Fit notes – fit for purpose ?

A survey by EFF suggests that the introduction of the “fit note” into employment alw is having little discernible effect or benefit in getting employees back to work more speedily.

The EEF research also suggests that :-

• 46% employees took no sick days in the last year
• There is a decline in sickness absence, with workers off on average 5 days a year in 2010 compared with 5.6 in the years before. The average was 6.8 days in 2007.
• Generous sick pay policies do result in more absence, though not a huge difference. Companies with generous policies tended to see employees take 1 more day off for sickness absence per year
• Back pain is the biggest ailment creating long-term sickness absence.
• Over 40%  of businesses said the fit note had not resulted in workers returning from sickness absence faster, 35% thought the system had made no difference and  24%  said the fit note had helped return people to work quicker
• The EEF warned that many doctors were unclear over how they should deal with the new system, creating more forms for them to  fill out during a typically short consultation
• The suggestion going forward to improve the new system is to create electronic forms  with drop-down options for doctors to suggest tasks an employee might do instead of the tasks causing or contributing to the underlying absence, such as reduced hours or non-manual work.

Solicitors in denial ?

Legal marketing company contact law has carried out an interesting survey into solicitors attitudes to the opening up of the legal services market in October of this year. We report the findings below, and our own view is that any legal services which are commoditised, such as conveyancing, wills and other documents will involve a threat to solicitors from other service providers. Solicitors are generally very slow to see threats to their own business and are poor at marketing generally. Take for example the exponential growth of claim farmers and other legal brokers, including contact law and others. These businesses have effectively taken a chunk of the legal market by marketing and are selling clients back to lawyers. However, maybe lawyers do have a point in believing that the threat is overstated in the sense that most clients believe that all lawyers earn big money and that, for example, if a solicitor practice charges £750.00 plus VAT for a house purchase, that the profit margin on this is high and little work is involved. Nothing could be further from the truth. So, many lawyers may be thinking that, as with past sorties into the legal market, those that do decide to enter will soon retreat, finding that a commoditised approach is not what the public want and/or does not make money. We shall see who proves to be correct…

Here are some of the findings of the survey :-

• 78% of solicitors in the study said they were confident of survival as a traditional law firm without any financial or marketing connections to non-legal partners
• 65% said they would consider working with a non-legal brand
• 46% consider that alternative business structures, allowed from October 2011 would enable progress through investment or takeover
• 65% said they would be comfortable securing external investment from a non-legal investor
• 61% may be prepared to share their business with a non-legal investor
• 30% had had some discussions with non-legal businesses about investment opportunities and/or collaboration.

TUPE ADVICE

Foreword – thanks to Ben Jones of Darlingtons Solicitors for this helpful article. Ben specialises in employment law, including compromise agreements, restrictive covenant and restraint of trade issues, redundancy and employment tribunal claims for both employers and employees.

On an asset acquisition, the parties to the transaction must consider the impact of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (‘TUPE regulations’).

The TUPE  regulations came into force for transfers taking place on or after 6 April 2006 replacing the 1981 regulations of the same name.

At common law the transfer of an undertaking from one employer to another automatically terminates the contracts of employment, which cannot be assigned as they are personal to the employer and employee. There is therefore a dismissal of the employees, and the seller of the undertaking may consequently be liable to the employees for contractual or statutory claims arising from that termination. Continue reading →

PROCEDURE IN RELATION TO FINANCIAL APPLICATIONS UPON DIVORCE

During the divorce process, the resolution of  divorce finances is usually one of the most time consuming aspects of the case.  In order to apply to the court for finances to be resolved, it is necessary to apply for a “financial order”.  Prior to the new Family Procedure Rules (“the new rules”) which came into effect on 6 April 2011, this was known as making an application for “ancillary relief”.  The person who makes the application is referred to as “the Applicant”, the other party is referred to as “the Respondent”.  The relevant procedures are summarised below. Continue reading →

Big bang in legal services & consumers

The legal ombudsman has flagged up that when non-lawyer entrants are allowed into the legal services market in October 2011, consumers should be careful to check who they are dealing with, what qualifications and experience the seller has and what redress will be available if important legal matters are dealt with incorrectly.

Of complaints received by the Legal Ombudsman to date, it appears that many have had to be rejected because the Ombudsman does not have jurisdiction where consumers have unknowingly bought services from people who are not qualified solicitors.

A number of legal services, including conveyancing, wills, employment tribunal claims and divorce, are already offered by non-lawyers. The attraction is often that the price is cheaper, but cheap can cost dear, as a client has no redress in terms of complaining, no security on monies paid and non-solicitors may well not have adequate or any professional indemnity insurance.

As things stand, the Chief Legal Ombudsman, Adam Sampson, believes that confusion for consumers will probably increase when market entrants such as banks and supermarkets start offering legal services later this year.

Since it started, 6 months ago the legal ombudsman has received in the region of 40,000 phone calls, letters and emails, but has only dealt with around 4,000 complaints.

Human Rights Act cases on the increase and on unusual grounds

It is now 10 years since  the Human Rights Act came into force and data suggests that cases brought under the Aact are on the increase.

It seems that business has now realiosed that the Act can be applied to business law issues, including such areas as tax law, where there has been a 38% increase in cases where the Act is cited, generally as a defence. The research on this comes from the well known legal publisher Sweet & Maxwell.

Reported cases in the last year in which the Human Rights Act was part of the case rose a whopping 63% last year, now accounting for 9% of all reported human rights cases. Over a 10 year period there have been 5,107 reported human rights cases.

Some examples of business use of the Human Rights Act last year include :-

• Using privacy arguments to prevent the media from publishing stories that could potentially damage their corporate reputation.

• Asking the court for more time to prepare a case by arguing that access to justice would be hampered unless deadlines in the litigation process were extended.

Tax cases

The research by Sweet & Maxwell found that reported cases in which human rights arguments were used in tax cases involving HM Revenue and Customs was up 38% from 16 to 22, making up 6% of all reported cases.

HMRC has been pursuing a far more aggressive strategy against businesses which means it is now far less likely to accept a compromise and settle a tax claim.With the stakes raised, businesses are looking for any tool that may buy time or defeat HMRC.

A report by Opinium Research indicates an increasing trend for more complicated arrangements in wills and for contingency provisions involving setting up of trusts. This trend perhaps reflects the overall deterioration in family bonds and prospects of marriages.

The research found that around 1/3 of parents are reluctant to leave money to their married children  in case they get divorced and  their child’s spouse could end up with some of the assets in the event of a breakdown of the relationship.

It can be easy to forget that legal services in the modern era does not necessarily only mean advice given in a traditional way by solicitors. With the explosion of free information now available on the internet, many inidviduals and businesses will only use a solicitor for value added services or where the matter is complex such as a court case or major transaction. When it comes to sourcing a legal document there is a huge array ocomapnies out there that now offer lawyer drafted templates and documents at a fraction of the price of being charged an hourly rate, and so the market for legal services has become much more fragmented.

This website is dedicated to everything relating to law services and legal work and firms.

I know its not fashionable to say it, but lawyers do a remarkable job for us. Without them commerce would not happen and the vulnerable would not be protected.

There are thousands of lawyers in the country providing law services. Look around the site and see what they do and how they can help.

If you need employment law advice, whether for contracts of employment, a compromise agreement or perhaps employer redundancy law advice, click the appropriate link.