A monthly checklist from Atom Content Marketing highlighting new and pending laws, regulations, codes of practice and rulings that could have an impact on your business.
Businesses and others involved in legal disputes or regulatory proceedings will welcome clarification on which parts of communications with their legal advisers are protected by legal advice privilege and need not be disclosed to the other side.
Employers should wait a reasonable time before dismissing an employee on grounds of capability for ill-health absence, or risk a successful unfair dismissal claim, according to a recent ruling.
Businesses and individuals should investigate whether images for their websites (or for any other purpose) have been copied from elsewhere, or risk significant additional damages being awarded against them in a subsequent copyright infringement dispute, following a recent ruling.
Businesses operating in the UK, or supplying UK customers, with a turnover of £36m or more will welcome new regulations and guidance on complying with recent anti-slavery laws.
Landlords can forfeit a lease held by a tenant in administration if the landlord's losses where the tenant remains in occupation significantly outweigh the administrator's losses if the lease is forfeited, a ruling makes clear.
Employers who have caused or aggravated an employee's illness should ensure they act fairly and reasonably, including considering longer periods of absence, before disciplining the employee, following a recent ruling.
Directors of companies in financial difficulty should carefully monitor their financial situation and prospects, so they can spot when there is no reasonable prospect of their company avoiding insolvent liquidation or administration - and minimise losses to creditors as a body rather than selecting particular creditors - or risk personal liability for company debts.
Employers faced with allegations of unfair dismissal on grounds the employee has made a protected disclosure should be aware the disclosure may still be in the public interest, even if it only involves a small number of employees, following a recent legal ruling.
Employers will welcome clarification from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on how to calculate a worker's entitlement to annual leave if their working pattern changes during a holiday year.
Owners of designs should consider whether those designs should be registered in black and white, greyscale, or colour, as the protection given to the design can be different in each case, a recent ruling makes clear.
Employers should review what amounts to 'work equipment' in the workplace, to ensure compliance with their legal duties to maintain such equipment, following a case where serious injury to a canteen assistant was caused by a broken mug handle.
Employers could impose apparently inconsistent disciplinary sanctions on different employees because their circumstances are not 'truly parallel', a ruling has made clear.
Property sellers should think very carefully about their answers to buyers' questions before the parties have exchanged contracts, or risk compensation claims for misrepresentation, a ruling has made clear.
Businesses who have contracts which impose pre-determined financial or other penalties in the event of a breach should review them to ensure they are enforceable, following a landmark Supreme Court decision.
Employers will welcome a new guide on workplace investigations from Acas.
Disclaimer: These publications from Atom Content Marketing are for general guidance only, for businesses in the United Kingdom governed by the laws of England. Atom Content Marketing, expert contributors and ICAEW (as distributor) disclaim all liability for any errors or omissions.