Wrigley Claydon Solicitors

Category: Litigation & Disputes

  • Driving while pregnant

    Driving while pregnant

    If you are pregnant and drive a vehicle, you may want to take heed of the recent research conducted by a Canadian Institute. The recent study of more than 500,000 women over six years investigated the risk of accidents both before and during pregnancy.

    Their research concluded that regrettably, pregnancy led to an increase in the chances of the pregnant woman having a vehicle accident. According to the research, women are 42% more likely to be involved in an accident while pregnant, especially during the second trimester.

    Predominantly the cause was fatigue and nausea. Surges in hormones and lack of sleep can mean that pregnant women are less alert at the wheel, or distracted from the road by aches, pains or sickness. Interestingly, by the third trimester, the risk begins to decrease. Experts put this down to more visible changes with the body, and an increased awareness that they need to treat their body with care. Dr. Redelmeier, a population epidemiologist at the University of Toronto noted, “In that second trimester, women are feeling really good. It contributes to that false sense of security. They’re rushing around to get things done before the baby comes.”

    Unfortunately we have acted for a number of women who were pregnant at that time they were involved in a road traffic accident. The pain that the pregnant woman experienced was nothing compared to the psychological trauma they underwent until they had an emergency scan and were certain that their unborn child was unharmed by the accident. However, not all women are this lucky, as car crashes are the leading cause of foetal death linked to trauma in mothers. Car accidents while pregnant can cause intense physical, emotional and psychological damage – and can often be avoided.

    Of course, not all of these accidents were the fault of the pregnant woman, and the study doesn’t mean that pregnant women shouldn’t drive. As Dr. Redelmeier notes, even at their worst, women are statistically better drivers than men of the same age. It is the responsibility of everyone on the road to ensure accidents like this don’t happen.

    However if you are pregnant, it is important to be aware of the results of this study, and take extra measures to protect yourself and your unborn child when you ‘squeeze’ behind the wheel of your vehicle. If you begin to feel drowsy or nauseous while driving, pull over as soon as you can, and never force yourself to drive anywhere if you’re not feeling alert enough to do so. Continue to wear your seat belt, and drive extra cautiously to prevent collisions with other drivers.

    If you have been unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident while pregnant, car accident compensation Manchester solicitors Wrigley Claydon can help.  Call our personal injury team on 0161 624 6811 or use our ‘Make a Claim’ form.
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  • Motor Insurance Law

    Motor Insurance Law

    Following the case of Vnuk v Triglav in Slovenia in autumn 2014, motor insurance law is set to change in regards to vehicles driven solely on private property which may now need to be covered by motor insurance.

    The case saw the claimant, farm worker Mr Vnuk, sustain injury when he fell from a ladder after it was hit by a tractor reversing a trailer into the barn to collect the hay bales that Mr Vnuk was organising. Mr Vnuk sought compensation for his injuries from the driver’s insurers but was unsuccessful. They argued that the tractor was insured for use as a road vehicle, and not as a machine on the farm, as outlined in the European Directive of Motor Insurance. The case was appealed and referred to the European Court of Justice to determine if the duty to insure “the use of vehicles” under European Law was relevant in this instance.

    The CJEU ruled motor vehicle “use” covers “any use of a vehicle that is consistent with the normal function of that vehicle”. A tractor manoeuvring on a farm yard was deemed to meet this definition.

    In the UK the European Directive is interpreted by the Road Traffic Act 1988. Here it states third party motor insurance is limited to “the use of the vehicle on a road or other public place”. There is no requirement to insure your vehicle if it is used only on private land, such as the tractor on the farm yard in the Vnuk case. Should an accident occur on private land, those injured are excluded from the compensation guarantee.

    The ruling by the CJEU means that UK motor insurance law must now implement the new definition and no longer be limited to situations where the vehicle is being used on a road or other public place. There must be a policy of insurance in place to cover any vehicle for any use providing that the use is consistent with the normal function of the vehicle.

