Irwin Mitchell and Criminal Defence

Sometimes, you or someone you know will be taken into custody by the police and held at the police station. In these situations, getting vital legal assistance is important and even time sensitive. Irwin Mitchell can help in these situations. They have lawyers on staff that can be contacted at any time. They understand that arrests can occur outside of working hours therefore they make themselves readily available.

Irwin Mitchell’s criminal defense lawyers can be with you from the start of your case. They have a great deal of experience with all aspects of a case including the investigation, arrests, charge and summons. They have represented many clients and have earned an excellent reputation. They help their clients seek the best possible outcome.

Contacting a criminal lawyer at Irwin Mitchell as early in the process as possible is key. This might include at the time of arrest or when released on bail. They can provide advice and provide representation in court if needed. Irwin Mitchell lawyers do their best to get the charges dropped and avoid further legal action.

In some situations, police will try to interview a suspect under caution. These interviews can occur on one’s consent or if the individual is under arrest. If it a very wise idea to obtain a lawyer’s services to prepare for this interview. Also, many lawyers like to be present for the interview. Keep in mind not only the police can conduct interviews under caution: other agencies can do as well. Again, having legal representation is important. Hiring a lawyer from Irwin Mitchell will provide you with advice as when a question should be answer. It also provides advice for when the question should not be answered and a person’s right to silence invoked. The criminal defense lawyers at Irwin Mitchell have been involved with many similar cases and can help out immensely.

For more information about the vast array of services offered by Irwin Mitchell, and want to learn about their role as personal injury solicitors in Manchester then visit www.irwinmitchell.com.

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Posted December 21st, 2011 in Uncategorized |

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Conveyancing update

The Conveyancing Quality Scheme

38 firms in the North West are now able to boast that they have the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) accreditation, which is an important new standard introduced this year.

The CQS demonstrates that a law firm has been carefully vetted by the Law society not only for competence but also that systems are of a high standard, so as to reassure clients of high quality advice and service. Monitoring and checks, including spot checks continue for all firms achieving the standard.

For more property law advice, visit some other pages on our site such as here or alternatively here.

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Posted June 23rd, 2011 in Uncategorized, property law |

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If You Need to Get Plastered – Ask Your Landlord

When it comes to repair obligations under a lease, most of the respective obligations of landlord and tenant are clear. Occasionally, however, something crops up for which responsibility isn’t clear; and then, the scene is set for a dispute.

 
Recently, the Court of Appeal had to decide just such a dispute. It dealt with a simple question – ‘If a landlord is responsible for the walls of a property, is it also responsible for the plaster on the walls? ‘
 
The question was raised by a tenant who had systemic damp problems in the property he rented and who wanted to force the landlord to take remedial action.
 
The Court ruled conclusively that in such circumstances the responsibility for maintaining the plasterwork on the walls lies with the landlord.
 
 
Grand v Gill [2011] EWCA Civ 554

Posted June 20th, 2011 in Uncategorized |

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Prosecution HIghlights Need for Risk Assessment and Control

A plant hire company has been fined £7,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,000 following an accident on a building site in which an excavator bucket filled with concrete fell off the arm of the machine supplied by the company and crushed the site foreman to death.

The plant hire firm and the man who was operating the excavator when the accident occurred were both convicted of breaches of health and safety legislation. The operator was fined £700 and ordered to pay costs of £1,000. The main contractor, which has now entered administration, also faces charges for having failed adequately to plan, manage and monitor the construction workand failing to take reasonably practicable steps that would have prevented the accident.
 
The accident happened because of the failure to insert a ‘safety pin’ necessary to enable the bucket to be locked to the arm of the excavator.
 
The plant hire company was convicted on the grounds that it ‘did not have a suitable regime of inspection for the plant it hired out to ensureDiggers safety conditions were maintained’ and that it had ‘also supplied the eq uipment without adequate safety warning signs, written information and instruc tions or CE marking’. The company had also neglected to ensure the attachments supplied with the excavator were maintained in an efficient state, working order and in good repair.
 
