We frequently advise business owners on disputes that arise due to poorly drafted contracts, outdated documentation or business relationships in which the terms have never been documented in writing – leading to confusion between the parties as to what the actual terms are. These disputes can prove costly and time consuming for businesses of any size.
Once these disputes have arisen, business owners will often ‘kick themselves’ for not reviewing their contracts for years or letting relationships form without any formal written documentation but, as with many things in life, hindsight is a wonderful thing.
James Whittaker is a Partner in the insolvency team, having joined Bermans in 2019 after practicing law at large international law firms since qualifying as a solicitor in 2012.
Prior to qualification, James studied Psychology at the University of Liverpool and then converting to law at the University of Law at Chrisleton.
James has experience acting for and advising companies, individuals, directors, creditors and office-holders within insolvency proceedings in respect of both contentious and non-contentious assignments.
Currently, James has a focus on contentious insolvency proceedings and is regularly instructed to issue and defend applications under the Insolvency Act 1986 and the Insolvency Rules 2016 including:
Applications for injunctions to restrain presentation of or advertisement of winding up petitions,
All stages of the creditors’ winding up petition process, including opposing a petition which is disputed in good faith on substantial grounds;
All stages of the bankruptcy petition process, including applications to set aside statutory demands and disputed bankruptcy petition hearings;
Full range of office-holder applications arising from the administration of insolvent estates against directors, companies and individuals (including misfeasance/preference/undervalue/void dispositions),
Acting for Trustees in Bankruptcy against individuals and companies, applications for possession and sale and annulment applications;
Administration applications include applications to challenge validity of appointment, and administration extension applications;
Applications for block transfers of office holder appointments.
Outside of work, James likes to spend as much time as possible outside either cycling (having recently completed Haute Route Alps) or walking/camping in the hills of North Wales and the Lake District. James is also an avid follower of professional cycling, and Liverpool Football Club.
James has been named as ranked as a ‘Next Generation Partner’ by the Legal 500 2025 (having been a ‘Rising Star in 2024) and has been described by his clients as “a superb litigator who is responsive knowledgeable and a pleasure to deal with’ .
Following the Grenfell tragedy and the recent student accommodation fire in Bolton, the pressure is on for Universities to ensure that their whole estate is “fully fire safe”.
This doesn’t just require an extensive review of University owned and managed premises, but also a review of accommodation, teaching space and research facilities owned or operated by private providers and partners.
North west commercial law firm Bermans has recently strengthened their employment law offering with a new expanded team, welcoming four new solicitors to the department throughout 2019 so far.
The firm, which has offices in Liverpool and Manchester, put plans in place to expand their employment team to cope with increasing work loads during the previous financial year.
In a redundancy situation, an employee might be entitled to both statutory and contractual redundancy payments. Statutory redundancy payments are calculated using age, length of service and weekly pay (currently capped at £525). Contractual payments can be more generous. What happens when a contractual sum isn’t paid, and the employee brings a breach of contract claim to recover it? Does the statutory redundancy element form part of the £25,000 cap for a breach of contract claim in the employment tribunal?
Under section 45A of the Employment Rights Act 1996, workers have the right not to be treated badly by their employer for refusing to work in breach of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR). If such a refusal is the reason (or main reason) for an employee’s dismissal, their dismissal will be automatically unfair. The case of Paxur v Lexington Catering Services examines how explicit that refusal needs to be.
Most employment claims should be brought within a three-month time limit. If it is not ‘reasonably practicable’ for an employee to present his claim within the three-month time limit, an employment tribunal has the discretion to extend the time limit. There are two questions the tribunal must ask: was it reasonably practicable to lodge the claim within the time limit? If not, was it then lodged within a reasonable period? The ACAS early conciliation process provides a potential one-month extension of time following the conclusion of early conciliation. However, this only applies if ACAS were contacted within the initial three-month time limit. The EAT has looked at this issue in Pearce v Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Analysis by the Office for National Statistics has shown that women who commute for an hour are nearly 30 per cent more likely to leave their jobs than if they have a ten-minute commute. The ONS believes this is due to childcare commitments. In comparison, men are more likely to look at money as the reason for leaving their job. They are prepared to travel for longer to get higher pay. The ONS believes this contributes to men doing the higher paid work which fuels the gender pay gap.
Are your job adverts accidentally putting off potential applicants? A new LinkedIn report has looked at the language used in job adverts and found that certain things can deter a potential applicant from applying. The survey of more than 1000 employees and 250 recruitment managers found that more than half of women would be put off by an advert describing the workplace as ‘aggressive’, compared with only a third of men. Surprisingly, there are more than 50,000 jobs on LinkedIn which include the word ‘aggressive’ in their description. More women than men were put off by the term ‘born leader’ too. The approaches to annual leave and flexible working also differed between the genders, with more women than men giving these issues top priority.
A person is disabled if she has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on her ability to do day to day activities. To be ‘long-term’ an impairment must have lasted, or be likely to last, at least 12 months. An impairment can be treated as continuing when it has stopped if it is likely to recur. Likely means it is more probable than not.
| 
In a redundancy situation, an employee might be entitled to both statutory and contractual redundancy payments. Statutory redundancy payments are calculated using age, length of service and weekly pay (currently capped at £525). Contractual payments can be more generous. What happens when a contractual sum isn’t paid, and the employee brings a breach of contract claim to recover it? Does the statutory redundancy element form part of the £25,000 cap for a breach of contract claim in the employment tribunal?