Our Courts have always held the view that they should not be subservient to an agreement reached between the parties in family proceedings. However, then came Macleod, followed by the much famous case of Radmacher.

Now the Courts appear to recognise an agreement freely negotiated between parties, with the benefit of independent legal advice. A change in the law to give proper recognition to prenuptial agreements is currently being considered. This is a huge development in the area of family law.

Prenuptial agreements require very careful drafting otherwise they may fail the enforceability test. It is believed that prenuptial agreements are going to form the future of many family finances.

Colleys, who was the valuer engaged by Mr Scullion’s lender and the Defendant in this case, appealed the decision.

On 17th June 2011 the Court of Appeal handed down its’ decision and disagreed with the Court at first instance. The Court of Appeal held that a valuer, instructed on behalf of a lender, owed no duty of care to a BTL investor.

It had been held, prior to the Court of Appeal’s ruling, that a negligent valuer did owe a duty of care to a Buy to Let investor in respect of both a capital and rental valuation.

In 2002 Mr Scullion bought a two bedroom flat on a Buy to Let basis. Colleys was instructed to produce a capital and rental valuation to Mr Scullion’s lender and the valuer was paid £35 for doing so, although importantly no contractual relationship existed between Mr Scullion and Colleys.

Exchange of Contracts took place on Mr Scullion’s purchase before the valuation report had been shown to Mr Scullion and it later transpired that the valuation report over-valued both the capital value and the likely rental income of the property.

As a result Mr Scullion brought a claim for negligence against the valuer, seeking damages caused by the over-valuation of the report because he was ‘out of pocket’ on the rental income and was successful.

Colleys denied liability throughout, claiming no duty of care existed and causation was disputed on the grounds that Mr Scullion only received the valuation report post exchange of contracts.

Colleys appealed the decision.

Colleys argued that no duty of care arose in the absence of a contract between the parties and further that a Buy to Let investor was not an ordinary residential purchaser and could therefore be distinguished from cases such as Smith v Bush which Mr Scullion had sought to rely upon.

The Court at first instance had held that Mr Scullion was not “in no sense a professional property developer”. The Court of Appeal disagreed. They held the case did not involve an “ordinary domestic householder purchasing his home” and it was not therefore foreseeable that Mr Scullion would rely upon the valuer’s report as opposed to obtaining his own.

The Court of Appeal’s decision is likely to have an impact upon Professional Negligence claims arising out of Buy to Let investments and it will make it significantly more difficult for such investors to pursue Buy to Let claims against valuers in the absence of a contractual relationship.

Last month News International admitted liability over a number of phone hacking cases involving the News Of The World and set up a compensation scheme to deal with ‘justifiable claims’.

Actress Sienna Miller received £100,000 from the News of the World earlier this month, after the paper admitted hacking her mobile phone.

But Mr Grant said he was still considering whether to take the matter through the courts.

He went on to all but declare war on tabloid newspapers and said he hoped they went out of business.

And he gave his backing to the use of superinjunctions, but admitted they were an ‘imperfect’ way of reserving a level of privacy for those in the public eye.

Mr Grant said: ‘I also had the cops come round the other day who are now very hot on the criminal case and that’s exciting and I think very big heads will roll soon.’

He said the police had visited ‘to show me the evidence – all these notes with my PIN numbers, my phone numbers, my friends’, my family’s PIN numbers, bank accounts – all written down by a private detective working for the papers.’
Mr Grant added: ‘I’m sure if a policeman were here he would be saying don’t discuss any of this so I better shut up.’
Asked whether he would take his own legal action, Mr Grant said: ‘I could do and I’m just deciding whether to do that or not.’

And he was critical of tabloid newspapers. ‘We don’t need them, we don’t want them and as soon as they go out of business the better,’ he said.

‘The tabloid press is completely unnecessary – at least in my industry – to what you do. You need to make a good film, that’s 97 per cent of it; then about 2 per cent of it is having good advertising materials, good trailer etc and then right on the end make a bit of noise with publicity if you can.