The operator had failed to take adequate care when positioning the bucket.
When an accident could easily have been avoided, as in this case, the HSE often spreads the net of blame widely. It is important for those with health and safety responsibilities to be aware of the scope of their duties. Whilst an error may appear to be mainly the fault of one person, ‘liability creep’ can easily occur unless careful risk assessment and minimisation procedures are in place.
 

 

Posted June 18th, 2011 in Commercial Litigation |

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Scaffold Fall Brings Compensation

Scaffolding on buildingScaffolding is a big risk when it comes to health and safety law and personal injury and there are hundreds of accidents each yera which are prevantable in this araea.
Often the problem arises simply due to rushing as in this case in question a 45 year-old man lost his balance on scaffolding as a ladder leading up the scaffolding was not properly secure.
The injury could have been much more severe as falls from relatively low heights do regularly result in very bad injuries and even death, but this was far from a minor injury as the victim suffered a ruptured knee and was absent from work for 8 months as a result.
The man made a personal injury claim against his employer. Liability for the accident was admitted and the compensation payout amounted to  £44,000.

If you have been injured at work through no fault of your own, you could be entitled to compensation. Contact us for advice on making a claim.

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Posted June 17th, 2011 in Uncategorized |

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Home on the Farm Policy to Tackle Rural Housing

Village HouseThe availability of affordable housing in rural areas has been a problem for many years, with young people often having to move away in order to find employment that will enable them to get on the housing ladder.

 
Such housing as is available in the countryside is often bought as holiday or weekend homes by people from outside the area, keeping the cost of housing unaffordable for those employed locally and, in some cases, causing the creation of ‘ghost villages’; which are virtually deserted a lot of the time, especially on weekdays in the winter. The effect on the local retail economy can also be devastating.
 
In a bid to combat these issues, the Government has suggested that councils in rural areas consider changing their planning policies to allow unused farm buildings to be converted to use for residential purposes, rather than insisting that they only be used as farm buildings.

This idea is part of the 'Home on the Farm' scheme, the aim of which is to turn unused farm buildings into affordable housing. It is hoped that young families will thereby be able to remain in their local communities, rather than having to move to cities to find housing.

The Government hopes to adopt the scheme nationally. It has been outlined in the Government's response to the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee's report into farming in England's upland areas.

Posted June 16th, 2011 in Uncategorized |

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Half a Million Face Offshore Cash Probes

Hotel Pool 2HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) claim that they have been informed of half a million people who hold cash in offshore tax havens…indicating that the stashing of cash in low-tax areas is a pastime of the middle classes as well as the wealthy.

 
The discovery has led HRMC to increase their estimate of the potential tax yield to ‘billions of pounds’. The information has been obtained through a series of information-sharing agreements between HMRC and foreign tax authorities and includes information from banks and ‘whistleblowers’.
 
HMRC offered a series of amnesties for taxpayers to ‘come clean’ about such accounts in exchange for beneficial treatment by tax inspectors, but it would appear that their entreaties have been largely ignored.
 
Recently, a whistleblower based in Geneva gave HMRC the names of 7,000 UK customers who collectively hold some £13 billion in accounts in Switzerland.
 
The information received to date has led to many raids by HMRC officers and eight arrests.
 
A specialist unit is being set up by HMRC to investigate those with undeclared offshore assets and those who seem to have lifestyles which cannot be financed by their disclosed income.

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Posted June 16th, 2011 in Uncategorized |

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Prize Scam Resurfaces

We recently ran a news item dealing with the successful prosecution of firms running bogus ‘prize draws’ which promised prizes to people. The catch being that the procedure which had to be followed in order to claim a ‘prize’ cost several pounds.
 
The prizes allocated to most ‘winners’ were of far less value than the payments made to the organisers and the scheme was designed to yield a good profit for them. The Office of Fair Trading successfully prosecuted the organisers and it was hoped that this would be the end of this type of scam.
 
