A new pilot scheme is being launched in Japan which Reunite, the UK based charity which deals with international parental child abduction, has reported will serve to assist those involved in the specific case of a parental child abduction where the child is taken to Japan and the other parent resides outside of Japan.

Although the scheme will not provide advice on individual cases, it will advise the child’s parent how to navigate through the Japanese legal system, offering up to an hour of advice given by a lawyer, who speaks both English and Japanese, on Japanese family law, family court proceedings and other aspects of the Japanese legal framework.

Charges for the international call to the parent by the lawyer will be paid by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.

Further details and contact email can be found at the Minisitry of Foreign Affairs of Japan website here: http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/page3e_000019.html

For further information on child abduction issues and for advice, please contact our Family team – family@blasermills.co.uk

If enacted, a fixed-costs claims process will aim to pay out in three to five months in contrast to the under three months where an employer or insurer is known. Under the scheme, from July 2014 anyone in the UK diagnosed with mesothelioma after 25 July 2012 will be able to make a claim. The scheme will be funded by a levy on insurers of employers.

The Association of British Insurers director general, Otto Thoresen, has welcomed the Bill and said: “Mesothelioma is a devastating disease which has a terrible impact on sufferers and their families. The insurance industry wants to do all it can to help sufferers and has worked with the government on this package of measures that will deliver help to claimants much faster, including to those who would otherwise go uncompensated.”

However, the details of the scheme have been criticised by certain claimant personal injury lawyers because it will apply only to mesothelioma and will not cater for other asbestos related illness such as lung cancer. It has also been estimated that settlements under the scheme would be 30% lower than the average compensation received currently, potentially leaving mesothelioma sufferers them thousands of pounds out of pocket.

For further information please contact our Personal Injury team.

These include:

• allowing a private limited company to pay for its shares by instalments;
• allowing a private limited company to buy back its own shares using cash (where it is authorised to do so by its articles of association) up to certain limits;
• allowing off-market share buybacks to be authorised by ordinary resolution;
• allow a company to make multiple off-market purchases of its own shares where such off-market purchases have been approved by a single ordinary resolution;
• setting out the requirements under which a company may finance a share buyback out of capital; and
• allowing a company limited by shares to hold its own shares in treasury and to deal with such shares as treasury shares (including any shares bought back with cash).

The issue of share buybacks has additional significance because of legislation due to come into force later this year which will allow employees to contract out of certain employment rights in exchange for shares in the employer company.

Please contact our Company & Commercial team for further advice or information at commercial@blasermills.co.uk.

Inheritance tax (IHT) is generally charged at 40% on any sum by which a deceased’s estate exceeds £325,000.00 (the “nil rate band”) subject to the availability of exemptions and reliefs. The most significant exemption is the “spouse exemption” whereby gifts to a spouse are exempt from IHT provided the surviving spouse is domiciled in the United Kingdom.

Since 9^th October 2007, it has been possible for spouses and civil partners to transfer any part of the inheritance tax nil-rate band allowance that was not used when the first spouse or civil partner died, to their surviving spouse or civil partner for use on their death.

Where a valid claim to transfer an unused nil-rate band is made, the nil-rate band that is available when the surviving spouse or civil partner dies will be increased by the unused proportion of the nil-rate band on the first death. For example, if at the time of the first death the nil-rate band was £300,000 and everything passed to the surviving spouse, then 100% of the nil-rate band will have been unused. If the nil-rate band when the surviving spouse dies is £325,000 then that would be increased by 100% to £650,000.

The amount of the nil-rate band that can be transferred does not depend on the value of the estate of the first spouse or civil partner to die. Whatever proportion of the nil-rate band is unused on the first death is available for transfer to the surviving spouse.

If your existing Will contains a nil-rate band discretionary trust, then by changing your Will now you will be able to simplify your affairs and avoid the additional paperwork, complexity and costs that would arise in the event of your death. You would also avoid a three month delay (from the date of your death) which would by necessity arise, if the trust is to be dissolved and advantage taken of the new rules.

If you think your Will may contain a nil-rate band discretionary trust, or if you would like to discuss Inheritance Tax, please contact our Wills, Probate and Tax Planning team.

The aim of the Act is to reform the law of defamation to ensure that a fair balance is struck between the right to freedom of expression and the protection of reputation . The Act makes a number of substantive changes to the law of defamation, but is not designed to codify the law into a single statute.

One of the most significant changes is the introduction of a requirement for a claimant to show that they have suffered serious harm before suing for defamation.

Furthermore, corporate bodies (bodies which trade for profit) must now show that the defamatory statement has caused or is likely to cause serious financial loss before being allowed to sue. This does not mean that a company will have to show actual financial losses but it will have to demonstrate that the defamatory statement is likely to cause a financial loss and that the loss is likely to be serious.

It is anticipated that this additional requirement on companies will prevent the flexing of corporate muscles by using the threat of libel action to silence critics.

The Act is expected to come into force later this year.

For further information and advice please contact us at commercial@blasermills.co.uk.

In the report preface, Lord Justice Thorpe, Head of International Family Justice for England and Wales, partially attributes the rise to the growing number of families where parents are of different nationalities and points to the growing numbers of children born to foreign parents. The report documents the growing body of international law and agreements needed to resolve these cases. There are no published figures for the growth in international litigation overall.

