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01 April 2022 / Stephen Gold
Issue: 7973 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Civil way
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Civil way: 1 April 2022

Employment compensation hike; Dentists extracted; Tribunal tinkering; Flexible tenancy escape; New divorce law latest; Standard orders – again! Up the workers.

SACK RATES BEAT NS&I

Praise be to the annual review of employment tribunal awards for, apart from doing a favour to the aggrieved worker, it gives me something to write about. Link that to the annual publication of At a Glance and persuade Oxford University Press to bring out the Judicial College’s personal injury guidelines more regularly and I could cease having to read any law reports. This time around, we get an RPI increase of a stonking 4.9% as against last year’s 1.1% where the axe falls (more felicitously known as the appropriate date) on or after 6 April 2022. The Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2022 (SI 2022/182) raises the limit of one week’s pay—used for the calculation of the basic and additional unfair dismissal awards and redundancy payments—from £544 to £571. The unfair dismissal compensatory award ceiling increases by a handsome £4,385 to £93,878.


IT’S MY

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Foot Anstey—Jasmine Olomolaiye

Foot Anstey—Jasmine Olomolaiye

Investigations and corporate crime expert joins as partner

Fieldfisher—Mark Shaw

Fieldfisher—Mark Shaw

Veteran funds specialist joins investment funds team

Taylor Wessing—Stephen Whitfield

Taylor Wessing—Stephen Whitfield

Firm enhances competition practice with London partner hire

NEWS
The Supreme Court has delivered a decisive ruling on termination under the JCT Design & Build form. Writing in NLJ this week, Andrew Singer KC and Jonathan Ward, of Kings Chambers, analyse Providence Building Services v Hexagon Housing Association [2026] UKSC 1, which restores the first-instance decision and curbs contractors’ termination rights for repeated late payment
Secondments, disciplinary procedures and appeal chaos all feature in a quartet of recent rulings. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Smith, barrister and emeritus professor of employment law at UEA, examines how established principles are being tested in modern disputes
The AI revolution is no longer a distant murmur—it’s at the client’s desk. Writing in NLJ this week, Peter Ambrose, CEO of The Partnership and Legalito, warns that the ‘AI chickens’ have ‘come home to roost’, transforming not just legal practice but the lawyer–client relationship itself
A High Court ruling involving the Longleat estate has exposed the fault line between modern family building and historic trust drafting. Writing in NLJ this week, Charlotte Coyle, director and family law expert at Freeths, examines Cator v Thynn [2026] EWHC 209 (Ch), where trustees sought approval to modernise trusts that retain pre-1970 definitions of ‘child’, ‘grandchild’ and ‘issue’
Fresh proposals to criminalise ‘nudification’ apps, prioritise cyberflashing and non-consensual intimate images, and even ban under-16s from social media have reignited debate over whether the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA 2023) is fit for purpose. Writing in NLJ this week, Alexander Brown, head of technology, media and telecommunications, and Alexandra Webster, managing associate, Simmons & Simmons, caution against reactive law-making that could undermine the Act’s ‘risk-based and outcomes-focused’ design
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