Help us make Will Aid a success this November
We are pleased to announce that we will once again be participating in Will Aid.
During November 2012, Thompsons Solicitors will prepare basic Wills without charging our normal fee. Instead, to raise as much money as possible for Will Aid, we will ask clients to make a donation to the Will Aid charities. The suggested donation level is £90 for a single Will, £135 for a pair of Wills or £40 for a codicil to an existing Will.
Make or update your Will with Will Aid and you will gain peace of mind from knowing that you have protected your family and loved ones for the future as well as giving money to help thousands of people in need to gain the skills, tools and support they need to improve their lives.
It is extremely important to seek qualified and professional expertise when making a Will. So don’t put it off any longer. Phone 028 91 811652 or email us at law@thompsons-solicitors.co.uk to arrange an appointment in November. Read more
Be careful what you tweet!
That may seem a rather obvious and common sense statement, but it should always be borne in mind when posting a comment on Twitter in light of the first known decision of its kind in the UK. Cricketer and former New Zealand captain, Chris Cairns, won a libel claim in March 2012 against former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi for defamatory tweets.
In January 2010, Mr Modi tweeted that Mr Cairns had been removed from the IPL auction list (a list of players eligible to play in the league) ‘due to his past record of match fixing’. The tweet was picked up by a cricket website, and Mr Modi repeated his claims to the site.
The judge found that Mr Modi ‘singularly failed to provide any reliable evidence that Mr Cairns was involved in match fixing’. Read more
Since 2009 there has been a Directive throughout the EU which, if your website uses “cookies”, requires you to inform those individuals using the website about the cookie.
So what is a cookie?
In general terms, a cookie is a piece of software code downloaded from a website to a user’s computer when they visit that website. It collects information about the individual using the website. Most websites “set” cookies which perform useful services, including remembering our name and other details, so that when we revisit a website the experience is smoother and much more convenient.
Cookies can therefore be useful and, on the whole, we tend to accept them without much consideration when we are buying things online. Some cookies help us deal with our settings for a website, for example if security is necessary to make an online credit card transaction. There are others which we may not be aware of that gather information about our website activities and our browsing preferences. These cookies are often known as tracking or profiling cookies. Read more
In a decision given in March 2012, an Industrial Tribunal in Northern Ireland has held that an employee was fairly dismissed for making vulgar comments about a female colleague on his Facebook page.
In the case of Teggart -v- Tele Tech UK Limited, the Tribunal held that an employee was fairly dismissed because comments which he posted on his Facebook page amounted to harassment of a female colleague and breached the employer’s Dignity at Work Policy.
The claimant was employed at a call centre in Belfast. He posted obscene comments about a female colleague on his Facebook page from home. The comment mentioned his employer’s name and was read by some other work colleagues. It was alleged that the comment had been brought to the employer’s attention by a member of the public. The female colleague heard about the comments and asked the claimant’s girlfriend if he would remove them. However that led the claimant to simply post further comments. Read more
The case of HMRC -v- Reed Employment may have serious implications for umbrella companies and other employment businesses.
The landmark case has found Reed Employment, a leading employment agency, to be liable for £158m in back taxes, after 500,000 temps were reimbursed for expenses, which should have been paid as salary.
For more see here.
Northern Ireland Law 