A limited liability partnership (LLP) is not a partnership but a body corporate that is formed under the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000 (LLPA 2000). The LLPA 2000 is largely a framework statute covering the formation of an LLP and the relationship of the members

A wayleave agreement is a type of contractual licence granted by a land owner to a telecommunications or utility company permitting that company to install and use cables or apparatus on the land. Wayleaves differ from easements in that wayleaves do not run with the land. There is no dominant or servient land since the arrangement is purely contractual. Wayleaves are often drafted so at to be for a certain period with the possibility of earlier termination. Our Precedent: Wayleave agreement—previous Electronic Communications Code is drafted in this way and defines ‘Wayleave

In answering this Q&A, we have referred to a request for further information which has been made of the claimant or via the claimant’s solicitors. CPR 18.1 provides as follows: ‘(1) The court may at any time order a party to— (a) clarify any matter which is in dispute in the proceedings;

PACE Code D allows for the showing of films such as CCTV or photographs of incidents in court for purposes of recognition and tracing of suspects. The leading case on the admissibility of witness evidence identifying a suspect by way of recognition from a video recording is Attorney General's Reference (No 2 of 2002). The Court of Appeal held that there were at least four circumstances in which such evidence may be admissible (subject to the discretion of the trial judge to exclude it): • where the image was sufficiently clear for the jury to be able to compare

This Q&A deals with the issues which can arise when recovering the costs of a professional who has given evidence within civil litigation. We have assumed for the purposes of this Q&A that the reference to ‘professional’ in this Q&A refers to an individual who works in a recognised profession (eg doctor, lawyer, architect, etc) rather than as an ‘expert witness’ per se. Categorisation of witnesses Witnesses are often considered to fall into one of two categories: expert or lay witnesses. The distinction between lay and expert witnesses is an important one from a costs perspective. An expert witness is entitled in principle to be remunerated for time spent reporting, responding to Part 35 questions and giving oral evidence. This is reflected in, eg the need, under CPR 35.4, to prepare a cost estimate for the expert’s anticipated costs at the time of seeking permission

In order to qualify for statutory maternity pay (SMP), an employee must: • have completed the required period of continuous employment • have met the necessary earnings threshold • have become pregnant and have reached, or given birth before reaching, the commencement of the 11th week before the expected week of confinement • have given the requisite notice to the relevant employer (who will be liable to pay the SMP) • be off work The SMP period is 39 consecutive weeks. Employees are not entitled to any payment after the SMP period unless they are entitled to any contractual maternity payment. During the SMP period, SMP is not payable in respect of any week during any part of which an employee works under a contract of employment for her employer; for these purposes it

Any worker who is required or invited by his employer to attend a disciplinary or grievance hearing, and makes a reasonable request to be accompanied, has the right to be accompanied at that hearing. A worker may present a complaint to an employment tribunal that his employer has failed, or threatened to fail, to comply with provisions relating to:

An employee’s costs of commuting to their permanent workplace, referred to as ‘ordinary commuting’, is not tax deductible. The costs of commuting to their temporary workplace are tax deductible provided that: • the employee’s attendance at that temporary workplace is necessary in the performance of their employment duties, and • the employee is obliged to incur the costs of commuting to that temporary workplace In order to work out whether an employee’s commuting costs are tax deductible, it is therefore important to determine whether an employee’s workplace is a permanent workplace or a temporary workplace. The terms ‘workplace’, ‘permanent workplace’ and ‘temporary workplace’ are defined in section 339 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 (ITEPA 2003). Workplace is defined as ‘a place at which the employee’s attendance is necessary in the performance of the duties of the employment’. Permanent workplace is defined

Basis of a referral order A court is able to make a referral order under section 16 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (PCC(S)A 2000) where: • it is dealing with a person aged under 18 for an offence and • the conditions in PCC(S)A 2000, s 16(1) ss a to c are met A referral order is not available for an offence where the sentence is fixed by law (PCC(S)A 2000, s 16(1)(a)). The offence of dangerous cycling, under section 28 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 is punishable by: ‘RTA section 28 [Dangerous] cycling Summarily [Level 4] on the standard scale (Schedule 2, Part I Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988).’ There

This Q&A assumes the reference is to the issue fee paid in accordance with Fee 1 in Schedule 1 to the Civil Proceedings Fees Order 2008 (CPFO 2008), SI 2008/1053. The current court fees for civil proceedings are set out in CPFO 2008, SI 2008/1053, Sch 1, as amended. There appears to be no mechanism in CPFO 2008, SI 2008/1053 for parties obtaining a refund of this fee. Guidance on refunds is provided by HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) in document: EX50 Civil and Family Court Fees. It provides that HMCTS usually only refunds fees where the court has made a

This Q&A assumes that the processing activities may be subject to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (EU GDPR) and/or the UK General Data Protection Regulation, Retained Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (UK GDPR) but are not subject to any other data protection regimes (such as the special regime applicable to law enforcement processing). The EU GDPR and UK GDPR Subject to their respective detailed material and territorial scopes, the EU GDPR and the UK GDPR apply to the ‘processing’ of ‘personal data’. In summary, ‘processing’ includes doing almost anything with personal data, including storing, sharing, deleting or using it. For detailed guidance on the meaning of ‘personal data’ and ‘processing’, see Practice Note: Key definitions under data protection

Restructuring & Insolvency analysis: This was an application by the administrators of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) Ltd (LBIE) for a direction under paragraph 63 of Schedule B1 to the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986) that they be at liberty to consent to a request from LBIE’s directors to distribute surplus funds to LBIE’s sole shareholder. While the overall objective of the administrators’ actions had to be to rescue the company as a going concern, they did not have to show a clearly defined causal relationship between every action they took and that objective. It was held that the proposed distribution was commercially sensible and it was appropriate to make the direction sought. Written by Nora Wannagat, barrister, at 9 Stone Buildings.