Anonymity orders Generally, a hearing is to be public but the court may order that the identity of any party must not be disclosed if it considers non-disclosure necessary in order to protect the interests of that party: A party can seek such a non-disclosure order at any time during proceedings, including pre-trial, by filing an application notice with supporting evidence giving reasons why non-disclosure is necessary. The following may be useful for this purpose: • Application notice for order that the identity of a party not be disclosed: Atkin's Court Forms [525] • Protecting the identity of a party: Atkin's Court Forms [414] The Practice Note:

The Court of Appeal in Hoddinott v Persimmon Homes (Wessex) Ltd made clear that the term ‘jurisdiction’ for the purposes of CPR 11 is a broad reference to a court’s ‘power or authority to try a claim’ (para [23]). The claimant’s right to bring a claim and the court’s ‘authority to try’ such claim for the purposes of CPR 11 is

Parental responsibility that is acquired by an unmarried father by agreement or order may be brought to an end by a court order. In the case of non-parents who have acquired parental responsibility as a result of a child arrangements order, their parental responsibility will end when the provisions in the order that relate to that person come to an end. In relation to an application to terminate parental responsibility the child's welfare will

This Q&A assumes that the Will contains no provisions as to post-death appointments from the Will trust and no survivorship provisions. It also assumed that the deceased beneficiary died within a short time of the testator such that the two year period specified in section 144 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 (IHTA 1984) is still open. Where there is no power in the Will for an appointment to be made to the deceased beneficiary’s estate, such an appointment is not likely to be valid as the deceased beneficiary would have

There may be instances when you know or suspect that a person or entity that is not a party to proceedings (a 'non-party' or 'third party') has documents in its possession that may be relevant to your client's case. There are a number of ways in which you can seek to obtain any such documents. The procedure largely depends upon whether proceedings

Pending the final determination of an application for a financial order, the court may make an interim order on such terms as they think just. However, the Court of Appeal in Wicks v Wicks stated that it was unlikely that this conferred a power to make an interim lump sum order. See Practice Note: General principles—lump sum orders, in particular the section titled Interim lump sum orders. See commentary: The orders that may be made upon decree: Butterworths Family Law Service [1001] which states on this issue: ‘The

An applicant under the Immigration Rules, Appendix FM must show that they have ‘adequate accommodation’ upon arrival in the UK. Full details of the ‘adequate accommodation’ requirement and the supporting documents are set out in Practice Note: Adequate accommodation, in which it is noted that accommodation will not be regarded as adequate if: • it is, or will be, overcrowded, or • it contravenes public health regulations As confirmed in UK Visas and Immigration guidance: Maintenance and accommodation, when considering this question, the Entry Clearance Officer (ECO) should be satisfied that the accommodation complies with the following requirements: • it is (or will be) owned or legally occupied for the exclusive use of the couple, and • it is capable of accommodating the couple, and any children (if applicable), without overcrowding as defined

Procedure for merging a leasehold and freehold title A lease may terminate as a result of merger when both the lease and the reversion on that lease become vested in the same person (Rye v Rye ). However, merger does not arise automatically when that vesting occurs. Instead, merger is a matter of intention, and in the absence of any direct evidence of intention it is to be presumed that merger was not intended. For information on how to merge leasehold and freehold title generally, see Practice Note: Merger of freehold and leasehold titles—law and land registration procedure at section: Merger of freehold and leasehold titles—law and land registration procedure—Land registration procedure. In addition, see HM Land Registry Guidance: Practice

Linking The Charities Act 2011 (CA 2011) gives the Commission the power to link two or more closely related charities 'for all or any purposes of this Act', and their guidance states: 'In practice, we will usually link charities for both registration and accounting purposes and we will occasionally link charities for registration purposes only.' Linking charities is intended to reduce the administrative burden on charity trustees and the Commission

This Q&A assumes that a commercial agreement between business entities is the subject of potential novation. Novation of one agreement into two agreements Novation occurs when A and B are party to an agreement and B 'transfers' its obligations and rights under the agreement to C, such that C can be said to 'step into the shoes' of B, with a resulting contractual relationship coming into effect between A and C. The effect of a novation is the extinction of the original contract, and its substitution with a new contract, under which the same rights and obligations are to be enjoyed and performed but by different parties, with the outgoing party released from all future liabilities under the contract. Parties to a novation will usually be the same

Novation vs assignment Novation should be distinguished from assignment. Novation occurs when A and B are party to an agreement and B 'transfers' both their obligations and rights under the agreement to C, such that C can be said to 'step into the shoes' of party B. The result of a novation is a new contractual relationship between A and C, and the contract between A and B being extinguished. An assignment is 'an immediate transfer of an existing proprietary right, vested or contingent from one party to another'. ‘Assigning a contract' is concerned with transferring a party's rights under the contract only, and not the transfer any of their obligations, a third party. In a contract between A and B, B can choose to assign their rights under the contract to C. The result of an assignment is that the original contract between A and B remains in place, no new

What is novation? Novation is the transfer of one party’s rights and obligations under a contract to a third party and comprises the original contract being extinguished and replaced with a new one, under which the same acts and obligations (perhaps with some agreed modifications) are to be performed, but with a change to one of the original parties. See Practice Note: Novation in construction projects. In certain situations, an employer may seek to novate part only of a consultant’s original appointment. Why might a party only want to novate part of an appointment? Construction projects sometimes commence with insufficient thought being given to how best to structure the contractual relationships between the various team members. This may be because appointments must be entered into quickly, in order to allow work to commence or because legal advice on the subject has not yet been obtained. This may result in a consultant entering into one appointment under which it will perform several different roles eg to provide design services as well as