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News

Safeway Ltd v Newton: Advocate General delivers Opinion in equalisation case

Today, Advocate General Tanchev handed down his Opinion at the Court of Justice of the European Union, Luxembourg, in Case C-171/18 Safeway Ltd v (1) Andrew Richard Newton and (2) Safeway Pension Trustees Ltd (a preliminary reference from the Court of Appeal). The case concerns the methods by which men and women’s pension ages can be equalised under a pension scheme. The scheme contained a power of amendment that permitted retrospective adverse amendments to rights. The material events occurred prior to the coming into force of section 67 of the Pensions Act 1995. The reference asks whether EU law permits equalisation to be achieved during the Barber  window by retrospectively reducing the rights of the advantaged class where those rights were…

News 27 Mar, 2019

Will Young for the successful appellant in Read v Ryder

The judgment has now been handed down in the EAT in the case of Read v Ryder. Will Young appeared for the successful appellant in the case, which gave guidance in relation to the question of precisely when the Employment Tribunal has jurisdiction to hear an employer’s counter-claim. The EAT in Read v Ryder accepted Will’s argument that for the Tribunal to have jurisdiction, the claimant must have unambiguously (i.e. expressly) have brought a claim ‘by virtue of’ the Employment Tribunals (Extension of Jurisdiction) Order 1994, or to have brought a claim that could only have been brought by virtue of the Order. Notwithstanding the relatively small sum at stake in the case itself, the decision may be of wider…

News 21 Mar, 2019

Ben Compton QC secures acquittal under s.37 Health & Safety at work allegation

Ben Compton QC has recently secured an acquittal for the director of Capstone Building Limited on a s.37 Health & Safety at work allegation. Following a fatality at a building site in Lyme Regis, the case was heard at Bournemouth Crown Court where Ben appeared for the defendant. The prosecution case against Mr Ayles, director of Capstone Building Limited, was that he had connived and/or attributed to the neglect of the company’s failings; however a structural engineer called by the HSE admitted under cross-examination that he had failed in some of his duties of advice to Mr Ayles and the HSE abandoned the case, 6 days into the trial. This case raises interesting points on the extent that a prosecution of a director…

News 20 Mar, 2019

Oliver Powell appears in Court of Appeal on behalf of taxpayer

Oliver Powell, led by Michael-Patchett-Joyce, was instructed by Madhu Chempakasari of Imran Khan & Partners to appear in the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) on behalf of Behzad Fuels (UK) Ltd (‘Behzad’), the Respondent. The appeal had its genesis in a decision by the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (‘HMRC’) not to restore commercial vehicles seized from Behzad in 2013 (‘the Restoration Decision’), and HMRC’s further decision to revoke the approval of Behzad as a Registered Dealer in Controlled Oil (‘RDCO’) (‘the Revocation Decision’). The Appeal was concerned with two grounds of appeal: HMRC’s first ground, which applied only to the Revocation Decision, was that the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) (‘UT’) erred in law in directing that…

News 12 Mar, 2019

Claire van Overdijk invited to speak at European law Institute – Protection of Adults in International Situations Seminar

Claire van Overdijk has been invited to speak at an upcoming European Law Institute (ELI) event in Milan supported by the European Union. The European Law Institute,  founded in June 2011 is an entirely independent organisation, supported by the European Union with the aim of improving both the quality of European law and legal development and understanding. Claire is set to take part in a panel session seminar on 22 March, focusing on “The Notion of ‘Measure of Protection’ and the Relationship between the Law of Adults’ Protection and Neighbouring Fields of Law”, within the overarching theme of the protection of adults in international situations. Please click here for the full agenda. Claire’s involvement in this event follows on from a joint European Commission and Hague…

News 7 Mar, 2019

Certificate in Common Law and DIFC Courts Practice

We are pleased to announce that a team of six members of Outer Temple Chambers will provide advocacy training within the Certificate in Common Law and DIFC Courts Practice programme in Dubai. The DIFC Academy of Law have launched this course for Emirati Advocates and other civil law trained lawyers, in-house counsel, and legal professionals seeking to diversify their skills and enhance their professional development. In early March and April 2019, James Counsell QC, Benjimin Burgher, John McKendrick QC, Fiona Horlick, Keith Bryant QC and Jonathan Hand will be delivering specialised training on trial advocacy and witness handling, oral submissions and appeal advocacy, and written advocacy. Other trainers include expert legal faculty members from the Middlesex University, Dubai-College of Law, and…

