The court has the power to make various orders at the hearing of a bankruptcy petition, including the adjournment of the hearing under Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016, SI 2016/1024, r 10.23 which could be given for a variety of reasons such as an issue being raised on the debt, an agreement to adjourn or an adjournment so that directions can be ordered and complied with. It is not uncommon for the debtor to request an adjournment so that they can pay the debt. The court does not have to accede to such request—the test the court will apply in these circumstances is whether there is a reasonable prospect of the debt being paid in full within a reasonable period. In Re Wojakovski, it was held that in order for a petition to be adjourned, the debtor would need to provide credible evidence of his ability to pay within a reasonable time both the petition debt and the debt due to the supporting creditors,

Dispute Resolution analysis: The court has clarified when it will restrict access by non-parties to statements of case pursuant to CPR 5.4C(1). Under CPR 5.4C(1), a non-party can obtain a copy of a statement of case. However, by CPR 5.4C(4), a party (or person identified in the statement of case), can apply for an order that non-parties cannot have access, or that access be subject to certain restrictions. In this case, the court held that non-party access to statements of case is an expression of the ‘open justice’ principle and clear justification will be required to depart from it. Written by Harriet Campbell, senior knowledge lawyer at Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP.

The court has the power to substitute another creditor for the petitioning creditor where the petitioning creditor: • is found not to be entitled to petition for the debtor's bankruptcy • consents to withdraw the petition or allows it to be dismissed • consents to an adjournment

A person qualifies for the national minimum wage pursuant to the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 (NMWA 1998) if he: • is a 'worker' • works, or ordinarily works, in the UK under his contract, and • has ceased to be of compulsory school age For these purposes, a 'worker' is an individual who has entered into or works under (or, where the employment has ceased, worked under): • a contract of employment, or • any other contract... whereby the individual undertakes to do or perform personally any work or services for

On 28 December 2017 Schedule 1 to the Digital Economy Act 2017 (DEA 2017) came into force, inserting the Electronic Communications Code (ECC) by way of Schedule 3A Part 1 of the Communications Act 2003 (CA 2003). This replaced the Telecommunications Code forming Schedule 2 to the Telecommunications Act 1984 (TA 1984). Although there are similarities between the two codes, there are key differences which necessitate transitional arrangements

The Offensive Weapons Act 2019 (OWA 2019) creates a number of new offences relating to corrosive products and offensive weapons and strengthens the arrangements for the online sale of bladed articles, bladed products and corrosive products. The sale and delivery provisions of OWA 2019 are contained in Part 3. Among them, OWA 2019, ss 39 and 42 creates offences relating to arranging for and/or the delivery of bladed products to persons under

The purpose of bankruptcy (and indeed, winding-up) proceedings is, essentially, to realise the debtor's assets for the benefit of their creditors. Any bankruptcy petition is therefore considered to be brought by the petitioner on behalf of all creditors—in other words, a class action—for that purpose. If the petitioner wishes to commence bankruptcy proceedings for a different—or collateral—purpose, those proceedings are at risk of being struck out as an abuse of process. This was the issue that the court faced in Maud v

Private Client analysis: The Court of Appeal has clarified when the court should deprive a trustee of their usual indemnity out of the trust fund under section 31 of the Trustee Act 2000 (TrA 2000) for costs of litigation. To make such an order, the court must have found misconduct which is unreasonable in the circumstances—it must be more than a mere mistake, but need not be dishonest. Merely defending a removal claim which is not ultimately decided will not justify an order, but where the court found breaches of trust causing loss to the fund that should justify depriving the trustee of their indemnity. The fact that an inter partes costs order has been made, and that a Part 36 offer had not been met, were both factors pointing towards the indemnity being removed. Written by Aidan Briggs, barrister at New Square Chambers.

Section 86(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996), states: 'The notice required to be given by an employer to terminate the contract of employment of a person who has been continuously employed for one month or more— (a)    is not less than one week's notice if his period of continuous employment is less than two years, (b)    is not less than one week's notice for each year of continuous employment if his period of continuous employment is two years or more but less than twelve years, and (c)    is not less than twelve weeks' notice if his period of continuous employment is twelve years or more.' An ordinary reading of this provision would suggest that the period of continuous employment is to be assessed

The ‘shares as debt’ rules applied to shares held by companies up until 21 April 2009 (for background, see HMRC Manual: CFM45010). The rules were replaced by the ‘shares accounted for a liabilities’ rules together with the ‘disguised interest rules’. Broadly, these newer rules are aimed at bringing arrangements which produce a return which represents, or is economically equivalent to, interest within the loan relationships regime. The explanatory notes that accompanied the shares accounted for as liabilities legislation set out the reason for having two sets of rules running in parallel. It was ‘considered better to deal separately with disguised interest in what are clearly not loans in substance or form on the one hand, and what are simply loans dressed up as investment in preference shares on the other’. More detail is provided on each of the rules below. Shares accounted for as liabilities

While the acquisition of a private company is typically effected through the buyer(s) and seller(s) entering into a contractual arrangement documented by a share and purchase agreement, there are some circumstances where the transaction may need to be effected by way of a takeover offer under the Companies

The Supreme Court in Abela v Baadarani at para [37] stated that service of a document has a number of purposes but the most important is to ensure that the contents of the document to be served, in that case a claim form, are communicated to the other party. In the case of a claim form this is so that the defendant is informed of the contents of the claim