Cross-border disputes involving children can be complex to manage and resolve and regularly exceptionally difficult from a practical and emotional perspective for either parent. The IFJ functions as a centre of expertise and a help desk for Courts and legal advisers in UK or abroad who have seen their cases stalled and delayed because 2 countries’ legal systems are involved and when international conventions guaranteeing children’s rights are being ignored by overseas courts.

The report refers to cases in which the IFJ has intervened, for example, where a mother who had taken her children to France to prevent them from being taken into care and the children were found living on a waterlogged caravan site and not attending school. In another case, the IFJ obtained the personal assurance of the Cypriot Attorney General that a woman agreeing to return from Britain to Cyprus with her child would not be prosecuted by the Cypriot authorities.

Please contact our Family Law team for further information and advice on cross-border family disputes – family@blasermills.co.uk.

Included in the Queen’s Speech were plans to introduce various measures which will impact employment law, such as:

• changes to national insurance contributions, including offering businesses an “employment allowance” of £2,000 to reduce their national insurance contributions bill;
• changes to immigration law which seek seeking to tighten up controls on illegal immigrants; and
• plans to remove the power for employment tribunals to make wider recommendations in successful discrimination claims under the Equality Act 2010.

In addition the Queen’s Speech outlined plans to reform the landscape of consumer law in the UK. The Draft Consumer Rights Bill will reform the rules on unfair terms, goods, services and digital content, misleading and aggressive practices, and the powers of enforcement bodies. It is also likely to include reform of consumer collective actions for anti-competitive behaviour.

Please contact our Commercial & Employment team for further advice and information – commercial@blasermills.co.uk.

Figures from the Department for Work and Pensions show almost 10,000 people were convicted of benefit fraud during the last financial year. This compares to 7,040 convictions during the same period in 2009-2010, which is the equivalent of a 40 per cent rise.

Alternatives to a court prosecution are also on the rise, with administrative penalties almost doubling in number from the previous financial year.  An administrative penalty is similar to a police caution in that it will stay on the Local Authorities record should a subsequent fraud be committed.  In addition the offender is required to re-pay the amount of benefits overpaid as a result of the fraud together with a 30% uplift on that sum.

We would advise that anyone suspected of benefit fraud seek advice from a member of our criminal defence department as soon as possible.  This will help to ensure that any alternatives to a court prosecution are explored. Further it is often the case that investigators seek information from suspected offenders prior to any formal interview or prosecution and it is important that you seek legal advice on the disclosure of such information in advance.

If you have been invited for an interview with the Local Authority or Department for Work & Pensions regarding an allegation of benefit fraud, you are entitled to have legal representation there, in the same way as with a Police interview and may also be entitled to Legal Aid for that, dependent on your circumstances.

Alternatively, if you have received a summons to attend Court, or have already been interviewed and are awaiting a decision as to how your case will be dealt with, please contact our criminal defence department for further information as to how we can help.

The forms are designed to provide answers to commonly asked questions at the outset of the transaction, in an attempt to reduce the number of additional enquiries subsequently raised by the buyer’s solicitor which can cause delay. Any subsequent enquiries raised should be limited to those not already dealt with in the forms and specific to the paperwork provided and search results obtained. Members of the Conveyancing Quality Scheme, such as ourselves, will be bound to use the new forms on all new transactions and it is hoped that this will promote greater transparency and uniformity amongst firms.

The Fitting and Contents Form has introduced a more detailed tick box approach which enables the seller to advise whether various items are included, excluded or confirm that there are none at the property. The seller is now required to tick the appropriate box for each item rather than insert a tick, cross or indeed leave the box blank if the item did not exist as was the case in the old forms.

The Property Information Form has also been amended to include some frequently asked additional questions, particularly at section 14.4 of the Form which asks the seller to confirm that all rubbish will be removed from the property on completion, all keys for windows and doors will be handed over to the estate agent or left at the property and reasonable care will be taken when removing items from the property. The form has also expanded on existing questions where further information was commonly required. For example, the seller is now asked to specify the nature of any building works carried out at the property and the year that the works were undertaken. They are also asked to supply copies of the relevant planning consent and building control paperwork or explain why the works were exempt. With many additional enquiries relating to past development of the property, it will be interesting to see whether sellers do indeed provide the documentation requested at the outset without further enquiries needing to be raised.

Please do not hesitate to contact our Residential Property team if you would like to learn more, or would like to discuss your moving requirements with us.

The Act amends the Companies Act 2006 and introduces the following key changes to the legal framework for directors’ remuneration in quoted companies:

• The directors’ remuneration report must include a separate forward-looking policy part;
• The policy part must be approved by ordinary resolution at least every three years;
• The policy part must be approved before the expiry of the three-year period if the company wishes to change the policy or the shareholders did not approve the advisory vote on the non-policy part of the directors’ remuneration report at the company’s previous AGM;
• The company is prohibited from making a remuneration or loss of office payment to a current, former or future director, unless it is consistent with the most recently approved remuneration policy;
• Any payment which is inconsistent with an approved policy will be held by the recipient in trust and can be recovered by way of a derivative action. Directors who authorised the payment will be liable for any loss to the company unless they can demonstrate that they acted honestly and reasonably.

Please contact our Company & Commercial team for further advice – commercial@blasermills.co.uk.