On 13 July 2023, the UK government planned increases to fees across a range of immigration and nationality routes including the immigration health surcharge. The immigration health surcharge (IHS) is set to see a huge increase of around 66%. The current standard IHS rate is £624 per person per year of leave to remain granted and this will increase to £1,035. Similarly, the discounted rate for students and under-18s will increase from £470 per year to £776 ...
Employers may continue to rely on rounding systems that are neutral in policy and in practice. On June 25, 2018, the California Court of Appeal issued its decision in AHMC Healthcare, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County (Letona), finding legal an employer's use of a payroll system that automatically rounds employee time up or down to the nearest quarter hour ...
The modern world of technology has undoubtedly changed the manner in which we collect evidence as well as the types of evidence relied on in arbitration proceedings and trials. One such example is the increased use of digital and printed evidence. The reliance on computerised data and its credibility was explored in the recent case of Eskom Holdings SOC Limited v Ravichandran Reddy. In this matter, Mr Reddy, a zone manager at Eskom, was a beneficiary of Eskom’s managerial car scheme ...
In a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court recently addressed the standard to determine whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee in wage and hour disputes under California’s Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) wage orders. In Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v ...
As we begin to emerge from the pandemic, many issues which have been on the back-burner over the past few years are starting to resurface. In this article we take a look at some hot topics and legal developments we are expecting to take place this year. Flexible working As those of us who have worked from home for the past two years start returning in earnest to the office, flexible working is on everyone’s lips ...
The year 2020 was turbulent in many ways: the worldwide pandemic slowed down a number of reforms and caused challenges for various industries. Now it is time to look back and remind ourselves of the changes that took place in the field of employment law over the past year. It is also time to glance at the reforms awaiting us in 2021, a year hopefully brighter than its predecessor ...
In the beginning of the new year 2022, it is a good time to take look back to the previous year 2021 and to have a look at reforms and amendments coming up during 2022 within the field of employment law. In addition to legislative changes, collective bargaining negotiations have lately been a hot topic as many collective bargaining agreements are up for renewal and some generally applicable collective bargaining agreements will not be renewed ...
On Monday, 30th March 2020, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Honourable K. Peter Turnquest addressed the House of Assembly to provide an overview of the expected economic fallout in The Bahamas from the Covid-19 pandemic along with some details as to the Government’s proposed stimulus measures to support citizens and businesses alike during this time of uncertainty ...
When Shakespeare said we should kill all lawyers he was not referring to Magic Circle corporate or TMT partners, they had not been invented yet; and conveyancing and private client work were in their infancy. No, what he had in his sights were litigators and two hundred and fifty years later Dickens aimed his withering fire at the chancery lawyers in Bleak House ...
On July 13, 2023, Law No. 21,586 was enacted. This law amends Law No. 21,435 to extend the term to fulfill certain requirements set forth therein, and also amends the Water Code to introduce an administrative procedure to clarify and complete titles of water rights (“WR”). Amendments to Law No ...
The Court of Justice has issued a judgment invalidating the European Commission’s Safe Harbour decision. This means that participation in the Safe Harbour programme by US entities is no longer grounds for European companies to transfer personal data of EEA citizens to the United States. On 6 October 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union held that the European Commission’s decision approving the Safe Harbour programme is invalid (Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner, Case C-362/14) ...
This is a reminder that as of January 6, 2022, the Small Business Administration is requiring all small businesses to use a five-year period of measurement in determining their size under a revenue-based size standard. On January 6, 2020, the SBA published its final rule providing for a five-year period of measurement for determining a small business’s size under revenue-based size standards ...
This is a reminder that as of January 6, 2022, the Small Business Administration is requiring all small businesses to use a five-year period of measurement in determining their size under a revenue-based size standard. On January 6, 2020, the SBA published its final rule providing for a five-year period of measurement for determining a small business’s size under revenue-based size standards ...
