What Is Adverse Possession And How Can You Claim It?

March 4th 2024 | dispute resolution
What is adverse possession? Adverse possession is possession of land that is not legally yours. A successful adverse possession claim will result in the land being legally owned by you. A situation like this may arise where you have an extra piece of garden that you have possessed since purchasing read more...

Covenants Over Land: Abuse Of Process?

February 22nd 2024 | dispute resolution
In this article I examine a decision of the Upper Tribunal Lands Chamber where it was argued that the Application should be refused as an abuse of process, and that the Court had already decided the matter ( res judicata ). We’re looking at the case of Housing Solutions v read more...

Covenants Over Land: Are My Covenants Obsolete?

January 11th 2024 | dispute resolution
One of the questions asked of the Upper Tribunal Lands Chamber in Great Jackson Street Estates Ltd v. Manchester City Council (2023) UKUT 189 (LC) was whether covenants should be modified or discharged on the basis that they were obsolete. The decision of the panel of the Tribunal is helpful read more...

Farming Families and Estoppel Claims

November 16th 2023 | dispute resolution
What is estoppel? Proprietary estoppel sounds very complex and ‘legal’.  In summary, proprietary estoppel is a concept which provides rights in land to a person (let’s call then “A”) which A was led to believe by another (“B”) that they had such rights, and it would be unjust to deprive read more...

How To Make Litigation Cheaper

September 26th 2023 | dispute resolution
Litigation is expensive. There was no getting away from that. As lawyers, it is our job to conduct litigation in accordance with the overriding objective under the Civil Procedure Rules. This includes an obligation to conduct litigation reasonably and at a cost which is proportionate to the issues in dispute read more...

HOT OFF THE PRESS: Attendance at trials and CPR 27

May 2nd 2023 | dispute resolution
Does a Claimant who is not at a hearing, but is represented, “attend” that hearing or not? The Court of Appeal handed down judgment in Owen v Black Horse Limited on 24 March 2023. This is an important case for its impact on attending trials, as it answers the above read more...

Negligence In Will Writing

April 24th 2023 | dispute resolution
A will is probably one of the most important documents you will prepare in your lifetime.  Your will allows you to dictate what happens to your estate after you die and will often also dictate your funeral wishes. It is therefore important that a will reflects your wishes and is read more...

My Partner has Died, Can I Stay in the House?

March 31st 2023 | dispute resolution
If your partner has passed away, you may find yourself wondering what will happen to your living situation.  The answer really depends on a number of factors, including if the house was owned, by whom, and how. This blog considers some scenarios relating to owned property (not rented) and assumes read more...

How To Enforce A Judgment

December 20th 2022 | dispute resolution
If you’ve ever been a party to litigation, you may well know that trial often isn’t the end of the matter.  Say you have a debt claim where you have claimed £100,000 against the judgment debtor.  You have a trial, and the judge agrees that you are owed the money read more...

How Do I Address A Judge?

December 9th 2022 | dispute resolution
When engaging in court proceedings, there are a number of different rules and protocols that must be followed. In particular, it is important that you address the Judge correctly when speaking in court as you always want to try and keep them on your side. The Lord Chief Justice and read more...

What is a Part 36 Offer?

December 6th 2022 | dispute resolution
There are various methods a party can use to attempt to resolve a dispute, if previous negotiations have not resulted in a settlement, a party may consider making a Part 36 offer. A Part 36 offer can be made at any time and can be made by either party, i.e. read more...

Who Is Liable In Business Email Fraud Cases?

December 2nd 2022 | dispute resolution
Email hacking or to give it its proper name business email compromise (‘BEC’), is unfortunately relatively common. The most common scenario is one of a phishing attack where criminals hack a business’s email, and contact their customers or suppliers pretending to be that business and asking them to make payments read more...

Whoops! My Property Professional Made a Mistake

October 3rd 2022 | dispute resolution
Whether you are buying your own home, doing a renovation, a property developer or commercial landlord, or at some stage you are likely to use a property professional. This includes architects, surveyors, conveyancing solicitors, planners, agents, valuers, and many more. But what happens if a professional makes a mistake, causing read more...

Recovering Company Assets

July 15th 2022 | dispute resolution
How do company assets become bona vacantia? When a company is dissolved, any property that it beneficially owns immediately before dissolution is passed to the crown and is then known as bona vacantia, which literally means “ownerless goods”. The main ways in which property becomes bona vacantia are as follows: read more...

Put Up Or Shut Up: Dealing With Potential Will Validity Claims

June 9th 2022 | dispute resolution
The position for an executor where a person disputes the validity of a Will is extremely difficult. The job of the executor is to distribute the estate in accordance with the Will and in a reasonable timeframe, however if it is invalid, the estate may need to be distributed differently read more...

What is TOLATA and how can it help me?

June 7th 2022 | dispute resolution
Right, first let’s get legal terminology out of the way: TOLATA  or TLATA is an abbreviation of the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996. But what is TOLATA, and how can it help me? The Land Registration Act 1925 (LRA 1925) introduced a scheme of land registration read more...

