with patience and even humour, but a significant minority can present very severe challenges for Defendant organisations and their insurers. Leah will share her experiences of obtaining a Civil Restraint Order against a particularly vexatious litigant in person, and discuss options for managing litigation involving unrepresented parties.
Lockdown and its impact on children and families, particularly those on the edge of care, will have a very long tail. Sadly children services organisations continue to face a large number of negligence and Human Rights Act claims. For the immediate future at least it is clear that these cases will require careful consideration, which will involve taking of detailed witness statements from already hard pressed social workers. Sarah Erwin-Jones will share our experiences of working with those social workers, around their existing commitments, in difficult and remote working conditions. Use of virtual platforms such as Zoom, Skype and Web-ex have made face to face conversations much easier and have led to unexpected opportunities for collaboration and costs savings. For every organisation your employees are your best asset and we can help you look after them.
Finally, conditions imposed by Covid-19 lockdown mean that some trials have had to take place remotely. That is unlikely to stop in future, and an increasing number of trials and hearings are likely to take place wholly or at partly remotely. James Arrowsmith will share his experiences of running a remote social care trial providing you with practical tips on how to:
James Arrowsmith specialises in high value personal injury, including head and spinal injury, and insurance coverage, including interpretation, non-disclosure breach of terms and motor insurance law.
james.arrowsmith@brownejacobson.com
+44 (0)121 237 3981
Sarah specialises in social services, the care sector and legal costs along with education.
Sarah.Erwin-Jones@brownejacobson.com
+44 (0)115 976 6136
Leah specialises in public and commercial insurance litigation, with a focus on the social care sector. She has considerable experience in handling a wide range of claims, ranging from serious injury to discrimination, defamation, and claims under the Human Rights Act.
leah.jones@brownejacobson.com
+44 (0)115 976 6550
Partner
Sarah.Erwin-Jones@brownejacobson.com
+44 (0)115 976 6136
Settlement agreements are commonplace in an employment context and are ordinarily used to provide the parties to the agreement with certainty following the conclusion of an employment relationship.
In ‘failure to remove’ claims, the claimant alleges abuse in the family home and asserts that the local authority should have known about the abuse and/or that they should have removed the claimant from the family home and into care earlier.
Across the UK, homelessness is an urgent crisis, and one that is set to grow amid the rising cost of living. Local authorities are at the forefront of responding to this crisis, but with a lack of properties that are suitable for social housing across the UK, vulnerable individuals and families are often housed in temporary accommodation.
Claims arising from interest-only mortgages have been farmed in volume. Many such claims to date have sought to drive a narrative that interest-only mortgages are an inherently toxic product and brokers were negligent simply for suggesting them. Taylor is a helpful recalibration, focussing instead on what the monies raised by the mortgage product were being used for and whether the client understood the inherent risks.
In a judgment handed down yesterday the Supreme Court has affirmed that a so called “creditor duty” exists for directors such that in some circumstances company directors are required to act in accordance with, or to consider the interests of creditors. Those circumstances potentially arise when a company is insolvent or where there is a “probability” of an insolvency. We explore below the “trigger” for such a test to apply and its implications.
Created at the end of the Brexit transition period, Retained EU Law is a category of domestic law that consists of EU-derived legislation retained in our domestic legal framework by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. This was never intended to be a permanent arrangement as parliament promised to deal with retained EU law through the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill (the “Bill”).
Practice Direction 57AC (“PD57AC”) relates to witness evidence in trials and explicitly applies only to the Business and Property Courts. It applies to existing proceedings in which the witness statements for trial are signed on or after 6 April 2021.
The Supreme Court has unanimously dismissed the BTI v Sequana appeal and reviewed the existence, content and engagement of the so-called ‘creditor duty’; being the point at which the interest of creditors is said to intrude upon the decision-making of directors of companies in financial distress.
The increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionising the way businesses operate and is having a disruptive impact in sectors that have traditionally been slow to modernise.
The Chancellor’s recent mini-budget provided a significant announcement for business as it was confirmed that the off-payroll working rules (known as “IR35”) put in place for public and private sector businesses from 2017 and 2021 will be scrapped from April 2023.
On 31 August 2022, the Court of Appeal handed down the Judgment in respect of the appeal case of HXA v Surrey County Council and YXA v Wolverhampton City Council [2022].
Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards was due to transition to Liberty Protection Safeguards in October 2020 but delayed due to the pandemic. While the public consultation has now closed and we’re still unclear of what the final legislation and code will look like, it’s worth noting and keeping a watching brief.
In November 2021, The Civil Justice Council’s published its interim report on proposed changes to the current Pre-Action Protocols, which included a mandatory Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) gateway. In this article, we look at proposed reforms and consider what this could mean for your case.
The use of social media platforms and applications can have overwhelmingly positive benefits for public bodies. However, regulatory action recently taken by the Information Commissioner, has highlighted various pitfalls that public bodies should seek to avoid if allowing staff to use social media as a communication tool.
Janice Walsh applied for a job with Domino’s Pizza, hoping to secure a role as a Delivery Driver. However things quickly took a turn for the worse during her initial interview, with the very first question that she was asked relating to her age. Ms Walsh was ultimately informed that she had not been successful in her application.
Our immediate future shows a renewed focus on foster care. We’re going to see a new nationwide-drive to recruit foster carers and the implementation of a more robust, and potentially financially-generous system for encouraging friends and family to care for their relatives (both when extended families cannot cope or provide care for any reason).
The Court of Appeal has dismissed two cases regarding rent arrears accrued during the Covid lockdowns. The cases are London Trocadero (2015) LLP v Picturehouse Cinemas Ltd and Bank of New York Mellon (International) Ltd v Cine-UK Ltd.
In the recent case of Dwyer (UK Franchising) Limited v Fredbar Limited and ano’r [2022] EWCA Civ 889, the Court of Appeal considered the reasonableness of restrictive covenants in a franchise agreement.
In this month’s decision of CJ & Ors v Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police the court was given the task of considering whether a sexual abuse action, brought under the Human Rights Act 1998 should be allowed to proceed to trial where the claim had been brought outside the one-year period prescribed by the Act.
This summer saw the publication of a report describing itself as a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to reset children social care. Based on the current trajectory, the report concluded that 100,000 children would be held in care in the next decade.
As has been widely reported this week, some 3,000 UK workers are taking part in a six month trial to assess the viability of a four-day working week without any reduction in their normal pay.
The independent review of children’s social care published its report yesterday. The report recognises that a conventional response of ‘top down’ rules is not likely to be fruitful, but it also identifies that many local systems do not have the robustness or resource to take on the full burden of reform.
Residents of care homes are particularly vulnerable members of our society, with higher risks of incidents and fatal injuries, which unfortunately can be as a result of suffering ill-treatment. Courts can be faced with the difficult task of determining whether the treatment amounts to a breach of the individual’s rights.
Whilst Schools and Academies exist to educate and inspire young people, their primary obligation is their protection. Keeping Children Safe in Education (“KCSIE”) is at the heart of everything that educational institutions do and impacts on every decision, however big or small.
From 6 April 2022, right to work checks on all migrant or settled prospective employees must be online and checks on British or Irish nationals will be manual (free) or digital (charged for).
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decision in the case of Warburton v The Chief Constable.
This webinar looks at the three key themes in the decision, and is aimed at sports & social clubs (including safeguarding officers).
