Tughans Solicitors

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

Applicant with a conviction for murder – How do I handle it?

Patricia Rooney of Tughans’ Employment Department discusses issues arising when a candidate for employment discloses a conviction for murder. Would you want this person representing your organisation or providing services?  Do you have to interview him/her? When an applicant discloses a conviction for murder, you should be aware that a custodial sentence of more than... Read More

Are you a creditor who has been forced into a dubious “voluntary arrangement”?

An individual voluntary arrangement (known as an “IVA”) is a formal agreement between an individual debtor and their creditors that the debtor will pay an agreed sum of money to their creditors, usually by instalments over a period of years, in full and final satisfaction of their debts.  An IVA is often proposed by an... Read More

Oral contracts: stronger than oak?

Have you ever made or wanted to rely on an informal verbal agreement but assumed that it could not be legally enforced? In the 1996 movie ‘Jerry Maguire’, Tom Cruise plays a professional sports agent whose world falls apart when the father of an American football prodigy, Frank Cushman, reneges on a purely verbal agreement... Read More

Social Media – 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 have found out that one of our employees has been sending offensive tweets about his manager from his... Read More

Consumer Credit and solar installations – a salutary tale

A Northern Irish solar company has been fined £2,000 after a couple was mis-sold a system based on its financial returns. The case was brought against Blue Build Energy by the Trading Standards Service (TSS) after a couple complained that they had agreed the purchase of the system based on false information relating to the... Read More