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The impact of Brexit on contracts

As Brexit draws near, the question of how it will affect business and the need to know your contractual rights is ever more important.

Some questions you may ask yourself:

  • What happens if the borders are clogged up and I cannot deliver or receive goods
  • Who will be liable for tariffs in the event of a hard Brexit
  • Should I look at amending existing contracts or terminating contracts with a view to issuing new contracts
  • Will you have to register with a UK authority in place of an EU one?
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Bills of Sale escape extinction

The Government recently announced that it does not intend to legislate to implement the September 2016 Law Commission proposals to modernise the archaic Bills of Sale regime:

“Given the concerns that were raised in the consultation, the small and reducing market and the wider work on high-cost credit, the government will not introduce legislation at this point in time. The government will continue to work with the FCA as they carry out their high-cost credit review, and then further consider government action on alternatives to high-cost credit in light of the FCA’s review”.

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GDPR Bedding In

It has been almost 6 months since the GDPR regime came into effect, and early signs would suggest that the invoice finance industry has adapted well to the new requirements.

As expected there was something of a last-minute rush to ensure compliance, but fears were perhaps eased by helpful comments from the Information Commissioner such as she made on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on 25 May 2018:

“We are not looking for perfection. We do not have thousands of inspectors going out and checking people’s homework. What we do have are millions of people that have new rights and they can make a complaint against a company to our office”.

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Employment Law: Disability discrimination

Is it disability discrimination if an employer deals with an ill health retirement procedure badly? Not necessarily, the Court of Appeal has said. Mr Dunn was employed by the Ministry of Justice. He had depression and a serious heart condition. He applied for ill health early retirement. The process was handled badly and was unnecessarily bureaucratic. But was this poor treatment because of his disability (direct discrimination) or something arising in consequence of it (discrimination arising from disability)? The employment tribunal said yes, but the Employment Appeal Tribunal disagreed.

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Employment Law: National minimum wage and ‘sleeping in’

Are care workers who ‘sleep in’ at work entitled to the national minimum wage for the whole of their shift? In Mencap v Tomlinson-Blake, care workers had to spend the night at or near their place of work. They were expected to sleep for most of that period. They might be woken if their assistance was needed. Were they entitled to the minimum wage even when they were sleeping?

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What protection do I have as a shareholder?

All shareholders in UK companies have certain rights in relation to their shares and in relation to the company. Whilst the precise rights that a shareholder enjoys will vary depending on the size of their shareholding (the larger the shareholding, the greater the number of rights enjoyed by the shareholder), certain basic rights and protections apply regardless of the number of shares held.

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