Weightmans
10 Experts
1 Contributions by Weightmans
PRACTICE NOTES
Overview
The consequences of breaching health and safety duties at work often include the prospect of paying financial compensation to the claimant or, where relevant, their dependants. This liability usually stems from actions brought in the civil courts or the threat of such proceedings. In addition, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) holds various enforcement powers over employing organisations, including the issue of prohibition or improvement notices. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA 1974), breaches can also result in criminal liability, with potential sanctions for both individuals and companies ranging from fines to, in serious instances, imprisonment.
The employer’s duty of care
The employer’s duty of care owed to employees is firmly established and requires no further examination. This duty arises in two ways—at common law (negligence) and under statutory regulation. Statutory oversight of workplace safety has existed for almost two
Insurance & Reinsurance
7 Contributions by Weightmans Experts
PRACTICE NOTES
This Practice Note sets out the role of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), clarifies its clinical guidelines, and gives examples of how to locate and use those guidelines in practice.
What is the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and what does it do?
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an executive non-departmental public body, created under the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Initially formed in 1999 as the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, it adopted the name NICE in 2005. It issues guidance for health, public health and social care practitioners and commissioners, develops quality standards, and supplies information services spanning health and social care. NICE’s guidance is delivered across three main areas:
technology appraisals
clinical guidance
interventional procedures
What is NICE clinical guidance?
NICE clinical guidance consists of
PI & Clinical Negligence
PRACTICE NOTES
This Practice Note offers examples of decisions where the court has considered applications to adjourn a trial. It is presented as tables: the first provides instances in which an adjournment was granted, and the second records matters where the court declined to adjourn. For an outline of the principles applied by the courts when dealing with an adjournment request, see Practice Note: Adjourning trial...
Trial adjourned—general
Case details and analysis: R (on the application of Fiona Ford) v Coventry Magistrates’ Court [2025] EWHC 843 (Admin). This was an appeal from an unsuccessful bid to adjourn magistrates’ court proceedings seeking a premises closure order...
Grounds of the adjournment application: Additional time to obtain legal aid funding...
Summary of decision: The court confirmed that the governing test is fairness. It should not be presumed that fairness dictates a single answer; in a given case,
Dispute Resolution
PRACTICE NOTES
Overview
The consequences of breaching health and safety duties at work often include the prospect of paying financial compensation to the claimant or, where relevant, their dependants. This liability usually stems from actions brought in the civil courts or the threat of such proceedings. In addition, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) holds various enforcement powers over employing organisations, including the issue of prohibition or improvement notices. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA 1974), breaches can also result in criminal liability, with potential sanctions for both individuals and companies ranging from fines to, in serious instances, imprisonment.
The employer’s duty of care
The employer’s duty of care owed to employees is firmly established and requires no further examination. This duty arises in two ways—at common law (negligence) and under statutory regulation. Statutory oversight of workplace safety has existed for almost two
Insurance & Reinsurance
PRACTICE NOTES
This Practice Note highlights why (re)insurers and intermediaries must confront environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks. For direction on the ESG initiatives, regulations and legislation pertinent to (re)insurers and intermediaries, see Practice Note: ESG and insurance—essentials.
Risk landscape Physical risks
Losses linked to physical risk drivers, including weather, are insurable and can immediately impact insurance firms through elevated claims. Since the 1980s, the tally of recorded weather-related loss events has trebled, and, as a contributing element alongside other losses, inflation-adjusted insurance losses have risen by about US$45bn—from roughly US$10bn in the 1980s to around US$55bn in the past decade. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC)—an independent statutory body created in 2008 and charged with advising the UK government on climate change—observed that physical risks from flooding and coastal change are expected to grow, and that major flood events, such as Calder Valley in 2020, are more
Insurance & Reinsurance
PRACTICE NOTES
Practice Note
This Practice Note examines the court’s discretion to postpone a hearing under CPR 3.1(2)(b) and a party’s ability to seek such an adjournment. In particular, it identifies the five specific ‘Fitzroy Robinson’ criteria the court will weigh when deciding whether to defer or bring forward a hearing, together with discussion of authorities in which the Fitzroy factors have been applied. It also addresses additional matters the court may take into account, including the timing of any adjournment request, and considers the ill-health of a party or witness and the medical evidence that must accompany an application advanced on that basis. For examples of court judgments illustrating the courts’ approach to applications to adjourn a trial, see Practice Note: —illustrative decisions. Depending on the court in which the proceedings are being conducted, the relevant court guide may contain further guidance that should be
Dispute Resolution
PRACTICE NOTES
Businesses may either suffer fraud or be used by their own management to commit it. In the first scenario, corporate property is diverted. In the second, the enterprise may trade partly legitimately or lack any real business. Either way, insolvency may follow. Once appointed, the office-holder will seek to uncover events, trace assets and recover value for creditors.
Investigation and enquiry into a company’s assets
After a decision is taken to appoint an insolvency practitioner (IP), the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986) grants powers allowing the office-holder to probe the company’s affairs and investigate its dealings, then gather in its assets.
Under IA 1986, s 236, an administrator, administrative receiver, liquidator or provisional liquidator may ask the court to order certain persons to supply information about the company and/or its dealings, produce any books, papers or other records in their possession or under their control
Restructuring & Insolvency
PRECEDENTS
This Deed is dated [ date ]
Parties
[ name ], of [ address ], [ company number ] (‘A Limited’)
[ name ], of [ address ], [ company number ] (‘B Limited’)
together the ‘Claimants’.
Background
A Limited and B Limited are Claimants in High Court proceedings in the [ Chancery Division ], under Claim No. [ insert number ], against the Defendant[s]. The Solicitors act for the Claimants in the Litigation.
The Claimants were previously wholly-owned subsidiaries of [ Z limited ]. Following the commencement of the Litigation, B Limited ceased to be within [ Z Limited’s ] ownership and is now controlled by new owners.
The Claimants propose to enter into an agreement governing the conduct of the Litigation, with particular regard to the apportionment of legal costs, the settlement of liabilities incurred, and the
Dispute Resolution
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