    If you are an employee, like Mr Vnuk, or a member of the public and have sustained injury by a vehicle on private or public land, our personal injury solicitors can offer you impartial advice and help you seek compensation.

    Call us on 0161 624 6811 or use our online contact form and one of our team will get back to you.
  • Resolving Neighbour Disputes

    Resolving Neighbour Disputes

    There are no set guidelines or definition of a neighbour dispute. This is because the issues can be so varied and circumstances so individual. Here we highlight some of the more common neighbour disputes and what can be done about them…

    Common neighbour disputes

    Access to land (for repairs) – the property’s legal documents may include a ‘right to entry’ for this purpose, in which case, the neighbour must grant you access to their property/land. If no right exists and no agreement can be made, you can apply for an access order from the County Court. There is a fee for this application and we advise that you consult us at this point so we can assist you with your submission.

    Shared amenities (for access and repairs) – where multiple properties share facilities; drains, pipes, drives, gardens, paths, roofs etc usage rights and maintenance responsibility can be found in the property’s legal documents. Neighbour consent should be sought at each stage of any work. Where no agreement exists, it’s advisable to agree (formally) in advance to share the cost of maintenance and repairs between owners. A County Court access order can applied for again in this instance if needs be.

    Boundaries – see our previous article about Boundary Disputes.

    Fences/barriers – the existence of fences and barriers is not mandatory on most residential property. Where it does exist, use and repair is down to the owner. Evidence of ownership should be in the property’s legal documents or even receipts of purchase. The owner can do with the fences or barriers as they wish (so long as it doesn’t encroach on the neighbour’s property or land) without the neighbour’s consent. As the owner of said fences and/or barriers, you have no obligation to repair them, unless stated in the title deeds of the property, however you should be careful to avoid antagonising your neighbours or causing a nuisance by not repairing them. Barriers next to a street should be kept in good repair to avoid danger and/or injury to the public for which court action could be taken against you.

    Party walls – if you want to do any structural work to a wall which supports another property, you must notify your neighbour.

    Children/ball games – if damage to your property results from the action of a neighbour’s child you must speak to the parents in the first instance to resolve the matter. It could be that the parent is the one liable for any repair work. If a ball ends up on your property you should allow access to retrieve it or give it back yourself. The ball arriving there is trespass and you could be entitled to compensation for any damage it may have caused.

    Noise – if you have noisy neighbours you should speak them in the first instance. If it continues you can contact their landlord if they are a tenant, the local authority or even the police. You should also keep a diary of the nuisance. If it persists, Environmental Health may become involved.

    Parking – you have no rights to park in a particular space on a public road, it is just that, public and anyone my park outside your property whether you like it or not. However, you must always have access to your drive, even a shared one. A vehicle parked illegally which is blocking this access can be removed by your local authority or the police.

    Trees/hedges – you can ask your neighbour to prune back to the boundary any trees on their property that infringes yours, and visa versa. Your local authority has certain rights to do this if you/your neighbour refuses and they can reclaim the costs from the owner. Similarly, if tree roots are (or may) causing damage to a property, you can ask the owner for access to remove them. This is more important than it sounds as roots could cause damage to your property and result in issues with buildings insurance.

    What to do about neighbour disputes

    There are many courses of action you can take when dealing with neighbour disputes. All start with speaking to your neighbour first and trying to reach an agreement between yourselves. This is the quickest, least expensive and least stressful option. Next step is to contact the landlord if your neighbour is a tenant. Your local authority or council is the next port of call. Their planning department is the one you need for property disputes. The police can be informed in the last instance if all other methods have failed or in particularly severe cases. Abusive or discriminatory disputes should always be referred to the police.

    We suggest you speak to our civil litigation team as soon as you can see communication with your neighbour is turning sour. Our specialist neighbour dispute solicitors can advise you on the appropriate course of action and assist with any legal documents or proceedings that may occur.

