Landlords insist a specialist housing court is needed
June 3rd 2019By Mark Aspin Director Landlord groups have called on the government to establish a dedicated specialist housing court to speed up the process of legitimate evictions. The move comes after the Ministry of Justice published figures showing that it is now taking longer for private landlords to evict problem tenants. The average time between a landlord making a claim to the courts to repossess a property, and it actually happening,…
New director appointed to board at leading legal firm
May 31st 2019ONE of Cumbria’s leading legal firms has appointed a new director, as its farming and agriculture department moves from strength to strength. Mark Jackson becomes the youngest member of Cartmell Shepherd’s board at the age of 35, bringing the number of top table representatives to nine. With a desire to focus on traditional values whilst implementing the most up-to-date legal practices, he is looking to further grow the agriculture and…
Latest figures show slight reduction in gender pay gap
May 28th 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR The latest figures on the gender pay gap in large businesses show a slight reduction on last year. Legislation introduced in 2017 means that every employer with 250 or more employees has to publish the differences between what they pay their male and female staff in average salaries and bonuses. This is the second year that employers have been required to report…
Replacing Incumbent Systems with Proclaim Practice Management Solution to enhance efficiencies firm-wide
May 24th 2019We are in the news this week! Eclipse Legal Systems have written an article about the new legal software we are installing. Cartmells’ Practice Manager, Scott Garson talks about why we chose Proclaim Practise Management to take our productivity to the next level. Eclipse Legal Systems, the Law Society Endorsed legal software provider, has announced it is implementing its Proclaim Practice Management solution at award winning law firm Cartmell Shepherd. Cartmell Shepherd…
Female administrator paid 15% less than her male replacement
May 23rd 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR The Employment Tribunal has ruled that a female finance administrator was discriminated against when her male replacement was paid £3,500 more than her. The case involved Mrs J Broom, who had been employed in various roles by Alternative Care Ltd for nearly two years. At the time she resigned from the company, she was a finance administrator with a salary of £18,000.…
Judge orders homeowner to pay builder in full for repair work
May 20th 2019By Laura Bright Solicitor The High Court has ordered a homeowner to pay the full cost of repair work carried out on his property by a building company. The court heard that the homeowner, Sylvein Pinto, had asked ICCT Ltd to stop leaks in his basement. The work was not paid for so ICCT took the matter to arbitration and Mr Pinto provided the adjudicator with pictures of the leaking…
Headmaster told disabled teaching assistant: ‘I can do what I like’
May 15th 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR A teaching assistant was discriminated against by her employer, who did not take the necessary steps to allow her to work in comfort with her disability. That was the decision of the Employment Tribunal in a case involving an assistant who worked at Aycliffe Village Primary School in County Durham from February 2006. Mrs S Clifford suffered with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue…
Director ordered to pay £20,000 after breaching his duties
May 13th 2019By Mark Aspin Director A director has been ordered to pay £20,000 for breaching his legal duties shortly before his company went into liquidation. The director had run a freight-forwarding company from 2011 until its voluntary liquidation in 2015. He had been the sole shareholder. His father had previously been a co-director of the company and continued to work for it. The company operated from the father’s home. The director…
Sub-contractor held liable for loss of rent due to faulty work
May 7th 2019A sub-contractor has been held liable for all the compensation a contractor had to pay for damage caused by faulty work, including loss of rent. The High Court was told that the contractor, Ground Construction Ltd, had been employed by a landlord to build a property next to Regent’s Canal in London. The main contract was a JCT standard form incorporating the terms and conditions of DOM2. Ground Construction sub-contracted…
Government warns 10,000 businesses to pay SME invoices on time
May 3rd 2019By Carly Davies Credit Control & Debt Recovery The government has written to 10,000 businesses to warn them they must pay their suppliers on time or risk being barred from winning public contracts. Officials from the Cabinet Office have written to the businesses – which include all the government’s current strategic suppliers – to remind them of the new rules on prompt payment, which come into force this autumn. Under…