News 25 Feb, 2019

Rachel Vickers in successful conclusion for claimant with delayed treatment for spinal abscess

Rachel Vickers recently represented a Claimant who suffered a spinal injury in February 2013. Upon admission to Hospital the Claimant was correctly suspected as suffering a spinal abscess. The need for an urgent MRI scan was recognised. The Hospital did not have 24 hour MRI scanning available and a decision was made to undertake the scan the following day, which the Defendant Trust asserted was reasonable. By the time the Claimant was transferred to a tertiary unit she had sustained irreversible neurological injury. The case, contested through to a full liability trial, was listed for six days on January 28th 2019. On day two of the trial, in the middle of Rachel cross-examining one of the Defendant’s clinicians, the  Defendant…

News 21 Feb, 2019

Lydia Seymour in Court of Appeal case on the Agency Workers Regulations

Lydia Seymour acted for the appellant in London Underground Limited v Amissah & Others – a rare Court of Appeal (CoA) consideration of remedies under the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR), and specifically the liability of hirers in circumstances in which an employment agency goes into liquidation. This case raises some interesting points below: The CoA found that the approach of both the Employment Tribunal (ET) and the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) to compensation under the AWR had been wrong. The AWR provide an enforceable right for workers to be paid at the same rate as their comparators rather than simply a right to equal terms; Although the hirer, London Underground Limited, had already paid the agency all of the sums due to the Claimants…

News 19 Feb, 2019

Shop assistants win right to comparison with warehousemen

The conclusion of the Court of Appeal in Asda Stores Ltd v Brierley [2019] EWCA Civ 44 handed down this morning. Thousands of Asda’s mainly female retail staff are entitled to compare themselves for equal pay purposes with workers in Asda’s network of warehouses and distribution centres. More than 27,000 claims have been presented by Leigh Day & Co, with hundreds of new claims added every month. The shop workers say their customer-facing roles are undervalued compared to warehouse work. Each of them is claiming up to six years’ arrears of pay. This appeal was Asda’s latest unsuccessful attempt to stop the mass claims in their tracks. The Court refused Asda’s application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court,…

News 31 Jan, 2019

Eliot Woolf QC discusses the difficult issues of wrongful birth

Eliot Woolf QC ran an engaging webinar on the difficult issues of wrongful birth in conjunction with MBL Seminars and Ian Christian at Irwin Mitchell Solicitors. The webinar, which aims to help and support any claimant or defendant solicitor who has a wrongful birth claim, is available to download here. Wrongful birth claims are still a highly contentious and emotive area of clinical negligence litigation with many fundamental issues still unresolved by the courts. Key issues for careful consideration are whether a distinction should be drawn in principle between ‘wrongful conception’ cases and cases of ‘wrongful antenatal diagnosis/wrongful birth’; whether these claims should be categorised as claims for personal injury or economic loss; the duration of the claims; who should be parties…

News 30 Jan, 2019

Outer Temple Chambers appoints City executive to new CEO role

We are delighted to announce that Rebecca Priestley has been appointed as Chief Executive of Outer Temple Chambers. Rebecca is an executive HR Director and dual-qualified solicitor and barrister with extensive financial services and legal experience, managerial skills and business acumen. Rebecca joins from Lloyds Banking Group, where as People Director, Group Employee Relations and Policy Transformation, she was a member of the Executive HR Leadership team and the GCE’s Strategic Leadership Group. Previous roles included leading the HR Legal departments at Lloyds Banking Group and at Standard Chartered Bank. Before moving to financial services in 2006, Rebecca was in private practice, initially at the Bar and then as a senior associate at Simmons & Simmons. Rebecca is also a…

News 30 Jan, 2019

Alex Line successful in appeal concerning email submission of EAT appeals and impact of disability on time limits

Alex Line successfully represented J before the Court of Appeal in J v (1) K and another and (2) Equality and Human Rights Commission [2019] EWCA Civ 5. J, a disabled man, sought to lodge an appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (‘EAT’) by way of email transmission shortly before the expiry of limitation. However, the EAT was not able to accept receipt due to the size of the attachments to his email. J was eventually able to lodge the appeal through a series of emails but, by the time the last was received, the appeal had been lodged out of time by an hour. Following a hearing before HHJ Hand QC where J also contended that his disability was a contributing…

News 22 Jan, 2019

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