I've spent half my career helping business and real estate owners solve their problems - or at least that is what I thought I was doing as a commercial litigator. I've grown increasingly convinced, though, that most commercial cases do not belong in court. Courts are public, slow, and generally not equipped to deal with business, real estate, or land use questions. Courts don't care about fluctuations in market prices, construction seasons, or building cycles ...
Mamo TCV Advocates managing partner, Michael Psaila and partner Edmond Zammit Laferla attended the World Services Group’s European Regional Forum in Stockholm, which was hosted by Swedish member firm, Delphi and took place between 1st and 3rd June 2022. The World Services Group is a leading global network of independent law firms from over 150 jurisdictions with over 23,000 professionals globally ...
Arbitration provisions are becoming more common in construction contracts, but a recent court decision reveals that enforcing these provisions requires more than just placing them in a contract. Contractors, especially those seeking to arbitrate claims involving multiple property owners or an entire homeowner or condominium association, must sufficiently establish that enough of the property owners agreed to arbitrate their claims. Mattamy Florida LLC .v ...
Florida’s construction lien laws require a contractor to serve a contractor’s final payment affidavit “at least five days” before filing a lawsuit to enforce the lien. A general contractor recently had its lien rights reinstated when a court clarified how the number of days between the service of the affidavit and the filing of the lawsuit should be calculated and reversed a dismissal of the contractor’s lawsuit ...
With inflation in the United States ballooning 8.2% since April of 2022, government contractors with firm fixed price (FFP) contracts are looking for relief. Unfortunately, the Department of Defense (DoD) recently issued a memorandum indicating that requests for equitable adjustments will not mitigate inflation’s impact to existing FFP contracts. On May 25, 2022, DoD issued a memorandum providing “Guidance on Inflation and Economic Price Adjustments ...
To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail – and that certainly applies to selling a business or company. You might still sell it, but you will almost certainly sell it for less. Selling a business may be the most important decision a business owner may take and it is never too early to bring in quality advisors to assist with the sale process (and potentially to help find potential buyers) ...
Running a business can be an extremely rewarding experience, but it is not without its challenges. While pandemic-related restrictions have eased, rising energy costs and inflationary pressures continue to cause concern for UK businesses. Further, the personal impact that dealing with periods of distress can have on directors should not be overlooked ...
The Unified Patent Court (the “UPC”), which will have jurisdiction over most European patents, is due to commence operations at some point between the final quarter of 2022 and early 2023. It has been a long time coming and is part of the ‘Unitary Patent Package’. The aim of this package is to establish unitary patent protection within Europe, and to make it cheaper and easier for patentees to obtain and enforce patents ...
February’s Supreme Court ruling in Bloomberg confirmed that those under criminal investigation have a right, enforceable in the civil courts, to prevent publication of their identity until the moment they are charged. In this short article Gordon Downie, Partner in our regulation and markets team, considers some questions about the implications of Bloomberg, in particular for regulatory investigations ...
Prescription (Scotland) Act 2018 Prescription is the rule of law in Scotland that extinguishes certain rights and obligations after a period of time. This includes a right to recover damages for breach of contract. In Scotland, a contractual claim prescribes after five years; therefore formal proceedings, either court or arbitration, must be raised and served in order to stop the five-year period running. On 1 June 2022, important changes to prescription become law in Scotland ...
Last year, the UK Government published its green paper and consultation on Transforming Public Procurement. The government response to the consultation was published in December 2021 and on 11 May the draft Procurement Bill (the “Bill”) was published. You can download a copy of the Bill here ...
Oklahoma joins Florida in passing its own version of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) called the “Telephone Solicitation Act of 2022.” The legislation is set to take effect on Nov. 1, 2022. The Telephone Solicitation Act (TSA) applies to telemarketing calls using an “automated system for the selection or dialing of telephone numbers or the playing of a recorded message when a connection is completed to a number called ...
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) has revolutionized transaction of data, assets, and value, including the proliferation of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. In order to leverage this emerging and revolutionary technology, state governments across the United States are looking to clarify how DLT use cases, specifically blockchains and their various sub-use cases, are treated under state law. With the adoption of HB 177.05, Ohio has joined the fray ...
Whilst every year throughout June we celebrate Pride Month, this is an extra special year; the 50 year anniversary of the first ever Pride event in the UK. #PROUD@Shoosmiths Every June Pride Month is celebrated across the world to honour the 1969 Stonewall Riots ...
Using evidence given at the UK COVID-19 Inquiry in later criminal or other proceedings The Chair of the UK COVID-19 Inquiry, the Rt Hon Baroness Heather Hallett DBE ...
JOINT NOTIFICATION 0837 ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND THE MINISTRY OF POSTS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS, dated 1 April 2022 On 1 April 2022, the Ministry of Commerce (“MOC”) and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued Joint Notification 0837 setting out requirements for locally registered companies to use a level 2 national domain name “.com.kh” and e-mail address with level 2 national domain name “.com.kh” ...
A key feature of Undertakings for the Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (“UCITS” fund) is the Key Investor Information Document (“KIID”), which provides the retail investor with simplified information from the prospectus. UCITS also qualify as Packaged Retail Investment and Insurance Products (“PRIIPS”) ...
Captive power generation in the Indian solar sector is, literally, a hotbed of policy and regulatory contradiction. While the Electricity Act, 2003 (“Act”) incentivises captive power generation, losing lucrative industrial and commercial customers to captive power consumption is a deeply unpopular outcome for our financially beleaguered state power distribution and transmission companies which rely on high industrial tariffs paid by such customers ...
Following the abolition of the requirement to pay personal income tax on capital gains from cryptocurrency and digital asset trading on authorized digital asset exchanges in March 2022, the Thai Government has further eased tax rules by suspending the requirement to pay 7% value-added tax (“VAT”) on income derived from cryptocurrency and digital token trading until the end of 2023 ...
On 24 May 2022, the Port Authority of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (“MOTC”) under the State Administration Council (“SAC”) of Myanmar issued an invitation for bids to be submitted to conduct a feasibility study for the construction of a new international port terminal (“Project”) in Mawlamyine district of Mon State on the western coast of Myanmar’s southeastern peninsula ...
Financial Products and Services Consumer Protection Act On May 06, 2022, Republic Act (RA) No. 11765, or the Financial Products and Services Consumer Protection Act, was signed into law ...
Lauren Bowkett is a Principal Associate in the Financial Crime Team at Shoosmiths. Her expertise is in white collar crime and Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) related matters, with specific knowledge in the restraint and seizure of cryptoassets ...
