The legal consequences of withdrawing an offer of employment will generally depend on the specific circumstances of the offer and the reasons for withdrawing it. Of immediate relevance is likely to be whether, in consequence of the offer being made, a contract of employment has been formed. An offer of employment can be made orally or in writing, although, obviously, where an offer is made orally there is a risk the parties don’t concur on what the precise terms of the offer are/not all the terms of the offer have been fully identified, and that the parties proceed on different understandings. In the normal course, however, once an offer of employment has been accepted and any applicable conditions have been met, a binding contract of employment is formed. For

STOP PRESS: From 6 April 2017, the Insolvency Rules 1986, SI 1986/1925 were revoked and replaced by the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 (IR 2016), SI 2016/1024. The content in this Q&A may have been affected by this change. Although this type of application is for a claim under a provision of the Insolvency Act 1986

Section 76 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (SSFA 1998) brings into force SSFA 1998, Sch 22, Pt A1, which makes provision as to the disposal of land held for the purposes of foundation, voluntary or foundation special schools. Under SSFA 1998, s 77, playing fields cannot be disposed of without the consent of the Secretary of State by various bodies including a local authority, but does not apply in respect of various types of disposal under various provisions of SSFA 1998, Sch 22 or of other statutory provisions (see SSFA 1998, s 77(2B)). These

Rights and responsibilities of riparian owners Under the common law, the owner of land forming the bank of a natural watercourse has the benefit of the following: • the presumption that a landowner owns the land up to the centre of the watercourse, unless owned by someone else. (Property Deeds should detail whether the boundaries of the property are marked by the watercourse or a wall/hedge/fence) • the presumption that a landowner owns any stretch of natural watercourse that runs through or underneath their land. (Any artificial watercourse may be the responsibility

This Q&A assumes that the wayleave has been granted by agreement. In that case, the wayleave is a licence, usually for service media such as electricity or telephone wires, to cross the grantor’s land (which may include the side of a building). The grantor of the wayleave and possibly their successor in title have the right to enforce the wayleave. That will usually be the freeholder or potentially a long leaseholder. As for the method of enforcement, the question

It is assumed that the company in question is a private limited company that has adopted the model articles for private companies limited by shares. Article 4 of the model articles for private companies limited by shares states: ‘Shareholders’ reserve power (1) The shareholders may, by special resolution, direct the directors to take, or refrain from taking, specified action. (2) No such special resolution invalidates anything which the directors have done before the passing of the resolution.’ This article gives shareholders a ‘reserve power’ enabling them to direct the directors to take or refrain from taking action. Usually, this is done by the shareholders passing a special resolution, but in

If the property is registered in the couple’s joint names, any deed granting a legal mortgage would need to be executed by both the husband and wife, as they are both legal owners. That in itself provides some level of protection. In addition, if the beneficial interest is held by the couple, as tenants in common, an application can be made for a form A restriction. The restriction will prevent the registration of any transaction by one of the two legal owners. If the beneficial interest is

In the case of a voluntary winding-up, there is no automatic stay on proceedings against the company, but the court retains a wide discretionary power to stay any ongoing proceedings. The liquidator, or any contributory or creditor, may apply to the court under section 112 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986) to exercise any of the powers which it might exercise if the company were being wound up by the court, including the power to stay proceedings. Where a company enters Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation (CVL) the court may dismiss any outstanding winding up petition and make such order as it sees fit (IA 1986, s 125). However, the mere fact that a company is in CVL does not bar the right of a creditor to have it wound up by the court (IA

A contracting authority may reserve the right not to award a public contract, in which case it is best practice to set this out in the procurement documentation. In some circumstances, a contracting authority may determine that a public procurement process is no longer viable, in which case it may wish to discontinue the current process and start again, see Practice Note: Discontinuing a public procurement process—pre-PA 2023 [Archived]. A contracting authority has a discretion to discontinue a public procurement exercise, for instance where the contracting authority: • discovers an error or issue with the procedure which cannot be remedied • changes its requirements, or • finds aspects of the tenders that need to be evaluated, which requires a change

Pursuant to section 2(1) of the Civil Evidence Act 1995 (CEA 1995), a party proposing to adduce hearsay evidence in civil proceedings must give to the other party the proceedings, firstly notice of that fact and, secondly on request ‘such particulars of or relating to the evidence, as is reasonable and practicable in the circumstances for the purpose of enabling him or them to deal with any matters arising from its being hearsay’. The Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (CPR), SI 1998/3132, r 33.2 prescribes that when a party intends to rely on hearsay evidence at trial and that evidence is contained in a witness statement of someone not being called to give oral evidence, CEA 1995, s 2 is complied with by serving the witness statement itself and informing the other party

A single justice procedure notice requires the defendant to serve on the specified magistrates’ court a written notification stating whether he or she wishes to plead guilty or not guilty and, if they want to plead guilty, whether or not he or she is willing for the case to be dealt with in accordance with the single justice procedure set out in section 16 of the Magistrates‘ Courts Act 1980 (MCA 1980) and the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020 (CrimPR), SI 2020/759, r 24.9. This rule includes details of the documents that the prosecutor must serve on the defendant at

Section 9 of the Wills Act 1837 sets out the formalities for a valid Will. They are that: ‘(a) the will must be in writing; (b) it must be signed by the testator or by some other person in his presence and by his direction; (c) it must appear that the testator intended by his signature to give effect to the will