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Homeowners who were directed by an adjudicator to pay almost £90,000 to builders who carried out an ambitious refurbishment of their property have failed to convince the High Court that they are entitled to a £40,000 set-off against that sum in...

The High Court has come to the aid of a developer who exceeded his planning consent by building an extra storey on a block of flats. The Court ruled that a planning inspector had erred in law in failing to consider the possibility that, rather than having...

A man who worked as a machine operator for many years has won compensation after suffering damage to his hearing. Oswald Grant, from Pudsey in West Yorkshire, began working at Yorkshire Imperial Metals (YIM) in 1963. He initially worked as a pump operator...

You might think that a product is like an elephant – hard to define, but you know one when you see one. However, the meanings of words in law are often important, as a case which dealt with the meaning of the word ‘product’ makes clear. ...

When ‘heir hunters’ approached three family members with the unexpected news that they stood to inherit money from a person who died without leaving a will, they were asked to sign a contract giving 40 per cent of the inheritance to the heir...

The counterfeiting of products has always been a significant issue, especially with regard to high value products sold in areas with high levels of indirect taxation, such as the UK. For items such as cigarettes, perfume, whisky and luxury goods,...

Relationship break-ups where the couple are of different nationalities often present particular difficulties for the courts – especially where the custody of children is in dispute. A recent case involving an American father and his British ex-wife ...

When a woman and her husband separated and were subsequently reconciled, a Capital Gains Tax (CGT) liability was probably the last thing they were thinking about. The woman owned a house with her husband and they lived in it together. She also owned a flat...

When a tenant wished to break its 25-year lease at an appropriate break point, it served a notice on the landlord and probably considered that to be the end of the matter. The landlord thought otherwise. The lease stipulated that the notice had to be stated...

A couple who engaged a contractor to carry out work on their house have succeeded in their claim against the architect in respect of the cost of putting right defects in the contractor’s work. The couple bought a five-storey house in Putney in June...