News & Events
News & Events
Fiona Horlick has successfully defended a consultant cardiologist and general physician at Woolwich Crown Court. The consultant was charged with ten sexual offences against three patients including assault by penetration. After a 3 week trial, the consultant was acquitted of all charges by the jury. The case garnered considerable media interest. Please see BBC (here and here) and MailOnline (here and here) Fiona was instructed by Eastwoods Solicitors and the MDU. For information about Fiona’s expertise, see this page.
News 27 Sep, 2017
Andrew Allen successfully represented an NHS Foundation Trust in a High Court claim about the incorporation of the Agenda for Change Job Evaluation Handbook into the employment contract. This case has implications for the extent to which the Agenda for Change Job Evaluation Handbook provides contractually enforceable rights for the hundreds of thousands of workers governed by Agenda for Change terms and conditions. The central issue between the parties was the degree to which a change in duties amounted to a ‘significant’ change entitling a worker to a re-evaluation of her Agenda for Change banding. The full judgment is available to read here. Andrew appears in employment, discrimination and other civil matters in the ET, EAT, County Court, High Court…
News 27 Sep, 2017
Benjimin Burgher successfully represented the Partner of an LLP during her Arbitration Proceedings in the IDRC. The Partner was found to be wrongfully expelled by the LLP and awarded her equity, tranche payments and costs. In the lengthy arbitration proceedings the Partner’s contentions relating to construction of the LLP Agreement, valuation of her equity and outstanding entitlements were considered resulting in the favourable award. The Respondent’s arguments on contractual construction, estoppel by convention, the interpretation of good faith and dishonesty were rejected. The case emphasised the importance and necessity of effective drafting of LLP Agreements in regulating the relationship between the parties. Benjimin is a member of Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
News 8 Sep, 2017
The Court of Protection has published judgment in the case of The Public Guardian v Matrix Deputies Ltd & London Borough of Enfield [2017] EWCOP 14, which concerns 44 individuals whose property and affairs were either already managed by a court-appointed deputy, or were the subject of an application for such appointment. The common link between all individuals was the involvement in their property and affairs of Matrix Deputies Limited (a professional deputyship firm) or persons who worked for that organisation. The Public Guardian made a number of applications, which together sought as follows: the discharge of all appointments of Matrix Deputies Ltd, and its nominated officers as property and affairs deputy; the refusal of any pending applications; and the…
News 6 Sep, 2017
Andrew Short QC, Naomi Cunningham and Keira Gore (instructed by Leigh Day) have successfully represented over 7000 claimants before the Employment Appeal Tribunal in the UK’s largest ever private sector equal pay claim. The appeal was to determine whether predominantly female workers in Asda’s retail stores were entitled to compare themselves to higher paid male workers in Asda’s distribution centres. Asda’s position was, in short, that because it set the more favourable terms and conditions of the distribution workers separately to the terms of the retail workers the two pay regimes were distinct and incomparable. This argument was rejected by the EAT who found that a comparison was valid applying domestic law and EU law. This judgment makes it clear…
News 31 Aug, 2017
We are delighted to announce that Chambers has been shortlisted for ‘Personal Injury/Clinical Negligence Set of the Year’ in the 2017 Chambers UK Bar Awards. In addition, Andrew Short QC has been shortlisted for ‘Employment Silk of the Year’ and James Leonard is listed for ‘Health and Safety Junior of the Year’. The 2017 Chambers UK Bar Awards will be held on Thursday, 26th October 2017.
News 30 Aug, 2017
Daniel Barnett helped Stephen Simmons, a man wrongly jailed for theft, to clear his name after four decades of being haunted by the conviction. Simmons was sentenced to eight months in prison, losing his job, his flat, and his family’s trust, after DS Derek Ridgewell of the British Transport Police arrested him for mailbag theft in 1976. Simmons, and two friends who were also arrested, had been told by the duty solicitor that ‘if we called the police liars the judge would send us to prison for a very long time.’ The Guardian describes how, four years ago, Simmons was listening to Daniel Barnett answer legal questions on LBC radio and rang in to ask for advice on clearing his name.…
News 30 Aug, 2017
Judgment has recently been published in the case of Mr D Mills v East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, 2300298/2017. The case – involving the dismissal of an employee following allegations that he sexually assaulted a patient at an NHS Trust – provides helpful guidance to employers dealing with allegations of misconduct which result in police investigations and criminal prosecution. The Claimant worked as a porter at Eastbourne District General Hospital. In May 2015 a patient raised allegations that the Claimant had sexually assaulted her. The allegations led to a police investigation and ultimately to a criminal trial in February 2017 at which the Claimant was acquitted. Before the trial, however, the Claimant had been dismissed by the Trust. Following the police’s…
News 25 Aug, 2017
HHJ Waksman QC (sitting as a Judge of the High Court) handed down judgment this morning in Shurbanova v Forex Capital Markets Limited. FXCM had exercised a contractual right under its Terms of Business to revoke profitable Gold and USD CFD trades placed on the Claimant’s trading account in an “abusive” manner. The Judge comprehensively dismissed a breach of contract claim. In so doing, he held that FXCM’s ToB gave it a bare contractual right to revoke abusive trades and held that the relevant term was not subject to an implied duty of good faith (the ‘Braganza Duty’). The Judge also accepted FXCM’s case that the Claimant was a “cipher” for her husband or son, who had previously been prohibited…
News 22 Aug, 2017
Tim Green has been successful in a precedent setting adjudication concerning the accreditation by the Environment Agency of a waste reprocessor pursuant to the Producer Responsibility Regulations. The Regulations provide for a scheme whereby waste producers are legally obliged to demonstrate that they have recycled waste by the purchase of certificates called Producer Responsibility Notes (“PRNs”). PRNs may only be sold by waste reprocessors which have satisfied the Agency that various environmental standards have been met, including that the reprocessor has a viable business plan. Tim persuaded the adjudicator that the Agency was correct to refuse to accredit a reprocessor in a precedent setting use of the Agency’s powers under the Regulations. Tim Green has been consistently recommended by the…
News 22 Aug, 2017
US regulators have dropped their investigation into two former JP Morgan Chase traders accused of falsifying the bank’s books to hide its $6.2bn “London whale” losses. The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a court filing on Friday that it would end its probe into alleged mismarking by Javier Martín-Artajo and Julien Grout in 2012. The Spaniard and the French national had both worked for the bank in London with the trader dubbed the Whale. A filing on Friday in a New York court showed that the SEC had voluntarily dismissed the action. The SEC’s decision follows that of the US Department of Justice, which said earlier this summer that it could no longer rely on the testimony of its…
News 21 Aug, 2017
In Agoreyo v London Borough of Lambeth [2017] EWHC 2019 Mr Justice Foskett noted that the Appellant, Ms Agoreyo, ‘had the good fortune of representation at the hearing of the appeal by Counsel instructed by the Bar Pro Bono Unit. Mr Stephen Butler […] produced a first-class Skeleton Argument with appropriate references to the evidence, the judgment and the relevant authorities […] which were properly focused on the true issues in the appeal. […] the Appellant could not have been better represented.’ Ms Agoreyo, an experienced primary school teacher with less than two years’ qualifying service, was suspended from employment during the investigation into the accusation of having used excessive physical force in handling difficult children in less than three weeks.…
News 16 Aug, 2017
