Articles by ‘Marianne Johns’

The Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017 (the ”Act”), also known as Claudia’s Law, came into effect on 31 July 2019. It is designed to provide relief for the families of those who have been missing for 90 days or more. We look at the issues involved, and whether or not it provides sufficient safeguards for the missing.

Drones can be used for filming, as a delivery method, and even to replace fireworks – but could they solve the pothole problem on our roads? Our Personal Injury team takes a look.

The media are reporting that, despite the Christmas buying season, the high street continues to struggle with more and more buying happening online. We have seen big long standing brands like BHS disappear in recent years, others struggling and the rise of the likes of Amazon and associated businesses.

Paola Cuffolo from our Personal Injury team explains why Purple Tuesday – the day dedicated to improving retail experiences for disabled customers – is an initiative which could improve shopping for everyone, as well as those with a disability.

Drones are often cited as a revolutionary technology, offering many new ways to approach established activities, but with talk that they could replace firework shows with something safer we ask; is this necessarily going to eradicate the dangers of fireworks altogether?

On 26 August 2018 the Government announced new rescue measures and reforms which will aim to strengthen corporate governance and the insolvency regime for companies in financial distress.

The objective of the new measures is to establish a fairer balance between the rights of a company attempting rescue and the rights of its creditors seeking to be paid for the company’s debts.

Have you written off any invoices in your accounts in the last 6 years or obtained a Judgment against a debtor and not yet enforced it as there did not appear to be anything to enforce against at the time? Have you looked to see whether your aged debtors financial positions appear to have improved?

It has been a very active few years with a Valuation Officer arguing all the way to the Supreme Court that a property should not be reassessed for business rates when redevelopment works were being undertaken and preventing occupation, because the property was capable of being put back into the state of repair and occupied position at the material assessment date.

The Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims has now been approved and included into the First Supplement of the 2017 edition of the Civil Procedure Rules. It is due to come into force on 1 October 2017 and will affect how companies recover unpaid debts from individuals. It does not apply to business-to-business debts unless the debtor is a sole trader. Now is a good time to revisit your internal credit control process and terms of business.