‘But almost no one will talk to the tabloids. They’ll usually do it through radio or television or the internet.’

A host of high-profile names who have made claims against the News of the World, including actress Sienna Miller and former culture secretary Tessa Jowell, have received apologies from the newspaper.

Three journalists at the paper have been arrested since the Metropolitan Police reopened its inquiry into claims that staff hacked into the answerphone messages of celebrities and politicians.

It has been estimated that News International has set aside £20 million for payouts.

Scotland Yard has endured repeated criticism over its handling of the original phone-hacking inquiry, which led to the conviction of News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire in 2007.

The paper’s former editor, Andy Coulson, resigned as Prime Minister David Cameron’s director of communications in January after he admitted that the ongoing row about the affair was making his job impossible.

Days later the Met launched a fresh investigation, codenamed Weeting, after receiving ‘significant new information’ from News International.

Mr Grant accused newspapers of ‘stealing someone’s most precious commodity for profit’ by invading their privacy.
‘There’s nothing to do with public interest – it’s purely to do with money,’ he said.

‘It’s been a scandal that I think has been going on in this country for too long. So injunctions – imperfect though they are – are at least to be welcomed because something’s being done.’

Mr Grant, 50, also revealed he had largely left the acting world.

He said: ‘One of the reasons I feel so brave about speaking out now is I am pretty much retired.’

The Supreme Court has decided that a rule that protected expert witnesses through immunity for over 400 years should be scrapped allowing them to be sued in the civil courts. This is a decision that has been welcomed by personal injury solicitors in the UK.

The victim of the road traffic accident, Paul Wynne Jones of Liverpool, on the recommendation of the expert witness, had to settle for a much smaller settlement than would have been the case if he was allowed to pursue the driver for damages. Wynne Jones, unhappy with this, decided to go down the route of professional negligence and issue proceedings against the expert witness which was thrown out when a High Court judge ruled that the expert witness was entitle to immunity. The case eventually ended up at the Supreme Court where the landmark decision was made by a majority of 5 to 2.

Lord Phillips said of the decision: “All who provide professional services which involve a duty of care are at risk of being sued for breach of that duty. They customarily insure against that risk.

“It would be quite wrong to perpetuate the immunity of expert witnesses out of mere conjecture that they will be reluctant to perform their duty to the court if they are not immune from suit for breach of duty.”

Personal Injury and Professional Negligence cases often go hand in hand especially when the victim is unhappy with their damages. QualitySolicitors Keith Park’s Professional Negligence team will review your case which generally, after an initial discussion with you, can be carried out on a No Win No Fee basis. Our Personal Injury department can also assist by reviewing any previous personal injury claims you have made in the last 6 years to ensure that you got the maximum amount of compensation possible first time round.

• Personal Injury
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• Conveyancing / Moving House
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New legislation is being brought in from October 2011 which will see an end to home owners having to fork out for leaks and other repairs to ‘their’ pipes as the responsibility will be placed at the feet of each of the 10 water companies that currently supply water to the UK.

You could be forgiven for overlooking the fact that you and your neighbours are responsible for part of the pipe work when damaged but unfortunately as a home owner you are only made fully aware of any problem or liability when the damage actually occurs.

The proposals coming into effect later in the year have brought a bit of clarity and definition to the matter. Any pipes that fall inside a property’s boundaries that connect to drains from the property to the sewer or lateral drain will remain the home owner’s responsibility – anything else will be looked after by the water company. The exception to this being if other properties drain through your own.

It is hoped that these proposals will be approved by the summer (2011) when they are presented to Parliament. However, it will not be the water companies themselves who will foot the bill for this nor will it be the Government so don’t be surprised if you see a small increase in your water charges in the near future.

If you are thinking of moving house you should make sure you use a conveyancing firm who will do all the necessary checks for you and uncover any likely issues that may arise from your purchase or sale. QualitySolicitors Keith Park can provide this service for you and allow you to check on the progress of your case online 24/7.

