First Missed Payment to Court Order: The Bankruptcy Timeline
Bankruptcy can affect anyone. For many, the mere mention of the term conjures images of shuttered shopfronts, courtrooms, financial ruin, a poor credit score and difficulty recovering. In reality, most insolvency situations do not begin with dramatic business failures or reckless risk-taking; they tend to start much more quietly. For example, a credit card balance that never quite goes down, a payday loan taken to cover a shortfall, a string of “buy now, pay later” payments s
From School Fees to Sandwich Fillings: When VAT Policy Meets the Courts
Value Added Tax ( 'VAT' ) is rarely an area of law which captures public attention. For most, it operates quietly in the background and is embedded in everyday transactions. Yet, from time to time, disputes arise which brings VAT squarely into both the legal and public spotlights; those disputes reveal how questions of classification, policy, and fairness sit beneath what might otherwise appear to be dry fiscal rules. The recent decision of the Court of Appeal of England and
Boundary Disputes: The Most Common Property Law Nightmare
Boundary disputes often arise from seemingly minor issues: the position of a fence, the line of a hedge, or the footprint of a new structure. Despite their modest beginnings, these disputes can escalate quickly, particularly given the feeling of intrusion to one's property which can follow. A boundary dispute can be territorial, positional, functional or resource based. The boundaries define where one person’s land ends and another’s begins; it establishes who is subject to t
Where There’s a Will… There’s Often a Way to Challenge It
Inheritance disputes over the distribution of assets following someone’s death are commonplace. It is, quite understandably, an area of law which is highly emotive and personal to those directly involved within the dispute. There may on occasion be disputes over the validity of a will; questions could be asked over the deceased's (also referred to as ' the Testator ') capacity, whether there has been fraud, or whether there has been undue influence. Such claims have become ev
A Litigator's Pocket Guide to Delightfully Random (But Useful) Civil Cases
In this article, I have selected 8 cases which all civil practitioners should be aware of, and break down their significance into bitesize chunks complete with analysis. Whilst making this list, I have opted to not select cases which are trite (although I do enjoy the likes of Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562, Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company [1893] 1 QB 256 and Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v Wednesbury Corporation [1948] 1 KB 223 , the latter of which y