A DIY Guide to Litigation

February 10th 2022 | dispute resolution
Whatever you think of lawyers, we do have a purpose and can guide you through the pitfalls of the facts, law, procedure and strategy to, hopefully, a good outcome when you have a dispute. But the fact of the matter is that many people simply cannot afford solicitors and barristers read more...

An Idiot’s Guide to Part 36

November 22nd 2021 | dispute resolution
If there is one thorny issue which pervades all of civil litigation, it is this: the recovery of legal costs. Other than in multi-£billion litigation, the subject of legal costs - who pays them and how much - is something that needs to be properly considered before and during the read more...

Employee, Director, Shareholder: What’s The Difference?

October 11th 2021 | dispute resolution
In many businesses, especially small owner-managed or family business, the roles of employees, directors and shareholders are often unclear, as are the rights and responsibilities of each. Directors Directors are responsible for running the business on a day to day basis and most decisions about general management (including spending money, read more...

5 Things they do not teach you at Law School

September 22nd 2021 | dispute resolution
If you’re an aspiring lawyer or simply wonder what the difference between studying the law and practice, I’ve compiled a list of things that only working in the real world of law can prepare you for! Here are 5 things that I have learnt on the job or in the read more...

Sexual Orientation Discrimination: Do you have a Claim?

June 22nd 2021 | dispute resolution
If you have been treated unfairly because of your sexual orientation, you may be able to file a discrimination claim in the civil courts or the employment tribunal. What is sexual orientation discrimination? Sexual orientation is defined by the law as an individual’s sexual attraction towards persons of the same read more...

How Can Residents Protect their Local Area from Development?

May 20th 2021 | dispute resolution
One way to protect an area of land from development is to register it as a town or village green, if you can meet certain criteria. Land that has been given ‘green’ status is protected from development and local residents are given the right to use it for recreational purposes. read more...

5 Reasons You Should Consider Online Dispute Resolution (ODR)

October 22nd 2020 | dispute resolution
Everyone that knows me also knows that I am a huge fan of mediation as one of the Alternative Dispute Resolution methods. Being both a people and "outdoorsy" person, I believe mediation provides a great context to see and hear what the issues are and set about resolving them through read more...

Inheritance Act Claims: Good News on the Price of Success

July 1st 2020 | dispute resolution
A recent High Court case has opened the door to Claimants in Inheritance Act claims recovering the additional ‘success fees’, where these were previously non-recoverable in most litigation since 2013. Those wishing to contest the probate of an estate, or to claim financial provision under the Inheritance Act 1975 (the read more...

Unlocking Restrictive Covenants

February 10th 2020 | dispute resolution
Whether you are a homeowner with the benefit of a covenant, want to do a deal for the release of a covenant, or want to challenge a covenant to permit a change of development of land, our property dispute specialists at Allan Janes can help. What are Restrictive covenants? Restrictive read more...

Trusts Affecting Property: Who Owns What?

January 22nd 2020 | dispute resolution
One might be forgiven for thinking that the owner of property is the person named on the deeds or named as proprietor at the Land Registry. There are however a number of ways in which it is possible to establish a beneficial ownership of property. Beneficial ownership is a right read more...

Litigation Privilege: The Dangers of Discussing Litigation in Emails

October 22nd 2019 | dispute resolution
We have discussed before in a previous blog post the difficulties in maintaining privilege in documents produced for employment cases within a company. However, there is similar difficulties in maintaining litigation privilege in commercial disputes. But what is privilege? In order to understand privilege, you need to understand the process read more...

Commercial Lease Renewal and Terminations under the 1954 Landlord & Tenant Act

May 2nd 2019 | dispute resolution
Richard Harriman, a Partner in our Litigation Department who deals with residential and commercial property disputes writes: “Does a tenant of business premises have security of tenure?  The answer depends upon the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (“The 1954 Act”).  There are two elements to the security provided:- Automatic continuation read more...

Can a Contract Be Varied Orally?

March 26th 2019 | dispute resolution
Not if the contract contains a "no oral variation" clause! In the recent case of Rock Advertising Ltd v. MWB Business Exchange Centres Limited, the House of Lords agreed that a contractual licence for a rented office between the parties, which stated that any variations must be signed and in read more...

Rights of Forfeiture and The Importance of Reading Leases Carefully

February 27th 2019 | dispute resolution
The recent case of Andrew Toms v Marilyn Ruberry is an interesting one; it illustrates why you should give careful consideration to the contents of the forfeiture provisions of a lease before taking enforcement action.  This case shows the importance of interpreting the right of re-entry and forfeiture clause in read more...

Consideration For Restrictive Covenants

September 24th 2018 | dispute resolution
Many people might be aware of the basic contractual principles, including the rule that you must provide consideration for a contract to be enforceable, however when contracting to restrict a person’s right to work (such as including restrictive covenants in a contract of employment), the situation becomes more complex. What read more...
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