News and Blogs

We have written previously about reforms to the existing 50-year-old divorce laws in England and Wales and how a new bill, the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Bill had reached its second reading stage in the Commons and had cross-party support. The Bill is now set for its second reading today (8 June 2020) in the Commons. It is understood that ministers are eager to see that the...

In a further effort to assist businesses and individuals to ‘weather the storm’ of coronavirus, the government has extended the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) to allow applicants to obtain a second grant in respect of a further three months of profits.

What is the Scheme?

The Scheme, generally seen as the self-employed equivalent to the Coronavirus Job Retention...

Pension sharing orders have been in existence now for well nigh 20 years since their introduction on 1 December 2000. The aim was, as the name suggests, that pensions could be split or shared going forwards, to create fairness between spouses and civil partners on divorce or dissolution. This was done by allowing the family court to direct a transfer equal in value to a proportion of the...

On 29 May 2020, the government announced changes to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which underpins the current practice of furloughing employees, and runs until 31 October 2020.

The Scheme will close to new entrants on 30 June 2020. Employers will only be able to furlough workers who they have furloughed under the scheme for a full three-week period at some time prior to 30 June 2020...

Coronavirus has changed every aspect of our lives recently, but we are finding many people are using the time during the lockdown as an opportunity to review their affairs, for example, considering their Wills and Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs). This article highlights some of the adaptations we have made to the process of advising clients at this time, and to give our clients peace of mind...

The changes required to accommodate employees returning to the workplace will in some cases mean changing their employment contracts, for example, shift patterns, working hours or place of work.

Simply pressing ahead with making these changes risks liability. An aggrieved employee can object, work under protest and claim breach of contract to recover any resulting loss, whilst action taken by...

On 20 May 2020, the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill (the “Bill”) was introduced to Parliament. The aim of this Bill is to protect viable businesses from collapse during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Corporate Governance

The Bill intends to lift regulatory requirements of company meetings and filing requirements between 26 March 2020 and 30 September 2020. There will be more...

The relaxation of the lockdown rules announced by the government last week has opened up the residential property market again. Whilst a positive step forward, businesses and home-movers will need to follow stringent new COVID-19 social distancing conditions.

Since the initial lockdown in March, our experience at TWM is that a number of transactions have still been able to proceed to...

Following updated advice given to the public in relation to COVID-19 on Sunday 10 May 2020, the government is encouraging people unable to work from home to return to work where possible. Supporting this, a “COVID-19 Secure” document has been produced by the government, providing guidance to employers, employees and the self-employed about how they can work safely.

There are guides...

The arrival of the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting social distancing measures have meant that many couples have not been able to get married. For many people, their wedding insurance will not pay out to cancel the wedding and they will have already paid many deposits including, quite often, the full venue cost. This means that for most couples they are postponing the date to later this...