Tughans Solicitors

Can You Have Your Cake And Eat It?

In a decision issued earlier this week by the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal, it has been confirmed that the refusal by Ashers bakery to supply a cake with a slogan which supports gay marriage was unlawful discrimination. Briefly, the facts in this case were that in May 2014, Mr Gareth Lee, who is gay,... Read More

Liquor Licensing in Northern Ireland – An update

Since our recent article on calls to reform the liquor licensing regime in Northern Ireland, a licensing amendment Bill has been introduced to the Northern Ireland Assembly by the Minister for the new Department for Communities, Paul Givan. The measures proposed include: Restrictions on advertising of alcoholic drinks in supermarkets and off-sales and prohibition on... Read More

Break Clauses & Vacant Possession

The High Court in England & Wales recently ruled in the case of Riverside Park Limited –v- NHS Property Services Limited EWHC 1313 that a tenant’s failure to remove demountable partitioning meant that vacant possession as a condition of the tenant’s break clause was not provided and the break was therefore not effectively exercised.... Read More

Choosing a name for your new business or product

How do you pick a name for a new business or product without getting yourself into trouble legally? It might seem like a stupid question, and whilst the name you pick will be obviously primarily be decided by what best fits and markets your business or product, but there are some legal concepts which should... Read More

Discovery in Employment Tribunals – How do I handle it?

As part of our ‘How do I handle it’ series on employment law and difficult workplace scenarios, Rachel Richardson, Director at Tughans, considers the following problem and offers some practical advice. I am an HR manager and our company has received a Notice for Discovery as part of industrial tribunal proceedings from an ex-employee. I... Read More

Cyber Security Breaches – Responses

What do you do as a CTO if you wake up in the morning to a string of emails from your Chief Exec, a buzzing twitter feed and a breakfast TV special report letting you know that over 150,000 of your customers have had their data stolen in an overnight cyber-attack? Apart from going on... Read More

A reminder that new minimum wage rates will be effective 1 October 2016

A reminder that the annual increase in the National Minimum Wage (NMW) takes effect tomorrow, 1 October 2016 Rates of pay These rates apply to pay reference periods beginning on or after that date. The new rates will be: £7.20 per hour – 25 yrs old and over £6.95 per hour – 21-24 yrs old... Read More

Let’s Talk About Tax

Let’s talk about tax, more specifically, Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT).  Ben Franklin once wrote that in this world nothing is certain, except death and taxes. So before succumbing to the former, we all have to endure the latter. In this article we introduce the basic principles of SDLT. Although there are a lot of... Read More

What is Warranty and Indemnity Insurance and is it right for my deal?

What is Warranty and Indemnity Insurance (“W&II”)? In M&A transactions a buyer will require the seller to make certain statements about the business being sold (warranties) or require the seller to promise to pay the buyer for any liability resulting out of a particular circumstance (indemnities). The idea being that, if a warranty statement is... Read More

Confirmation Statements: Replacing the Annual Return

The Current Position Currently all limited companies must file annual returns with Companies House.  The Annual Return includes details of a company’s officers, registered address, shareholders and share capital. This information is filed annually despite the fact there may have been no changes. The Change In March 2015, the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act... Read More