Our employment law team would like to remind all employers that a number of changes to  employment law, and employment tribunal reforms will come into force on the 6th of April 2012.

The employment tribunal reforms will include amongst other things, changes to the qualifying period of employment for an employee being allowed to make a claim for unfair dismissal.
There will also be an increase in the amount of costs that a Tribunal can award and Judges will be allowed to sit on their own to decide unfair dismissal cases instead of being part of a panel.

Our earlier post can be seen here:
Employment Law reforms announced by George Osborne 

For further information about what changes will be introduced to employment law and advice on how your business can prepare for the tribunal reforms, contact Amy Hallam on 01246 564012.
You may also email our employment law solicitors using our website’s contact form.

Legal advice in the business transfer deal was provided by a team made up of BRM partners Peter McGowan and Rod Shiers, Senior Associate Sarah Rowland and Assistant Solicitor, Anna Cattee.

Each company commercial team worked to ensure completion of the deal within a demanding timescale which both companies were very pleased with.

Of the deal, Sarah Rowland commented:

“This was my first substantial business deal since moving to BRM from Sheffield commercial firm HLW in October 2011. It was a pleasure to work with two very successful regional businesses and to help achieve the desired result within budget and on time. In working with my colleagues on this deal I was able to see why BRM have achieved such a high reputation for commercial legal advice”

Further details on how BRM can help your business can be found at the Business Law section of our website.

Contact Peter McGowan on 01246 564045, Rod Shiers on 01246 564002, Sarah Rowland on 01246 564039 or Anna Cattee on 01246 560595. Alternatively you can email the company commercial team here.

More information on Gordon Lamb’s and Gilder Group’s plans following the transfer can be found on the Derbyshire Times website.

The motor insurance industry is hugely powerful. It spends enormous sums in lobbying the Government to reduce the costs of personal injury claims. The phrase “compensation culture” has become a powerful slogan for this campaign. However, at the same time, motor insurers are working flat out to capture the claims of those people who are injured in road accidents and when they do, they very often sell them on to their own solicitors!

Against this background, it may be wise to view this new initiative with scepticism.

The government has been persuaded to consider introducing a minimum speed threshold of 6.25 mph (10kph) below which a claim for a whiplash will not be possible. This approach creates a number of problems –

1. The Courts have managed very well in resolving disputes involving injuries caused by low speed impacts. Why? It is because the Courts have access to the particular facts in each case. This is how justice works!
2. Consider this. What about a frail old lady, sitting in the passenger seat of her son’s car which has stopped at red traffic lights? She suffers from osteoporosis. A car fails to stop behind them and bumps into them at low speed. Her son is fine. He is younger and stronger. His bones are not frail. Is the Prime Minister seriously suggesting that her injuries, caused entirely by the fault of another, should go uncompensated?

My point is this – everyone is different. The Government’s approach will deny justice to many at the stroke of a pen.

Craig is a Chartered Legal Executive specialising in personal injury work. He has over 13 years of experience in handling a wide range of personal injury and civil litigation actions. Craig previously worked for CS2 Lawyers for over 9 years and latterly with Spencers Solicitors as a Team Manager.

At BRM, Craig will be bringing this experience to the expansion of our Personal Injury Department, with particular emphasis on the further development of BRM’s case management systems and the provision of highest quality advice to new and existing clients.

Partner, Peter McGowan said “Craig has been a target of ours for quite some time. He is particularly highly regarded in his field and since his arrival, I have seen just why he has justified this reputation. The team has been made stronger by his presence”

Using forged documents and basic acting skills, it isn’t too difficult for an experienced fraudster to take control of and illegally sell your empty property.  The risk of this happening is greater now that title to property is stored electronically at the Land registry without paper title deeds.

Elderly property owners in residential care, executors of estates including property, those who live for long periods of time outside of the UK and property investors with multiple properties are particularly at risk.

The Land Registry has encouraged owners of property likely to be empty for long periods of time to add a sale Restriction to the Title Register.

This Restriction will protect you by making it impossible to register a sale of your home or other property unless a Solicitor or Licensed Conveyancer has certified in writing that the person selling the property is the person legally entitled to do so.