    Please call the Oldham office on 0161 624 6811. You can reach the neighbour disputes Todmorden team on 01706 815 712. You can use our online enquiry form if you prefer and one of our team will get back to you.
  • Flight Compensation

    Flight Compensation

    As the holiday season takes off and millions of holidaymakers take to the skies over the summer months for the annual family holiday, a change in the law could see many benefit from the ultimate holiday stress-maker, flight delays.

    Passengers hit by long delays due to technical faults with planes will be entitled to claim compensation following a landmark court ruling after the Supreme Court refused an appeal by Jet2.com Limited.

    Airlines avoided paying out if the jet had a mechanical or electrical problem by arguing it amounted to ‘extraordinary circumstances’ beyond their control. It was held that technical faults do not count as events beyond the airline’s control – unlike terrorism, strikes, air traffic control problems and freak weather. The decision has opened the floodgates to compensation claims dating back six years.

    Under the current compensation regime, which applies across the EU, you can make a claim if a flight has been delayed for at least three hours and the airline has no legitimate excuse.

    Just how much you can claim depends on the length of the journey, rising from 250 euros (£201) per person on short haul flights to a maximum of 600 euros (£483).

    If you suffered a delay to your flight due to a technical fault then Wrigley Claydon can help you obtain flight compensation that you deserve. Please call us on 0161 624 6811 to speak to a specialist.
  • Boundary Disputes

    Boundary Disputes

    According to gov.uk “most land in England and Wales is registered with general boundaries”. This is the responsibility of the Land Registry who draw up a ‘title plan’ (an official sketch) of any property that is registered with them. This is stored and made available on request.

    Some property owners choose to have more exact boundary information drawn up. This can help avoid any future neighbour or boundary disputes. If you are buying a property your conveyancing solicitor should be able to advise you of any possible boundary disputes, giving you the opportunity to ask the seller for more detail of the parameters of the property. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) also advises that you speak to your (new) neighbours to identify exact boundary positions and responsibility for maintaining them.

    If you find yourself caught up in a boundary dispute this can be costly, upsetting and stressful. Common disputes are over fence boundaries. No laws exist about which side of the fence, wall or hedge you and your neighbour are responsible for. This is why we suggest following the RICS advice and draw up an agreement with your neighbours, before any dispute arises.

    If an issue does crop up there are a number of ways to resolve it. In the first instance you should try to talk to your neighbour to come to an agreement. The next step would be to contact us at Wrigley Claydon. We will advise you of the resolution methods available to you such as mediation.

    At Wrigley Claydon we can assist you with any legal action relating to boundary disputes. Our civil litigation team are experienced at handling these types of cases and can act on your behalf should the case proceed to the Courts. They will explain the steps involved, discuss likely outcomes with you as well as injunctions and damages you can or cannot expect.

    Please call the Oldham office on 0161 624 6811. You can reach the Todmorden boundary disputes team on 01706 815 712. You can use our online enquiry form if you prefer and one of our team will get back to you.
  • No Blurred Lines in latest high profile copyright case

    No Blurred Lines in latest high profile copyright case

    Blurred Lines songwriters – Pharrell Williams, TI and Robin Thicke – have been ordered to pay Marvin Gaye’s family more than $7m in damages for the infringement upon the copyright of Marvin Gaye’s 1977 song Got To Give It Up.

    The lawyers for Marvin Gaye’s family now also want to stop sales of the song and are to ask the Court for an injunction until a settlement can be reached as to how future royalties from the song will be shared.

    How Wrigley Claydon copyright solicitors can help you

    If you have a brand, something you have invented, or an original piece of work that you have written and someone infringes your rights, please contact us. The Commercial Litigation and copyright solicitors at Wrigley Claydon can help by securing an injunction, compensation or recover profits made by the infringement and the return and destruction of the offending item.