• Personal Injury
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Nathan was left with cerebral palsy and epilepsy after the blunder on April 27th 1998 which saw midwives at the hospital fail to act on mother Beverley’s high blood pressure which led to her suffering a seizure (eclamptic fit) and Nathan being deprived of oxygen whilst in the womb.

Despite the settlement and an end to the long-running dispute, there remains an anger from the Humphries family towards the hospital and one midwife in particular.

After Manchester High Court approved the huge payout – one of the highest ever seen there – Nathan’s mother, Beverley, said: “There were a lot of good midwives but there was one who we blame and always will. I still feel angry that mistakes that should never have happened led to Nathan suffering a life-long disability.

“I am relieved that the settlement will mean that Nathan can be cared for in the way he needs, for the rest of his life.”

The family now intend to use part of the initial £3m instalment to buy a house that they will suitably adapt in accordance of their son’s needs. The rest of the settlement, which has been calculated on Nathan’s life expectancy of 67 and will be paid annually, has been index-linked to account for inflation.

A spokesman for University Hospital of North Staffs NHS Trust said: “While we appreciate no sum of money can be said to compensate for the injury that Nathan has sustained, the Trust very much hopes that the settlement has provided the necessary degree of financial security for Nathan for the rest of his life.”

Medical negligence occurs everyday, many cases going unnoticed and/or unreported. If you feel you have been the victim of medical negligence or if you need a solicitor for another reason QualitySolicitors Keith Park can help.

• Personal Injury
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• Private Client / Making a Will
• Criminal Law
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• Prison Law
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With the release today of their January House Price Index Rightmove are forecasting a spring stock shortage will underpin prices in popular locations as new seller numbers dwindle. Rightmove also reports that there has been record internet activity indicating stirring buyer interest.

With property coming to market at its lowest level since January 2009 scarce new sellers have raised asking prices by 0.3% (£711), the first rise in three months. The most significant absentees are potential sellers of semi-detached properties who are either unwilling or unable to move. The VAT increase is also not helping with those struggling to stay in their homes as well as hitting first time buyers and trader-uppers who are saving hard to save the huge deposits required. We can only hope that this lack of property coming to market will assist an upward trend in new sellers’ average asking prices for the next three months as it coincides with the run in to the spring moving season.

Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove, comments:

“The opening skirmish in the 2011 price battle looks to be going marginally in favour of scarcer sellers, especially in locations preferred by tooled-up cash buyers or those packing a hefty deposit. With the number of new sellers at a two year record low, prices are being under-pinned by muted new supply just managing to fight off the downsides of lender reticence. However, in less popular locations, the smokescreen of New Year price optimism is temporarily masking the collateral damage that the new era of tighter credit will continue to inflict”.

While nationally new sellers average asking prices increased by just 0.3% (£711), they were outperformed by the confidence of the capital’s sellers who pushed theirs up by 1.1% (£4,470). This is a timely positive sign for new sellers as it breaks the downward spiral of falls seen in the previous two months when prices fell by a total of 2.4%.

Miles Shipside commented:

“This month’s price rise will come as a welcome respite to prospective sellers in the London area as they had witnessed falls in both November and December. Sellers in the run up to Christmas normally have a pressing reason to sell so chopped back their prices, while sellers launching to the market in the New Year are traditionally more optimistic.”

Source: Rachel Lyndon of Pencil-Case

November was a stable month with very few changes to the volume and value of mortgage activity, according to new data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders. 44,000 loans for house purchase, worth £6.3 billion, were advanced in the month. This was unchanged from October and down 15% by volume and 13% by value from November 2009.

This month sees the launch of a new database for the CML monthly Regulated Mortgage Survey lending figures, and all historic RMS data back to 2005 are now based on this. There have been revisions to all historic data, reflecting improvements in data coverage and quality. Although most revisions are modest and within expected statistical error margins, care should be taken in comparing these new figures with any published by the CML previously.

