Author: Marilyn Bell

Many of you would answer “no” to this question.  However, the answer can be “yes”. If a Husband and Wife divorce financial settlement can include an Order for the Husband to pay maintenance for the Wife for the rest of her life.

It is then possible for the Wife to apply to the Court for this maintenance sum to be increased to cover nursing home fees.  Even though capital is divided at the time of the financial settlement, it is also possible for the Court to capitalise the maintenance figure and, instead of maintenance, Order the ex- Husband to pay a lump sum to his ex-Wife in lieu of any future maintenance.

If it is possible to achieve a clean break at the time of divorce this kind of risk can be avoided.

Cases in the news involving ‘Clean-break’ clauses

• A case was recently reported in Ireland; a couple divorced twenty years ago but the husband was forced to sell property in order to fund his ex-Wife’s nursing home fees. Read more here.

• A similar case involves the £56million divorced lottery winner whose ex-Wife of ten years successfully sued for a share of his winnings due to not signing a ‘clean-break’ clause. Read more here.

Contact us

For further information about our family services or to discuss a particular matter or situation in more detail, contact our lawyers Marilyn Bell or Keith Docking at our St Albans office by email at marilyn.bell@salaw.com or keith.docking@salaw.com or on 01727 798066.

© SA LAW 2011
Every care is taken in the preparation of our articles. However, no responsibility can be accepted to any person who acts on the basis of information contained in them. You are recommended to obtain specific advice in respect of individual cases.

Author: Alexis Asher

Changes relating to the way in which maternity and paternity leave can be taken by employees came into force last April, with the introduction of additional paternity leave (“APL”). This will affect parents of babies due on or after 3 April 2011, and adoptive parents who are matched with a child for adoption after this date.

Here are five top tips of how employers can manage these changes:

1. Ensure that your policies on maternity and paternity leave have been updated to reflect the new entitlement.
2. Consider how you will manage the effective provision of information by employees seeking to take Additional Paternity Leave (APL), and ensure compliance with the eligibility criteria.
3. Ensure that your employees are updated on any changes to the business’ policy on family leave.
4. Decide whether you want to remove or amend any enhanced contractual entitlement to maternity/paternity allowances. Ensure you consult with employees about any proposed changes.
5. Keep in mind the necessity to consult with fathers away on APL about any proposed changes to terms and conditions and/or redundancies that may affect them in their absence.

For more information regarding the changes and APL, and what your obligations are towards employees requesting this new type of leave, please click here.

© SA LAW 2011
Every care is taken in the preparation of our articles. However, no responsibility can be accepted to any person who acts on the basis of information contained in them. You are recommended to obtain specific advice in respect of individual cases.

Author: Jacqueline Button

Earlier this year I blogged about the troubles of HMV who are planning to close unprofitable stores to deal with pressure from internet retailers.

One of the stores closed was the HMV branch on Oxford Street, opposite Bond Street tube station. A fabulous location for footfall but with a rent bill to match. My colleague, David Linklater, served the break notice terminating the lease.

When this crisis began HMV’s owners were exploring the possibility of combining some HMV stores with sister retailer Waterstones but they have now confirmed that they are thinking about selling Waterstones as well as HMV’s Canadian arm.

Matters are at an early stage and the company have confirmed that their lenders remain supportive. There is talk of a CVA (a subject which my colleague Chris Alexander has blogged about in relation to another struggling occupant of our high streets, JJB.)

The empty shop on Oxford Street is ugly and depressing to look at. Unfortunately, whichever route HMV takes out of its problems, it won’t be the only one.

Author: Clare MacKay

If you think that you are having a bad day at work, spare a thought for the teacher in the recent Court of Appeal case (Vaile v Havering LBC [2011] EWCA Civ 246).

The teacher worked in a school for special needs pupils and suffered attacks on two separate occasions from a 14 year old pupil.  On the first occasion, her hand was grabbed, bitten and an attempt was made to hit her face.  A month later, the pupil stabbed the back of the teacher’s hand with a pencil, hit her left ear, grabbed her by the neck and shook her head violently.  Not surprisingly, the teacher was unable to return to work and she brought a claim against her employer, the local education authority, for negligence and for failing to provide a safe system of work.