    If you have been accused of infringing someone’s intellectual property rights then we can also help by raising various defences and minimising your liability.

    Call either our copyright solicitors Oldham office on 0161 624 6811 or our Todmorden office on 01706 815 712. You can also email one of the Commercial Litigation team, Vijay Srivastava or Shalish Mehta.
  • Advice from our contract dispute solicitors

    Advice from our contract dispute solicitors

    Contract disputes can be extremely complicated and involve large sums of money. The latest high profile dispute concerned Rory McIlroy; the world’s No. 1 golfer, where his lawyers claimed he had been taken advantage of by his agents by signing his contract at a Christmas party in surroundings of “great informality”.

    The case could have taken up to eight weeks in Court however, the case was eventually settled by negotiation.

    If you need advice and help with your contract dispute, please contact us.

    At Wrigley Claydon, we can help you achieve a negotiated settlement, thereby avoiding Court. If a settlement cannot be achieved then we will guide you through the process from start to finish and aim to alleviate the stress and anxiety of court proceedings. We are specialists contract dispute solicitors and have won complex cases for our clients.

    Please contact our contract dispute solicitors on 0161 624 6811 or 01706 815 712.
  • Intellectual property advice from your commercial litigation solicitor

    Intellectual property advice from your commercial litigation solicitor

    Commercial disputes come in all shapes and sizes, from contract and property disputes, mergers, acquisitions and litigation to debt collection, employment issues, licensing and intellectual property.

    The issue of intellectual property can be a confusing one. Every business will own some form of intellectual property and protecting this is imperative.

    What is intellectual property?

    According to the Intellectual Property Office, intellectual property is something unique that you physically create – an idea alone is not intellectual property. They give the example of a book – an idea for a book is not intellectual property, but the words you’ve written are. Other examples are:

    • the names of your products or brands
    • your inventions
    • the design or look of your products
    • things you write, make or produce

    Copyright, patents, designs and trade marks are all types of intellectual property protection. By having the right type of protection you can stop people stealing or copying your work, reducing the risk of commercial dispute and the need for legal action. A commercial litigation solicitor can help advise you on intellectual property ownership and the appropriate type of protection.

    Intellectual property ownership

    Again, the Intellectual Property Office tells us you own intellectual property if you:

    • created it (and it meets the requirements for copyright, a patent or a design)
    • bought intellectual property rights from the creator or a previous owner
    • have a brand that could be a trade mark, eg a well-known product name

    Interestingly, intellectual property can have more than one owner, belong to people or businesses and be sold or transferred. If you are employed and created something as part of your job, you usually won’t own the intellectual property to this piece of work. This will belong to your employer. Exceptions might exist if you are a freelance worker, depending on your contact agreement and terms & conditions.  If a business is bought or sold, intellectual property ownership can also be sold or transferred as part of that exchange.

    If you have a dispute about your intellectual property, please speak one of our commercial litigation solicitors.  They are specialist intellectual property dispute resolution and litigation solicitors. They can assist you pursuing or defending a claim in matters relating to trademarks, trade marks overseas, patents, copyright, designs, confidential information, licensing your intellectual property, franchising and enforcement.

    If you feel your intellectual property rights have been infringed and need some legal advice then please speak to Vijay Srivastava or Shalish Mehta, our civil and commercial litigation solicitors.  Please call us on 0161 785 3534.
  • Knowing your consumer rights this Christmas

    Knowing your consumer rights this Christmas

    With Christmas shopping and present wrapping in full swing (or hopefully for many of you, now complete), next comes the gift giving, and returning…..

    We’ve all been there. We’ve all given or received an unwanted present at some point and been forced to join the long queue at the returns desk. But do you have a right to your money back?  The list of terms and conditions and the small print on store receipts and websites can be confusing. Here’s our short guide to knowing your UK consumer rights this Christmas.

