The Working Time (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (the 'Regulations') introduces a temporary change to the Working Time Regulations 1998 which extends the circumstances in which statutory leave can be carried over to subsequent holiday years to include situations where it is not ‘reasonably practicable’ to take leave due to coronavirus. Up to four weeks of holiday is allowed to be carried over for up to two years.

During this pandemic, it is important to proactively manage holiday entitlements so that you are not left short-staffed after the pandemic with lots of staff wanting to take holiday at the same time:

Contact our Employment Team at employment@martinkaye.co.ukor on 01952 525984 for advice and assistance regarding holidays or any other HR matter during this pandemic.

We have been recognised for the third year running for our cyber security. Martin Kaye LLP have received certification for Cyber Essentials by Norm and IASME Consortium. 

Cyber Essentials is a Government-backed scheme supported by the National Cyber Security Centre. The initiative encourages companies and organisations to adopt good practice in the way they use technology, and it protects them against a whole range of the most common cyber-attacks.

As part of the criteria we are required to show –

·         We are committed to using a secure internet connection in our offices

·         Ensure that all our devices and software are secure

·         Control who has access to our data and services

·         Protect our systems from viruses and other malware

·         All our devices and software regularly updated

Mrs Azzopardi-Tudor our Office Manager said, “Our commitment to this scheme and the recognition we have received is a clear indication to our clients and employees that we are constantly working to prevent cyber-attacks and protecting their personal data. This has become more important during the pandemic with staff working from home, in addition the rising risk of cyber-attacks and the threat of increasingly sophisticated cyber-crime, many companies are now choosing to work only with advisors and professional service providers who have been accredited. This recognition assures our clients that we take cyber security seriously, and that we’re continually updating our systems to protect their data at all times.

The accreditation means that Martin-Kaye Solicitors is listed in the recognised Government directory of organisations who have been awarded Cyber Essentials status. So if you’re looking to appoint a law firm that meets the very highest standards of cyber security will find us on the list.

2020 was a very interesting year with limited good news, however this still hasn’t stopped us officially recognising our long serving staff for their dedication and commitment to the practice.

Sarah Mears, Michelle Poulton, Julie Peate, Tina Martin, Sam Azzopardi-Tudor and Fiona Mainwaring have all received long service awards from the Partners.

Partner and Head of HR Alison Carter said their loyal support has been invaluable in the years they have worked for the firm, especially during this pandemic which has seen all staff working differently. We want to express the gratitude of the partners for all their efforts.  We’re a very close-knit team and we believe it’s crucial to recognise the dedication of our staff, and all the work they put in to help ensure the practice runs smoothly and efficiently. It’s an honour to see many of our employees have long and settled careers with us.

Julie Peate received her award for 30 years’ service. Julie is the first member of staff at Martin Kaye to receive this award for this length of service. Julie started with us back in December 1989 when we had offices at Hazledine House.

The Court held that Uber drivers must now be classified as ‘workers’, rather than self-employed individuals, from the time they log on to the app, until they the time they log off, which includes time spent waiting to pick up passengers.

The judgment follows Uber’s appeal to the Supreme Court, after losing three earlier rounds in the Employment Tribunal and the High Court.

The decision means that tens of thousands of Uber drivers are now entitled to certain employment rights such as minimum wage for their entire working day (including 2 years’ back pay, possibly more), 5.6 weeks paid annual leave as well as whistleblowing and related rights. The judgment does not, however, give them ‘employee’ status, and so they do not, for example, have any entitlement to a redundancy payment or to claim unfair dismissal.

The ruling may have a wider effect in threatening Uber’s current business model, and it remains to be seen how this decision will affect gig economy individuals working for competing apps, and the impact in terms of potential claims.

This update has been provided by our Alpha Team. Alpha is our HR and Employment Support Service. To find out how we can help your business call us on 0845 450 1561.

The long-awaited whiplash reforms are set to be implemented on 31^st May 2021. The reforms have been in the pipeline for some time now and were due to come into force in April 2020.

What are whiplash reforms?

Insurance companies have been campaigning for reforms to the current process as they believe that this will reduce the number of low value claims. This in theory would make savings for the insurance companies leading to reductions in insurance premiums for motorists.

The whiplash reforms will be introduced by the Government to modify the way low-value personal injury claims arising from RTAs (road traffic accidents) are managed.

How will the Whiplash reforms impact me?

Currently if your personal injury claim is valued less that £1,000 this will fall into small claims and you are not able to recover legal costs from your opponent. The reform will see an increase to the small claims limit to £5,000 for RTA claims, all other personal injury claims will remain at £1,000.

