A day in the life of a Trainee Solicitor – advocacy skills
November 26th 2018By Taylor Chanter Trainee Solicitor As part of the training requirements for trainee solicitors I am currently completing the Professional Skills Course at the University of Central Lancashire alongside my fellow Cartmell Shepherd trainees Andrew, Emma and Lydia. For the first few sessions we have been developing our advocacy skills in both a criminal and civil setting. In order to practice the skills that we developed in the first advocacy key…
Winners of prestigious business award!
November 22nd 2018We celebrate success after scooping Best Professional Services Company award at a prestigious business awards ceremony. We beat off some stiff competition from our fellow finalists, Armstrong Watson and Prima Uno, to be crowned winners in the Best Professional Services Company category at the in-Cumbria Business Awards. Both Carol Fish and Deborah Flynn were presented with the award by Des Moore, CEO of the Cumberland Building Society who sponsored the category. Host Jeremy…
Director held personally responsible for company’s unpaid invoice
November 19th 2018By Peter Stafford , Cartmell Shepherd’s Managing Director A director has been held personally liable to pay the full market value of products that had been supplied to her company shortly before it went into liquidation. The claim against the director arose from her company’s failure to pay for a cargo of sunflower oil sold to it by a supplier in October 2012. The supplier argued that it had entered into…
Festival of Remembrance
November 12th 2018The Cartmell Shepherd Community Choir are very proud to have taken part in the 2018 Remembered – Festival of Remembrance at The Sands Centre, Carlisle on Saturday 10 November 2018. The Festival was a wonderful evening of different acts on the theme of 2018 Remembered, followed by the Remembrance Service led by Reverend Teasdale, who was joined on stage by members of the armed services and the evening’s acts. It…
Chancellor increases Living and Minimum wage rates
November 8th 2018Scott Garson Practice Manager Chancellor Philip Hammond has announced increases to the minimum wage rates. During his Budget speech, Mr Hammond said the National Living Wage will rise by 4.9%, from £7.83 to £8.21 from next April. This amounts to a £690 annual pay increase for a full-time worker. These are the increases recommended by the Low Pay Commission (LPC) and accepted in full by the government. They will come into…
Free will review offer launched by top legal firm
November 7th 2018A LEGAL company has launched a service which offers free will reviews for residents of West Cumbria. Staff at the Dovenby branch of Cartmell Shepherd are welcoming local residents to join them for a 30 minute consultation. They have decided to offer this service because many people unwittingly have wills which are out of date and no longer fit for purpose. The consequences can be seismic, with families potentially plunged…
Landlord stops leaseholder letting out flat on Airbnb
November 5th 2018Elizabeth Crouch Senior Solicitor A landlord has succeeded in legal action to prevent a leaseholder letting out his flat on short-term lets using websites such as Airbnb. The landlord was the freeholder of a building which had been converted into flats. Many of the flats had been sub-let by the leaseholders on assured shorthold tenancies, usually for a minimum of six months. One of the tenants started using his flat…
Call for evidence to combat late payments to small businesses
November 2nd 2018Mark Aspin, Director and Head of Dispute Resolution The government is urging businesses to highlight their experiences of late payment and put forward ideas to ensure earlier settlement, especially by large companies. One in four UK businesses say that late payments are a threat to their survival. Research by the Federation of Small Businesses suggests that prompt payments could add £2.5 billion to the UK economy and keep an extra…
Legal services sector in Cumbria ‘should be celebrated’ says leading lawyer
November 1st 2018ONE of Cumbria’s leading lawyers has labelled the county’s presence in an influential industry index as ‘outstanding’. Peter Stafford, the managing director of Cartmell Shepherd, said the verdict delivered this week by the Legal 500 underlines the quality of services across the county. A number of Cumbria businesses were named in the annual report, underlining the degree to which law firms in the county can offer a comprehensive package of…
‘Giveaway budget’ but no rise in inheritance tax allowances
October 30th 2018Deborah Flynn, Head of our Wills Probate & Inheritance Team considers recent budget results. Chancellor Philip Hammond surprised political commentators by producing what’s been described as a “giveaway budget” featuring tax cuts and increased public spending. While many people will welcome the increase in personal tax allowance and extra funds for services like the NHS, there was also some disappointment that there was no increase in inheritance tax allowances and the…