The Court of Appeal found the local authority to be liable. It had failed to identify the pupil as suffering from an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and so had failed to make appropriate educational provision for him.   As a result, it had also failed to provide a safe system of work for the teachers at the school. It was notable that there had been more than one incident and the first incident had not been responded to adequately.

The lessons from this case for employers in the education sector are to:

• Have systems in place to identify whether pupils have conditions such as ASD and particularly those which can manifest in violent or unacceptable behaviour;
• Inform the teaching staff of pupils who are identified as having such conditions;
• Ensure that those teaching such pupils are properly instructed in appropriate techniques to deal with violent conduct; and
• Investigate and respond promptly to any attacks, including making changes to minimise the risk of such behaviour being repeated.

Violent outbursts cannot always be prevented.  However, taking steps to minimise the risk of such an attack occurring is part of providing a safe system of work.   This can only be a good thing for both teachers and pupils.

Author: Chris Alexander

You may have read my previous blogs about JJB Sports CVA proposal, the Press Association is today reporting that JJB is putting the CVA to creditors and shareholders for their approval.  It requires approval from 50% of shareholders, 50% of external creditors and 75% of all creditors.

One interesting aspect to emerge from the reports are that the biggest creditor is a company called Blane Leisure Ltd (“Blane”), a wholly owned subsidiary of JJB.  Blane was acquired by JJB in 1998 and was until that time a major competitor, running “Sports Division” branded stores.  In effect, JJB can count upon the support of this creditor and so in practice this arrangement substantially lowers the creditor support threshold.  Blane itself existed an insolvency procedure earlier this year.

Peel Holdings and Hammerson are reported to be backing the CVA which is estimated will only see creditors recovering around 25p in the pound.  However, this is set against a predicted 1p in the pound in the event of administration.

The creditors and shareholders meetings are taking place today, so watch this space.

Author: Alexis Asher

The 10th March marked the first in a series of free ‘Employment Law Update 2011′ workshops held by SA Law’s Employment department. The workshop was held at The Law Society in London to a raptured audience of HR professionals and Line Managers.

The seminar provided an update on recent and upcoming changes to Employment law and practice, and highlighted issues that employers need to be aware of. The less formal, interactive style workshop allowed the speakers Chris Cook and Alexis Asher to really engage with the audience and focus on their needs as an employer in handling employment issues and procedures.

The topics covered included the Equality Act 2010, The Agency Regulations, Retirement, Paternity, Holidays and Unexpected absence from the workplace.

The seminar offered a clear explanation of developments in the law, and practical tips on how employers can deal with the changes to minimise the risk of problems arising amongst the workforce.

To watch YouTube videos of the workshop, please click here.

These free Employment Law Update seminars will be running throughout March. There are a few places available for 29th March. Further details and bookings can be made by clicking here.

Alternatively, should you require any further information regarding this seminar and future events, please contact Victoria Thomson on 01727 798 076.


Author: Terence Ritchie

It was announced last year that ASDA were taking over the Danish brand Netto in attempt to gain momentum against it’s supermarket rivals. This has been approved by the Office of Fair Trading today.

For supermarkets, land resources are scarce – and even if you are lucky enough to have huge ‘land banks’ to build premises on like Tesco; strict regulations usually prevent supermarkets from building as they wish. Therefore, unlike Tesco and Sainsbury’s who have successfully rolled out smaller stores to appeal to their time-poor or city customers, ASDA, by failing to implement smaller stores has been less successful in the supermarket war.

The acquisition of Netto for ASDA will add 147 extra stores to the company and 1.2million sq ft of space. With ASDA’s organic growth, the company will add 168 stores to its portfolio this year. This could become fierce competition to the likes of Sainsbury’s, whom ASDA lost out to the number two position this Christmas.

