In an important ruling for employers and the insurance industry, a sole director and shareholder who sued his own company after his finger was sliced off in a workplace accident has had his compensation hopes dashed. The Court of Appeal…
A Catholic journalist who was upset and offended by a senior colleague’s foul-mouthed reference to the Pope has failed to convince the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) that he was a victim of religious harassment. The words used by the editor…
If a member of staff uses your computer system to exchange emails, does the content of the email become the property of your business? This question was addressed recently in a court case concerning a dispute that arose between a…
Employee theft is often an exclusion in commercial insurance policies. When fashion retailer Ted Baker found that it had suffered a major loss due to employee theft of stock, AXA, the company’s insurer, declined to meet the claim on the…
A separated Jewish couple who have divergent views on the best kind of education for their children have had the issue decided by the Court of Appeal. The father, an ultra-Orthodox Jew, wished the children to attend single-sex ultra-Orthodox Jewish…
A High Court case underlines the importance of careful wording when drafting restrictive covenants, as well as the need for regular review of contractual restrictions to ensure they reflect the current position. The court held that an employee was entitled…
A London couple who ran a guest house together have had the ownership of their assets decided after an acrimonious court case. They had been together since the early 1990s and had a son. In 1996, the male partner bought…
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that United Kingdom legislation is deficient as it does not protect employees, including those with less than one year’s service, from dismissal on grounds of political opinion or affiliation (Redfearn v…
In the light of a recent Court of Appeal decision, businesses should ensure their employees are fully aware of the potentially serious consequences connected with discrimination and harassment in the workplace. The decision confirmed that joint and several liability is…
The Information Commissioner’s Office has fined Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd £250,000 for a serious breach of the Data Protection Act 1998. In April 2011, the Sony Playstation Network Platform was hacked and the attacker was able to access the…