Are prosecutions provided for by statute equally available for citizens online and in the physical world? David Cook, cyber crime solicitor at Pannone comments on the Nicola Brookes case, ISPs’ obligations and the Defamation Bill currently going through parliament.

Date of signature v date of commencement The date on which a lease is intended to commence can be different to the date on which it is signed. Whereas a simple contract takes effect once signed by all parties, a deed will take effect on delivery. If the obligations under the deed are intended to commence or be deemed to commence on a date different to the date of delivery, then this should be made clear in the document itself in a separate commencement clause. The date of the deed is usually stated at the beginning of the document and the commencement clause within the main body of the

A residential lease, if properly drafted, will usually contain provisions enabling the landlord to recover from the tenant legal costs incurred in enforcing any covenant contained in the lease, such as a failure to pay service charges, or arising out of an action for forfeiture. The question of how these costs are recoverable is likely to depend upon a number of factors. Legal costs can, depending on the wording of the lease, amount to a ‘cost of management’, thus falling within the definition of a service charge in section 18(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985: Iperion

Before 13 October 2003 a squatter could obtain title to either registered or unregistered land if he could demonstrate 12 years' uninterrupted factual possession and an intention to possess the land. After the expiry of that period, Limitation Act 1980 prevented the 'paper' owner from recovering possession: • the 'paper' title to unregistered land was extinguished, and • the 'paper' title to registered land was held on a statutory trust so the paper owner

It is assumed for the purpose of this Q&A that you are referring to the liability of a member to pay to a company the unpaid part of the nominal value of a share issued by that company (and any premium payable thereon). A company may make a demand for payment of any such amount due, but unpaid, in respect of a share, commonly known as a call on shares. A call on shares is made by the directors of a company to one or more of its members prior to winding-up or by its liquidator when it is in course of winding-up. Any liability of a member for calls made by a company’s directors is set out in the company’s articles of association, as is the manner in which calls may be made and enforced

What is a highway cultivation licence? Section 142 of the Highways Act 1980 (HiA 1980) provides for a highway authority to be granted a licence to permit the occupier or the owner of any premises adjoining the highway to plant trees, shrubs etc in a highway. A highway authority may attach to any such licence such conditions as it considers necessary, eg to ensure the safety and convenience of passengers in the highway, to prevent traffic, and to prevent any nuisance or annoyance, provided that the mandatory condition set out

This Q&A assumes that the life tenant has a qualifying interest in possession under the trust We are not aware of any reason why the life tenant could not assign their life interest following the exercise of a power of advancement by the trustees. The exercise of the power reduces the trust corpus in which the life interest subsists, but provided that some property remains in trust following the exercise,

The limitation period under section 69(3) of the Care Act 2014 (CA 2014) provides that: ‘A sum is recoverable under this section— (a) in a case in which the sum becomes due to the local authority on or after the commencement of this section, within six years of the date the sum becomes due; (b) in any other case, within three years of the

Much depends on the individual circumstances of the case concerned and most cases are highly fact specific and require careful examination of the contemporaneous evidence available in the social care file. If the local authority has undertaken a Merton compliant age assessment of the individual concerned, taking cognisance of the Home Office's Assessing Age guidance which was updated in 2019, and are confident that they are not further required to give the individual the 'benefit of the doubt' as to their age as described in Practice Note: Age assessments—immigration and asylum due to the prospect of further evidence being provided, they can give consideration

Once a highway has been adopted, if it is no longer needed as public highway, or when the land is needed for development to take place, it can be 'stopped up' with the effect that the public no

Copyright and data protection Copyright will usually subsist in a photograph. Making a copy of a photograph is an infringement of that copyright, however there is an exception where that copy is made for the purposes of judicial proceedings. This would include preparing evidence for any kind of hearing, case or proposed hearing where an independent judge sits to determine a legal cause of some sort. Data protection requirements apply where pictures are taken of identifiable individuals. From a data protection perspective, subject to certain formalities a local authority can use pictures that have been taken from social media as evidence in legal proceedings. Even if the formalities are not adhered to the evidence will still be admissible but certain regulatory consequences may

The Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010), SI 2010/2955 disapply the costs provisions under CPR 44 which provide for the starting point on costs to be that the unsuccessful party pays the costs of the successful party. In family cases, the court instead has a broad discretion to make such order as it thinks just in relation to costs. FPR 2010, SI 2010/2955, 28.1 states: ‘The court may at any time make such order as to costs as it thinks just.’ Costs orders are rare but