Alternative dispute resolution benefits the public no matter what the outcome Attorney-General Robert McClelland continues to pus alternative dispute resolution after launching the report A Strategic Framework for Access to Justice in the Federal Civil Justice System late last year. One of its main recommendations is to encourage Commonwealth agencies to use ADR ...
Our Energy practice group has been following the progress of the legislative project which aims to clarify the requirements and processes for offshore wind power in the Finnish exclusive economic zone ("EEZ"). On 23 May 2024, the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment ("Ministry") held a third stakeholder meeting to inform and discuss in detail the draft government proposal, which has just been submitted for consultation ...
Renewable energy projects affecting the environment, such as wind and solar projects, currently require multiple permits from different authorities, which may make the permitting processes rather burdensome and unpredictable. To tackle this, the government is looking to streamline and standardize the permitting process by developing a "one stop shop" in order to boost new investments in Finland and make the processes more predictable ...
With much fanfare, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has rolled out a series of headlines detailing its enforcement efforts in the wake of COVID-19. At the end of March, the government announced a kickback case against a marketer who allegedly steered patients towards COVID-19 and genetic cancer testing ...
HAS SUPREME COURT TAKEN A STEP BACK IN ITS RECENT JUDGMENT IN “NAFED VS. ALIMENTA S.A.”? The Supreme Court on April 22, 2020 declared a foreign award unenforceable on the ground that one of the provisions of the Agreement in question was hit by Section 32 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 and thus violative of public policy of India. Brief Background: NAFED and Alimenta S.A ...
BREAKING NEWSEnforcement of foreign court judgments in Russia: a wind of change June 06, 2017 Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, We would like to inform you on recent precedents of Russian courts in cases concerning enforcement of foreign court judgments, which we believe represents a major step forward towards the goal of creating a favorable investment climate in Russia ...
A Polish company enters into a contract with a German company. Which country’s law will govern the contract? Monika Hartung: To start with, under Art. 3 of the Rome I Regulation (Regulation 593/2008 of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations), the parties themselves may select the law governing the contract. The previous version of Poland’s Private International Law required the existence of a link, e.g ...
This trend is worth monitoring, and undoubtedly reflective of generational change as those who set up companies or transferred interests into these jurisdictions decades ago pass on and leave their families fighting for control of the assets they have left behind. A helpful new judgement from the Easter Caribbean Court of Appeal (the Appeal Court) handed down on 23 March 2022, provides helpful further insight into family disputes over wills ...
This article reports on a judgment of the High Court in relation to a dispute between a Saudi-based company, Selevision Saudi Co (SSC), and a Qatari-based company, Bein Media Group LLC (BMG), both of which operate in the broadcasting sector. This judgment clarified the effect of Civil Procedure Rule (CPR) 62.18 and the extent to which it imported the provisions of CPR 8 into an action to enforce an arbitral award made in a foreign jurisdiction ...
The dispute resolution terms of engineering contracts can cause problems. An example is the recent case of Tubular Holdings (Pty) Ltd v DBT Technologies (Pty) Ltd, an unreported decision of South Gautend High Court. DBT Technologies - a subcontractor to Eskom in the Kusile Project 0 further contracted to Tubular Holdings in a deal worth some R 1.3 billion. Contract FIDIC's clause 20 governs the dispute resolution procedure. Clause 20 ...
In Joanne Properties Ltd v Moneything Capital Ltd and Anor [2020] EWCA Civ 1541, England’s Court of Appeal had to decide whether the parties had entered into a binding contract of compromise contained in written communications passing between their respective solicitors. The Court below had held that a binding contract had been made, despite the fact that the correspondence in question had been marked “subject to contract” ...
In DR Jones Yeovil Ltd v The Stepping Stone Group Ltd [2020] EWHC 2308 (TCC), England’s Technology and Construction Court ruled in favour of a contractor in its claim for unpaid retention under a JCT contract and dismissed the employer’s counterclaim for alleged defects. Certificates of Making Good were never issued and one of the questions before the court was whether that meant there could be no recovery of the balance of retention ...