Table 1: Loans for house purchase and remortgage

Loans for remortgage were down compared to the same period last year (12% by volume and 14% by value) but they showed a small increase from 25,000 (worth £3 billion) in October to 26,000 (worth £3.1 billion) in November. Bank of England Lending to Individuals figures showed a much larger increase in remortgage activity (from 29,200 loans in October to 36,300 in November). The Bank’s figures are based on mortgage approvals, and therefore are a lead indicator of the CML figures which are for mortgage advances. This indicates there may be a further, more substantial increase in CML remortgage data in the coming months.

Table 2: First-time buyers, lending and affordability

First-time buyers took out 16,400 loans (worth £1.9 billion) in November, a 3% increase from October (with the value staying the same) and a 19% decrease (down 17% by value) from the same month last year. Loans to home movers, on the other hand, were down 2% from October with 27,800 loans (worth £4.4 billion), and down 12% compared to November 2009. Like first-time buyers, the value of lending to home movers was unchanged between October and November.

Table 3: Home movers, lending and affordability

Lower monthly year-on-year business continues in all areas due to the distortions caused by some households bringing forwards house purchase activity before the close of 2009’s stamp duty concession.

Credit criteria remain tight although loan-to-value ratios appear to have eased a little, particularly for first-time buyers. This group borrowed 80% of their home’s value in November and is the second month in a row the loan to value has been at 80%. This is the highest the market has seen since November 2008.

Home movers on average borrowed 68% of their home’s value for the second month running, up from the low of 67% seen over the summer. For all house purchasers, the proportion of income needed to cover the mortgage interest was at an all-time low of 10.7% in November.

CML director general Michael Coogan said:

“It is encouraging to see credit criteria becoming a little more liberal for first-time buyers. But the funding and capital constraints on lenders will continue to exert a dampening effect on lending, and criteria are unlikely to loosen substantially.”

Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders (http://www.cml.org.uk)

But Benedict’s not the only authority figure to stamp down on one of the sillier by-products of celebrity culture. The following names have all been banned around the world for reasons of taste, decency or just plain daftness.

1) Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii (New Zealand)
New Zealand law bans names which could cause offence to a ‘reasonable’ person. Good thing too – the country is a stupid name hotspot. We found a couple from the islands who tried and failed to call their son ‘4Real’, but nothing beats the ridiculous moniker above. It belonged to a 9-year-old girl before a judge had her renamed during a custody battle. ‘It makes a fool of the child,’ he said. It certainly made application forms a pain in the butt.

Has New Zealand banned any other names? Oh yes. The judge listed some that were also blocked: Fish and Chips (twins), Yeah Detroit, Keenan Got Lucy and Sex Fruit. Number 16 Bus Shelter and Violence were allowed.

2) Venerdi AKA ‘Friday’ (Italy)
Maybe this is what the Pope was talking about. Back in 2008 a court banned an Italian couple from calling their child Venerdi (translation: Friday). The judges reckoned the name – taken from ‘Robinson Crusoe’ – would expose the boy to ‘mockery’ and was associated with ’subservience and insecurity’. The parents, however, might have the last laugh; they threatened to call their next child Mercoledi (Wednesday).

Has Italy banned any other names? Italian courts can step in ‘when the child’s name is likely to limit social interaction and create insecurity’. In Turin, Andrea was rejected (and changed to Emma) as it’s a boy’s name in Italy. Dalmata has also been rejected, as it means Dalmatian.

3) Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 (Sweden)
No, we didn’t fall asleep on the keyboard. That is an actual name a Swedish couple tried to inflict on their son back in 1996. Apparently the name is pronounced ‘Albin’ (we’re not sure how), and the parents chose it as a protest against Sweden’s admittedly strict naming laws. Tax authorities must give their blessing to both first and surnames before they can be used.

Has Sweden banned any other names? Oh yes. Some favourites include Metallica, IKEA, Veranda and Q. Google was OK though.