Under the new reforms for any road traffic accident which occurs on or after 31^st May 2021, your injuries must be valued in excess of £5,000 in order to make a claim with a specialist personal injury solicitor like Martin Kaye Solicitors.

There are some exceptions to the new £5,000 limit in RTA claims. These include:

• Where the Claimant is a child or protected party;
• Where the Claimant was a ’vulnerable road user’, e.g. motorcyclists and pillion/sidecar passengers, cyclists, pedestrians, horse riders and those using mobility scooters;
• Where, on the date proceedings started, the Claimant is an undischarged bankrupt, or the Claimant or Defendant acts as a personal representative of a deceased person; and
• Where, on the date that the accident occurred, the Defendant’s vehicle was registered outside the United Kingdom.

If a case falls into one or more of these categories, the old £1,000 limit will continue to apply and the normal track for the claim will be fast track, which means that individuals will still be able to seek the assistance of a solicitor.

The reform will also see the introduction of tariffs for whiplash injuries lasting less than two years. This will decide how much compensation a person should receive for their whiplash injury and this new system will include all the injuries sustained if the total award is less than £5,000. These tariffs will limit the amount of compensation awarded to Claimants compared to the current system in place. Under the new tariffs, Claimant’s will receive between £235.00 for the shortest period allowed under the tariff and £3,910 for injuries lasting less than two years.

The reform new limit of £5,000, will leave many claimants representing themselves against the third party insurers directly without any legal support.

Any road traffic accidents which occurred on or before the 31st May 2021 will continue under the current process for low-value personal injury claims, and all other accident claims remain unaffected for now. All our initial consultations are free of charge and without obligation, call us directly on 0800 975 6066 to start your claim. We are also able to help with accidents at work or public places.

 In March of this year it was announced that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) had been extended until 30 September 2021.

From 1 July 2021, government contributions will reduce to 70%, (up to a maximum of £2,187.50), for hours not worked by furloughed employees.  To remain eligible to receive this grant, employers will be required to contribute the additional 10% to ensure furloughed employees continue to receive 80% of their wages up to the £2500 cap.   Employers must also continue to pay the employees’ national insurance and pension contributions for the hours the employees are on furlough.

Employers can continue to ‘top up’, at their own expense, employees’ wages above the 80% total and £2,500 cap for the hours not worked.

In order to be eligible for the CJRS grant, employers must have confirmed to their employee in a written furlough agreement that they have been furloughed, when their period of furlough shall begin and how much they are likely to be paid.

At Martin Kaye Solicitors, our Employment Team have been successfully supporting businesses throughout the Coronavirus pandemic.  If you would like further guidance on the scheme or require up to date “furlough agreements”, then please call the team on 01952 566920 or email us atemployment@martinkaye.co.uk.

From 1 August 2021, government contributions will reduce to 60%, (up to a maximum of £2,187.50), for hours not worked by furloughed employees.  To continue receiving this grant, employers will be required to contribute the additional 20% to ensure furloughed employees continue to receive 80% of their wages up to the £2500 cap.   Employers must also continue to pay the employees’ national insurance and pension contributions for the hours the employees are on furlough.

In order to be eligible for the CJRS grant, employers must have confirmed to their employee in a written furlough agreement that they have been furloughed, when their period of furlough shall begin and how much they are likely to be paid.

At Martin Kaye Solicitors, our Employment Team have been successfully supporting businesses throughout the Coronavirus pandemic.  If you would like further guidance on the scheme, require up to date “furlough agreements”, or would like to discuss the options your business may have once furlough has ended, then please call the team on 01952 566920 or email us atemployment@martinkaye.co.uk.

Although government guidelines have changed our company policy is that face coverings must be worn when entering our reception area and during face to face meetings. Our priority is the health and wellbeing of both our staff / their families and our clients while at the same time continuing to maintain a normal level of service to our clients. We are reviewing and monitoring the situation continuously.

 

This autumn will see an increase in costs for family law fees.

Sana Saddique, Head of Family at Martin Kaye explains the changes and how this could impact you. For the first time in 5 years we are seeing an increase in many fee’s associated with the legal process across a number of areas –

·         Divorce court fee was £550 but is increasing to £593.

·         Child arrangements applications were £215 but increasing to £232.

·         Application’s for a financial order was £255 but increasing to £275.

·         Financial agreed order was £50 but increasing to £53.

Clients who are on a low income or in receipt of eligible benefits can still apply for a fee remission which, if accepted, means they may be exempt from paying the Court fee at all.

