Latest News

Legal 500 of leading Lawyers in the UK for 2010 - 11/11/2010

We are delighted that Tony Philpott our Employment specialist has been listed in the Legal 500 of leading Lawyers in the UK for 2010.

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Silver Shemmings welcome Julie Haigh on board - 09/07/2010

We are delighted to annouce that Julie Haigh has joined us as a Consultant working out of our Cardiff office. Julie specialises in Commercial Property and Land Law aswell as the specialist area of Maritime Law.

Julie can be contacted on 02920 474 570 or alternatively by email at jah@shemmingsllp.co.uk

Congratulations to Robert Shawyer, Partner - 30/04/2010

Congratulations to Robert Shawyer, the Partner based at our Cardiff office, who has become a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Robert already acts as an Arbitrator in disputes including construction claims and can be contacted at our Cardiff office on 02920 474 570 or alternatively by email at rjs@shemmingsllp.co.uk

What should a driving at work policy cover? - 22/04/2010

Road accidents happen everyday but up to a third are work related. Driving is part of work falls under Health & Safety legislation and as such employers should ensure that driving risks are effectively managed. This applies to all industries including the construction industry where driving is a regular part of the job.

Under the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974, employers have a duty to ensure as far as is reasonable practicable the health and safety of all employees whilst at work and that others, ie. members of the public, are not put at risk by such driving activities. This means that employers should carry out appropriate risk assessments and have applicable work policies all of which have to be regularly reviewed and updated if necessary. This applies to all employers and to those who are self-employed but it does not cover commuting to and from one's place of work.

What should a driving at work policy cover?

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Bribery Act 2010 and the Construction industry - time to clean up? - 16/04/2010

This Bill was rushed through Parliament to ensure that it became law before parliament was dissolved earlier this month. The Act is due to come into force later this year.

The Act deals with both direct and indirect bribery. Section 7 is the most worrying part of the Act as far as companies and commercial organisations are concerned.

Under this section, a commercial organisation is guilty of an offence where bribery was carried out either directly or indirectly by someone connected (possibly even tenuously) with that organisation even if the Company had no knowledge of the crime. The Company''s only defence is if it can prove that it "had in place adequate procedures designed to prevent persons associated with [the company] from undertaking such conduct". What exactly this means is as yet unknown and guidance is to be published by the Secretary of State in due course.

However, like it or not, the Act is on the statute books and companies have to now start taking steps to deal with this. The Construction industry is one that will be majorly affected by this new Act as the industry regrettably has a poor record in this area and the spotlight will be on it to clean up its act.

Welcome to our new look website - 08/03/2010

Welcome to our new website which we hope provides more information on what we do. We also have a comprehensive search facility of our articles and news items. We are also pleased to announce that we have a link with Ann Glacki of Bliss Books who now provides us with her case summaries and to which we have added our own commentary. Please take a few minutes to explore this site.

We are also running another of our popular breakfast seminars on 23rd March. Please come an join us to hear Richard Silver talking about avoiding liability for delay and liquidated damages in construction contracts. We are also pleased to advise that our Cardiff have planned 4 seminars over the coming year - details are available on the website. The first one deals with adjudication.

Own Goal? - Health and Safety - Fire Risk Assessments - 08/03/2010

Whilst it was considered ironic at the time, a fire at the Fire Service College in Moreton-in-Marsh could not have happened in a more convenient place - after all, there would be no delay in putting it out. However, even more ironically, news has just emerged that the College had failed to keep up to date its own fire risk assessment .

The Regulations require all businesses to have a fire risk assessment which has to be continuously reviewed and up dated. The failure to do so can lead to a prosecution and a fine, especially if this comes to light after a fire. It would appear that no prosecution will be taken, but we doubt if they will ever default on this requirement again!

This is a good reminder that all businesses need to be sure that they keep up to date with their Health & Safety and Fire Risk assesments. Even more importnantly that they then act on the issues raised by those assesments.