4) Gesher AKA ‘Bridge’ (Norway)
Back in 1998 those nasty Norwegians threw a woman in jail (admittedly for only two days) when she failed to pay a fine for giving her son an ‘unapproved’ name. Eccentric Kristi Larsen said she was instructed in a dream to name her son Gesher (Hebrew for ‘Bridge’), but the court were having none of it. Kristi did have 13 children already though, so maybe she had just run out of ideas.

Has Norway banned any other names? Undoubtedly, though in recent times they have replaced their list of officially sanctioned names with a general ban on monikers featuring swearing, sex and illnesses.

5) Chow Tow AKA ‘Smelly Head’ (Malaysia)
Unlike many countries which are gradually relaxing name laws, Malaysian authorities have cracked down on unsuitable titles in recent years. In 2006 government killjoys published a list of undesirable names that weren’t in keeping with the religious traditions of the country – such as Cantonese moniker Chow Tow – which means ‘Smelly Head’.

Has Malaysia banned any other names? Lots more Chinese efforts such as Ah Chwar (‘Snake’), Khiow Khoo (‘Hunchback’), Sor Chai (‘Insane’). Malays should also steer clear of Woti, which means ‘Sexual Intercourse’.

6) @ (China)
With more than a billion fellow countrymen, finding a unique name in China is difficult. Perhaps that’s why one couple called their baby the ‘@’ symbol – in Chinese characters it apparently looks a bit like ‘love him’. Bless. Unsurprisingly, however, the authorities were less sentimental and publicised the moniker as an example of citizens bringing bizarre names into the Chinese language.

Has China banned any other names? The police have control over all names given to children because they issue identity cards, but details of rejections are not widely circulated.

7) Miatt (Germany)
Country living up to stereotype alert! Surprise, surprise the Germans are somewhat officious when it comes to baby naming laws. Regulation-loving Deutschland has an entire department (the Standesamt) which decides if names are suitable. Miatt was rejected because it didn’t clearly show whether the child was a boy or a girl, but sometimes the decisions are somewhat arbitrary…

Has Germany banned any other names? The likes of Stompie, Woodstock and Grammophon were turned down, whereas the similarly strange Speedy, Lafayette and Jazz were allowed.

Anus (Denmark)
What is it about Scandinavian countries and name laws? The Danes are even tougher than the Swedes in this regard, with parents given 7,000-odd names to choose from by the government. Special permission is needed to deviate from the list, with ethnic names, odd spellings and even compound surnames forbidden. Luckily for him (we assume it’s a ‘he’), Anus was one of 250-odd names rejected each year.

Has Denmark banned any other names? Well, Pluto and Monkey had lucky escapes…

9) Ovnis (Portugal)
Before naming your child in Portugal, best consult this mammoth, 80-page government doc (and have it translated to English) that tells you which names you can and can’t use. It’s pretty strict (and random) – Tomás is OK but Tom isn’t – and celebs can forget about the likes of Apple and Brooklyn, which aren’t even on the banned list. Essex girls rejoice, however – Mercedes is allowed!

Has Portugal banned any other names? There are more than 2,000 names on the reject list, including Ovnis – Portuguese for UFO.

10) Akuma AKA Devil (Japan)
Here’s a name the Pope definitely wouldn’t approve of. In 1993 a Japanese parent called his son Akuma (which literally means Devil). The authorities decided this was an abuse of the parent’s rights to decide a child’s name and a lengthy court battle ensued. Eventually the father backed down and junior got a new, less demonic name.

Source: Yahoo Lifestyle

The Law Society and Land Registry have teamed up to issue a warning to property owners after discovering increased levels of of identity and registration frauds this year, the Guardian reports.

Linda Lee, president of the Law Society, said: “Land and buildings are usually the most valuable assets people own. They can be sold and mortgaged to raise money and can therefore be attractive targets for fraudsters.”

She suggested seeking the advice of qualified solicitors who can protect those buying and selling at every step in order to avoid potential pitfalls in property law.

QualitySolicitors Keith Park has a team of experienced conveyancing solicitors who will be able to assist with all aspects of moving home.

Our online tracking service will also allow clients to follow in detail the progress of their property transaction via the internet.