On a general basis they must:

·         have less than £3,000 savings and

·         be either in receipt for eligible benefits (proof needs to be provided)

or

·     earning less than £1,085 if they are a single parent. If they are a single parent they can account for an additional £245 for each child they have care of in addition to the threshold of £1,085

Sana also explains that next year will see a change to the “Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Bill” which you will have seen referred to as “no blame divorces”.

The hope is that by removing blame or the facts as to why the relationship has broken down, couples can avoid unnecessary conflict which in turn will make getting divorced and separation faster, less costly, and more amicable and reduce potential stress.  Changes are also being made to the terminology used ‘decree nisi’ will change to ‘conditional order’ and  ‘decree absolute’ will change to ‘final order”. We see this as a positive change to Family Law and we will continue to update you on the changes.

If you need advice on family matters, Sana can be contacted on 01952 525922 or by email sanasaddique@martinkaye.co.uk

The Highway Code introduces some major changes which came into effect on 29^th January 2022.

Many of the changes formalise basic driving rules/guidance and will ultimately protect vulnerable road users.

The new rules promote and improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders – priority will have to be given to pedestrians who are waiting to cross a road. Currently, vehicles have priority of way at junctions but the new rules require drivers to give way to pedestrians instead.

The Highway Code will also introduce changes which will prevent drivers from cutting across cyclists going straight, when they are turning at junctions. This will mean a driver cannot overtake a cyclist and turn at a junction and must wait behind the cyclist if they are cycling straight ahead. This is irrespective of whether the cyclist is in a cycle lane. Cyclist will also be able, to cycle in the centre lane to make themselves more visible.

Let’s all keep our roads safe for all users, if you are involved in an accident or require advice regarding personal injury, you can all our team on 0800 975 6066.

Our staff at Martin Kaye have always been keen supporters of both local and national charities taking part in everything from dress down days to fun runs. This year we have decided to do things a little differently.

At the beginning of the year we asked our staff to nominate a charity that they would like Martin Kaye to raise money for during 2022. Our next step was to randomly pick 3 charities one for each of our offices, we are pleased to announce our charities for 2022 –

·         Juvenile Diabetes Fund – JDRF – Telford  - https://jdrf.org.uk/

·         Lingen Davies – Shrewsbury - https://www.lingendavies.co.uk/

·         Midlands Air Ambulance – Wolverhampton  - https://www.midlandsairambulance.com/

We also appointed Emma Prescott as our first Charity Ambassador for Martin Kaye. This role will see Emma liaising with the charities, organising the staff for the events as well as taking part. Our dress down days return on 29^th April after lockdown saw many of our staff working from home.

Our first charity event is for Lingen Davies on 2^ndApril 2022 at Sansaw Estate. Our staff will be taking part in a non-competitive 5k Shrewsbury Colour Run and will either be walking, jumping, skipping or hopping around the course. Our staff taking part are Emma Prescott, Sam Azzopardi-Tudor, George Heron, Lily Hathaway, Mary Minns, Sian Barlow and Lindsay Knowles.

Lingen Davies are now halfway to raising £50k towards a new CT scanner and we hope that our support can help them reach this target. If you would like make a donation you can visit our Just Giving page -  https://tinyurl.com/2vj59mkp

With more events planned for later this year, don’t forget to pop back and see how we are doing.

2021 was another interesting year as we all learnt to adjust to the ongoing pandemic. However this still hasn’t stopped us officially recognising our long serving staff for their dedication and commitment to the practice.

Michelle Millward, Gemma Workman, Wendy Pullar, Helen Golding and June Noto have all received long service recognition from the Partners.

Partner and Head of HR Alison Carter said their loyal support has been invaluable in the years they have worked for the firm, especially the last few years which has seen all staff working differently. We want to express the gratitude of the partners for all their efforts over the years.  We’re a close-knit team at Martin Kaye and we believe it’s crucial to recognise the dedication of our staff, and all the work they put in to help ensure the practice runs smoothly and efficiently. It’s an honour to see many of our employees have long and settled careers with us.

From our Private Property team are Michelle Millward celebrating 25 years and Wendy Pullar 20 years’ service. From our Commercial team are June Noto celebrating 20 years and Gemma Workman 5 years’ service. Finally Helen Golding from our Finance team also celebrating 5 years’ service with us.

Martin-Kaye Solicitors began in 1985 with just three members of staff and in the decades that have followed, the independent practice has become one of the largest legal firms with offices in Telford, Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton.