Interest Rate Swap Misselling Haunts the FSA

The chairman of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, Andrew Tyrie is set to demand and explanation for the growing scandal of alleged systematic interestrate swap misselling by high street banks, mainly between 2005 and 2008.

Mr Tyrie said: “I intend to write to the chairman of the FSA for an explanation of how this issue is being handled.”

It is believed that thousands of small and medium businesses (SMEs) have been hit after banks began selling them highly lucrative interest rate swap derivates. The complex hedge products were often attached to a loan as a condition that it be granted, and while the bank collected handsome up-front profits on the sales of the product, their customers were often unwittingly locked into payments far in excess of those they had been led to anticipate.

Not only that, but faced with the burden of these payments, on seeking to escape the unfavourable arrangements they then discovered a levy of unexpected exit fees running in many cases into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

It is estimated that thousands of SME businesses have been affected – and commentators say that the scale of the problem may dwarf even the PPI scandal, running into several billion pounds.

Harvinder McKibbin of Harvey McKibbin Solicitors in Lichfield said: “Lots of SMEs feel compelled to accept the situation they find themselves in for fear their bank will call in the loan if they make a public complaint. However, instead of being saddled with this huge burden of debt they could be entitled to compensation if the product was missold – so I would urge any business in this position to seek legal advice as soon as possible.”

Barristers – Direct Access

What is "Direct Access"?

You can now instruct a barrister directly, without going through a solicitor, depending on the work that you need to be done. This is called direct access, or public access.

read more about direct access barrister on the barrister network

Employement Law – Health and Safety Urban Myths

The UK Government has set up a panel of “mythbusters” in the light of increasingly outlandish health and safety decisions by councils and insurance companies. The absurd decisions often force employers worried about employment law consequences to take disproportionate and sometimes ridiculous measures to deal with everyday events.

As part of the initiative the Health and Safety Executive has launched a “Top Ten” of the most startling such myths.

Coming straight into the top ten at No.10 is “Graduates ordered not to throw their mortar boards in the air”.

The countdown is listed in full below, but the top three of the health and safety hit parade, sees “Trapeze artists being ordered to wear hard hats” avoiding a fall at No.3; while sticking strictly at No.2 is “Office workers being banned from putting up Christmas decorations”. And the No.1 is the blockbuster “Children banned from playing conkers unless they are wearing goggles”!

Minister for Employment Chris Grayling said: “All too often jobsworths are the real reason for daft health and safety decisions. We want people who are told they cannot put up bunting or play conkers to know there is no basis in law for such rulings.”

We have several employment law barristers that have had many discussions over this!

If you are worried about employment law ramifications in your organisation the Health and Safety Executive website says: “We want people to work with us to challenge these myths – the time has come to end the madness!” You can find out everything you need to know about this and other health and safety topics on their website.

In the meantime, that Top Ten of Absurd Safety Myths is as follows:

1.     Children being banned from playing conkers unless they are wearing goggles

2.     Office workers being banned from putting up Christmas decorations

3.     Trapeze artists being ordered to wear hard hats

4.     Pin the tail on the donkey games being deemed a health and safety risk

5.     Candy floss on a stick being banned in case people trip and impale themselves

6.     Hanging baskets being banned in case people bump their heads on them

7.     Schoolchildren being ordered to wear clip on ties in case they are choked by traditional neckwear

8.     Park benches must be replaced because they are three inches too low

9.     Flip flops being banned from the workplace

10.  Graduates ordered not to throw their mortar boards in the air

Parent’s Rights in Queen’s Speech Employment Law Shake Up

The Queen yesterday outlined changes with employment law consequences for HR departments up and down the country.

The Government’s legislative plans for the year ahead include the new Children and Families Bill.

The Bill will allow new parents to swap their parental leave entitlements following the birth of a child.

This is a real change in employment law provisions because for the first time a mother will now be able to elect to return to work before the end of her full maternal leave entitlement period and transfer the remaining time off to her partner!

HR departments and employment law experts are expecting these new provisions to cause wide-spread confusion with employers when they come into force.

So if you need to know how the change might affect your business or get advice in order to comply or to update your employment law policies visit getbarristers.co.uk for quick and easy direct access to expert employment law barrister who can answer your questions and put your mind at rest today.

Employment Law Red Tape Cut in Queen’s Speech

The Queen yesterday confirmed widely-expected changes in employment law regulations when outlining the Government’s plans for the year ahead.

The forthcoming Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill is aimed at helping businesses to grow by making it easier to hire new staff.

One of  the main proposals is a re-working of the current employment law dispute resolution procedures – to give “a more streamlined tribunal system for all users”.

The new legislation also promises to do away with “outdated and unnecessary” employment law regulations.

The Bill also includes reform on such employment law issues as executive pay, with the aim of making remuneration become more closely reward-based and reflective of business performance.

For any pressing employment law queries visit Get Barristers for quick and easy direct access to expert employment law barristers and employment law barristers in london who can answer your questions and put your mind at rest today.

I had a near crash the other day and I can safely say it wasn’t because of me. I assumed every skip hire company was as thoughtful as easyskiphire.co.uk but that’s obviously not the case. I came around a blind bend the other day onto a narrow road and thankfully no one was on the other side of the road as I had to swerve at the last minute. Someone had decided to put the skip hire bin on the road right were everyone would catch it as they went past. I don’t know why they did it as it isn’t safe and could cause lots of problems but they did it anyone. Although you’re careful when you go around blind bends it’s not like you expect there to be a skip hire bin there is it.

This bad weather we’ve had recently had been causing lots of problems on the road and the other day easyfencinghire.co.uk was the latest person to have a problem. I assume they had a fence hire service to take care of in the surrounding villages as they were over this way and all of our lanes are flooded which I assume they didn’t know about at the time. The fence hire lorry came around the corner and couldn’t stop in time before it saw the flood and went straight into it. It was so low down that it couldn’t get out of the flood in time and the water got into the engine. The poor fence hire lorry was stuck there for ages. 

When it comes to going on holiday abroad you’ll often find that you’ll have to use portable toilets which aren’t kept very clean. I don’t know about you but I’m used to sorting out portable toilets from easytoilethire.co.uk who keep their toilets very clean. This isn’t the case abroad often and due to the heat it can become very unpleasant to be around them or have or have to use them. It’s always wise to think ahead about toilet breaks and either stop of at a supermarket to use a loo or stop of a snack or drink break and use the cafes facilities there rather than having to use the portable toilets on the road when you’re desperate.

I’m really proud of my friend, he’s managed to open up a very successful company called easyfencinghire.co.uk. Not only is it very successful but it also really does try hard to get the best temporary fencing rental deals for the customers. It’s not often that a company is successful and keeps the customers happy but he’s managed it in a short space of time and I know he’ll keep it up as he’s a genuine character. I’ve got to say his temporary fencing rental team are really nice too and they all work really hard for him and are really honest. I’d recommend them to anyone who’s looking for temporary fencing rental prices. 

It’s funny how we often don’t appreciate which companies are local to us. I think we all so quickly go to national companies because they’re easy to find on the internet that we forget about local skip hire companies and other similar businesses who could help us. I found the local skip hire company offered a service far cheaper than the national companies did as well which you don’t expect. From now on I’ll make far more effort into using the local skip hire company easyskiphire.co.uk than any other.