Adding this Restriction is a very prudent course of action for those at risk of property fraud.

In an effort to persuade more people to take this action, from the 1st February 2012, the Land Registry abolished the fee payable for adding the restriction to the Title Register for empty properties. A £50 fee is still payable for owner occupied homes.

Should you have a property you are concerned about, contact BRM’s George Thomson on 01246 564047, or email him using our contact form.

Visit the >>Chesterfield Webcam<< on our website at http://www.brmlaw.co.uk/chesterfield-webcam/.

Andrew MacDonald ran across the desert like a rocket powered camel, completing the 10km run in Dubai in just over 56 minutes.

For any doubters, the certificate can be seen here as proof

All sponsorship money raised from Andrew’s run will be going to the British Heart Foundation.

Well done Andrew from everyone at BRM Solicitors.

While the reasons aren’t immediately obvious to me (perhaps it’s down to recent media coverage about the importance of making a Will or hype about what mysterious things may or may not happen on December 21st this year) it’s clear that more people are realising the importance of planning for the future both in their lifetime and beyond.

Circumstances have a nasty habit of changing quickly and without warning. Illness, mental incapacity and the grim reaper have no regard for age, wealth, success, attractiveness, Facebook status or any of your future plans and unless you make the right preparations, you, your family or even business partners could end up with some very big practical and financial problems.

The way our society has progressed means that making a Will is more important now than ever before. More couples are choosing to live together sometimes for many years without marrying, but the law does not recognise this arrangement. Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing (legally) as a common-law wife or husband and should the person you live with die, your partner would not inherit your estate.

If you have children, then your estate would be divided between them when they have reached the age of 18. If you don’t have children, your estate would pass to your parents and if they were no longer here; your brothers and sisters. The chain continues through various levels of the family until it finally reaches “the Crown” (in other words, the Chancellor of the Exchequer).

We are reminded all too often by events in the news that you’re never too young to make a will.

By doing so you ensure where your estate will go after your death; you can leave as little or as much to whoever you want and these wishes can be made clear to everyone so there’s no arguments over what people think they may or may not have been entitled to. In my role as Partner overseeing Contentious Probate matters, I can say one of the common phrases I hear is that “a ring/necklace/cutlery/etc. was promised to me”. You will (hopefully!) eliminate any of this occurring.

A Will also gives you the opportunity to set out funeral plans so you get what you want, not what people think you would want. So if you want to be taken to the crematorium in a motorcycle hearse with Elvis Presley playing on the way out, here’s the time to say it.

More importantly, you can appoint someone you trust as Executor to administer the estate so that you can be confident your wishes are carried out exactly as you want them to be.

If one of your New Year resolutions was to finally get around to making a Will, don’t put it off anymore. To make and appointment to make your Will, telephone me on 01246 560598 or email me using our website’s contact form and we can discuss the entire process of Making a Will.

Paul Berresford

BRM Solicitors

Paul Berresford is a Solicitor and Partner in the Wills and Probate Department at BRM Solicitors in Chesterfield. He specialises in Contentious Probate matters such as disputed Wills and improper distributions of estates.

With no training for the event and the hot Dubai sun to contend with, this will be a very challenging 10km. Whilst we don’t envy Andrew, we wish him the very best of luck.

If you would like to sponsor Andrew and support the British Heart Foundation, you may do so using BRM’s “Just Giving” page or by contacting Anna Cattee at our office.

Under the the current scheme, anyone having a first time interest in a property of a value between £125,000 and £250,000 does not pay stamp duty. Properties under £125,000 are exempt from Stamp Duty.

Regardless of any contract dates, any transaction which completes after 25th March 2012 (over the value of £125,000) will be subject to SDLT, whether you are a first time buyer or not.

If you are a first time buyer looking to buy a property over the value of £125,000 later in the year or you have a purchase in progress which may complete after 25th March 2012, you should be careful to budget for payment of SDLT, which is currently 1% of the purchase price for properties costing between £125,000 and £250,000.