ASDA could face a challenging year ahead even with the added stores. Their marketing campaign to be 10% cheaper than it’s rivals was removed after confusing messages to the public and Tesco have retaliated by launching their own similar campaign. Consumers are now more picky on where they shop – when Tesco and Sainsbury’s expanded they did in a time when consumers wanted convenience… now the consumer wants the best value for money. Even though ASDA may soon be everywhere, they need to appeal to the fickle British public on quality, price and convenience. ASDA are confident that the acquisition will be a profound success and also in the current economic climate with the uncertainty of employment, it is refreshing that ASDA will be creating an extra 1,500 jobs; this could demonstrate that companies are returning to their usual form.

However, the approval of these stores without going through the process of the Competition Commission may see a change in the rules for supermarkets – will Morrisons, ASDA and Tesco be allowed to expand so readily as well? If this proves to be a successful move for ASDA, the other top 4 supermarkets may have to rethink their strategy. Only time will tell…

Author: Clare MacKay

Allocation of school places started to be announced on March 1and will continue until April4.
As a firm, we are keen to let parents know what they can and can’t do about these decisions if they are unhappy. There is a good reason for a call to action – for 2009/2010, nationally 33.3% of secondary school appeals and 25% of primary appeals succeeded.

To read the full article on the Hertfordshire Life website, click here.

Author: Chris Alexander

Further to my recent blog article on the proposed JJB Sports CVA, the company has pushed ahead with those plans and has circulated the proposals to creditors. Retail Week have reported that 43 stores are to close in the next 13 months, with a further 46 under review until April 2013. This could potentially leave the troubled retailer with only around 160 stores left by 2013. Before the first CVA in 2009 that figure was closer to 390, with 140 closing as a result of that agreement.

The other details to emerge are that there is provision for a payment to landlord’s compromised by the CVA (ie those who will be losing their tenant) in the form of cash or shares (set between £2.5 million and £7.5 million). The prospect of a shareholding may not be very tempting for landlords given the assessment by KPMG of a dividend in the event of administration of 1.1p in the pound, indicating that the real value of those JJB shares would not be significant.

The balance for JJB to strike in its CVA proposal is to ensure that creditors get a better deal than they would in an administration and KPMG believe that this balance has been struck. Landlords will be a powerful class of creditor as it is understood that suppliers like Nike and Adidas have negotiated a preferential trading terms in order to continue to supply such a financially vulnerable customer and KPMG estimate that in the CVA landlords recover around 25p in the pound.

The creditors are due to meet on 22 March 2011 to discuss the proposal and in the mean time JJB are pushing through other funding arrangements to see them through in the short term.

Author: Clare MacKay

Parents and children up and down the country will be nervously waiting today for the email to arrive informing them whether they have been allocated a place at their preferred secondary school.

Inevitably, there will be disappointment for some, particularly in the St Albans and Watford area.   I was up at the crack of dawn today to give a live radio interview to BBC Three Counties about what to do if you are one of the unlucky ones.

Essentially, you have nothing to lose by making an appeal for a place at your preferred school.   This involves completing a written appeal form and then attending a short oral hearing before an independent appeal panel.

As with many things, the key is preparation.   You need to know what the appeal panel has to consider and make sure that you cover all of these points.   Most appeals boil down to weighing up on the one hand the school’s argument that it is full and really can’t take any more pupils, against your case that your child really needs a place at that particular school.   Focus on this and not on why the school that you have been offered is, in your opinion, so bad.

We have produced a free guide on making an appeal for a school place.   Please click here to order your copy.

If you would like more information or advice relating to a specific matter, please do not hesitate to contact Clare MacKay on 01727 798000 or by email at clare.mackay@salaw.com or any member of the Education team.

For real time updates about education and matters relating to School Admission Appeals, follow Clare MacKay on Twitter @CM_Education.

© SA LAW 2011
Every care is taken in the preparation of our articles.    However, no responsibility can be accepted to any person who acts on the basis of information contained in them. You are recommended to obtain specific advice in respect of individual cases.