    Every time you buy something you make a contract with the seller. This contract is known as your basic statutory rights. Both you and the other party agree to terms and conditions. The seller has agreed to provide your ‘statutory rights’. These are legal rights that apply to all shops and retail outlets which they cannot change.

    Under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 goods must be as described, of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose.

    As described = an item must do, or be made of the material(s), the advertisement or label states.

    Of satisfactory quality = in a legal context this means goods must be in a state that you – or any other reasonable person – would think was acceptable.

    Fit for purpose = an item must be able to fulfill the function it was intend for.

    If goods you’ve bought don’t match up to this criteria, the retailer is in breach of contract and you have a claim under the Sale of Goods Act. UK consumers have a legal “right to reject” faulty goods and get a full refund if you return it to the place of purchase, within a reasonable time after purchase – usually three to four weeks.

    Shops are under no obligation to take back goods that aren’t faulty, just because you’ve changed your mind. The exceptions to this are buying on the internet, mail order or financial agreements, when you usually have cancellation rights. Many high street shops however, offer returns policies allowing you to take back whatever you want within a set period of time (generally 28 days) and receive a refund, credit note or exchange.

    When it comes to returning gifts that are unsuitable, the rules change again. Remember the contract we mentioned earlier? This is between the buyer (whoever paid for the goods) and the seller. If you pass on the goods and the recipient chooses to return it, they technically have no rights. Again, many stores are lenient to this and offer gift receipts on the run up to Christmas for exactly this purpose.

    There are many other specifics and varying terms and conditions that apply when purchasing certain goods, and consumer rights in relation to services are different again.

    If you feel you have been mistreated or had your statutory rights denied and need some legal advice then please speak to Vijay Srivastava or Shalish Mehta, our civil litigation specialists. Please call us on 0161 785 3534.
  • New rights for consumers against misleading and aggressive commercial practices

    New rights for consumers against misleading and aggressive commercial practices

    A new set of rights for victims of misleading and aggressive commercial practices came into force on 1st October 2014. Whilst it has been an offence for businesses to use these kinds of tactics since 2008, there has been no recompense for consumers who feel they have been victims.

    The Consumer Protection Regulations 2014 give consumers new rights to take civil actions to try and get compensation on goods or services received on or after 1st October.

    A misleading commercial practice is one which contains false information, or is likely to deceive the average consumer in its overall presentation. An example might be the promise of certain benefits from buying a particular product or service that are in fact false, download speeds of an Internet provider for example.

    An aggressive commercial practice is one which significantly impairs the consumer’s freedom of choice through the use of harassment, coercion or undue influence. A pushy door-to-door salesman who convinces a vulnerable person to sign up for a product or service they do not need by using unfair language and persuasive tactics is an example.

    According to the Department for Business Innovation & Skills the new rights will introduce:

    • a new 90 day period for victims to get out of a contract. Beyond this period consumers will still be able to get a discount on the price paid, as much as 100% depending on the actions of the trader. At present there is no right to a discount. Consumers can currently seek damages in the civil courts but it is extremely complex
    • a right to damages for any additional losses or stress suffered as a result of the actions of the trader
    • a brand new right to take personal action through the civil court for misleading or aggressive demands for payment, for example aggressive or misleading debt collection. At present there is no legislative right for consumers to do this

    Consumer Affairs Minister Jo Swinson said:

    The vast majority of businesses treat consumers fairly and provide a great service. However, a few bad apples have damaged the reputation of good business, broken the law and treated customers as a cash cow.

    This is why we are providing consumers with new powers to challenge rogue businesses and giving people the confidence to take action when they have been bullied or misled.

    If anyone thinks they’ve been bullied or misled into buying something the best thing to do is try and sort the issue out directly with the company and if that doesn’t work then contact Citizens Advice on 08444 111 444. They are an excellent source of advice and guidance.

    For more information or to speak to a civil litigation solicitor please call us on 0161 785 3534.