Regrettably, the scam is back, offering prizes as before, but with a subtle twist. Now, the procedure requires you to apply for a ‘claim number’ (to see if you qualify for a prize) at a cost of at least £9.
 
The scheme is clearly designed to run at a profit for the organisers and is based at a very similar address to that of the companies prosecuted earlier in the year.
 
The OFT have been informed. If you have relatives who might be inclined to enter such prize draws, it is worth having a word of warning with them.
 

Posted June 15th, 2011 in Uncategorized |

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Expert Report Disclosable, Says Court of Appeal

Sometimes, people tell you things you don’t want to hear. When the person doing the telling is an expert witness you have instructed, problems can result.

 
In court proceedings in which an expert witness report is needed, unless a ‘single joint expert‘ is appointed, each party to the dispute will appoint its own expert. In practice, this is normally organised by the solicitor, who informs the other parties to the dispute who the expert will be.
 
Although it may seem perverse, when an expert witness is instructed by the firm representing you, the witness is not ‘your witness’ because the expert owes a duty to the court to prepare a report that is fair and free of bias.
 
Accordingly, it is by no means unusual for the expert’s report to come as something of a disappointment. When this occurs, there is something of a dilemma.
 
Until the expert’s report is used in proceedings, it is a legally privileged document and the ‘other side’ cannot demand it is disclosed. Accordingly, one option is simply not to disclose the report.
 
Another option is to obtain a second report in the hope that it will be more to one’s liking. However, the problem with this approach, as confirmed by a recent case in the Court of Appeal, is that once the decision is made to use the second report and it is disclosed, the Court can order the disclosure of the first report.
 
The appointment and use of experts is a matter requiring considerable knowledge and experience. We can assist you in the effective pursuit of any legal claim or litigation.

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Posted June 14th, 2011 in Uncategorized |

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Land Scam Firms Closed Down

Stone wallA scam which traded on the greed of the gullible has been closed down by the the Financial Services Authority (FSA) after nearly £4 million was ‘invested’ by people seeking returns promised to be between 200-300 per cent.

 
The ostensible investments were small plots of land that it was claimed would be sold at tremendous profits. Normally these were presented as being potential ‘ransom strips’, areas of land which would have to be acquired for large property developments to go ahead.
 
These were never likely to achieve the values claimed. Indeed, one site being marketed is in a designated area of outstanding natural beauty, making planning permission for development a near impossibility.
 
After making a series of injunctions against so-called ‘landbank’ companies, the FSA has started to issue winding-up proceedings against them
 
However, because the businesses were unauthorised investment schemes, investors are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and are unlikely to get their money back. An FSA spokesman commented that ‘by the time we can catch up with the operators, most of the money has disappeared and investors are left with land that has a value which simply does not reflect the money paid for it’.
 
If an investment opportunity seems too good to be true, it is normally because it is not true.
 
 
 
A scam which traded on the greed of the gullible has been closed down by the the Financial Services Authority (FSA) after nearly £4 million was ‘invested’ by people seeking returns promised to be between 200-300 per cent.
 
The ostensible investments were small plots of land that it was claimed would be sold at tremendous profits. Normally these were presented as being potential ‘ransom strips’, areas of land which would have to be acquired for large property developments to go ahead.
 
These were never likely to achieve the values claimed. Indeed, one site being marketed is in a designated area of outstanding natural beauty, making planning permission for development a near impossibility.
 
After making a series of injunctions against so-called ‘landbank’ companies, the FSA has started to issue winding-up proceedings
Trading Estate form the Air
against them
 
However, because the businesses were unauthorised investment schemes, investors are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and are unlikely to get their money back. An FSA spokesman commented that ‘by the time we can catch up with the operators, most of the money has disappeared and investors are left with land that has a value which simply does not reflect the money paid for it’.
 
If an investment opportunity seems too good to be true, it is normally because it is not true.

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Posted June 13th, 2011 in General, Trusts Wills and Probate |

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