My company was sued by a dissatisfied customer under the Sale of Goods Act on the basis that the computer system she bought did not correspond with our description of it. The customer won her case in the Sheriff Court under the small claims procedure and we were ordered to refund her the purchase price plus expenses and interest. The case, which lasted several weeks, was conducted by one of...

Friends have asked me to make enquiries as to what to do..... They work for a firm driving HGVs and their jobs involve 'tramping' (living in their lorries upto 5 nights a week away from home). The company have 2 bases. Base 1 has a single toilet with wash basin. Base 2 has toilets and has a seperate shower block. Complaints have been raised by many of the drivers to the company that both...

Interesting post by security expert Bruce Schneier about why law enforcement is targetting photographers as "potential terrorists." http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/06/the_war_on_phot.html -- Michael Hoffman

3 people want to loan money to a hobby related club. They have asked for a written loan agreement to be drafted. Does anyone have any advice on where to find a template for this sort of thing. We don't want to spend any money on it as the amounts are quite small (around £100.00 per person) and legal fees would probably be quite high in relation to the money being loaned. Thanks in...

Can an employer deduct employer's NI from an employee?

I was looking at some psychometric tests recently - an example is he http://www.pearson-uk.com/product.aspx?n=1316&s=1319&cat=1326&skey=3293 The person who administers the test has to go through a laborious process afterwards to work out the scores. This involves converting raw test scores for each sub-test to standard scale scores, based on tables according to age. The tables are...

Hello I run a little software house and we about to start selling our product online. Our online banking partner requires that we have available on our web site full terms and conditions. specifically, we need an end user licencing agreement (which we more or less have) and a returns and refund policy. Now I am no software legal expert but my idea was this:

I like the idea of renting out rooms in my home to supplement my income under the government's rent-a-room scheme to help supplement my household income. Unfortunately I don't like the loss of privacy as much. Is planning permission likely to be granted to build a 1-storey guesthouse in my back garden if it doesn't look over the fence into the neighbours? What if the guesthouse had 2-storeys or...

Good Afternoon, A friend has been randomly sacked from a marketing job in Scotland. They had worked for the company in question for just over two months, and had self-certified sick by phoning in twice, in succession, which was genuine, for the same period of illness. The small marketing company, who web-design for small knowledgeable firms, have a high turnover of staff, and I believe I now see...

Hi All We are using a IT support firm to support our computers. We have a clear 4 hour fix service level agreement (SLA). I've just joined the firm and noticed that they take on average over 16 hours to fix equipment. And its rare that they fix within 4 hours. I've made various comments to them which just get ignored or "whats the problem?" from people that are not too bright even though I...

My partner is unwell to the extent that she cannot travel by public transport. Nor can she use a taxi (well, this is a touch more arguable, but given many taxis and their drivers, she would not wish to do so). From time to time she needs to see her doctor, go for blood tests/scans/etc., or go to see a consultant. I always take her - and most often go in with her. This seems most especially...

Hello, We have lived in our private rented property nearly 3 yrs now. Recently it came to my attention that our letting agent cum estate agent, has been trying to persuade our landlord to sell up as they have a client on their books who requires to buy a house like ours in this area. Apart from moral issues (backstabbing in my eyes), I don't suppose there is any legal rights or wrongs on this...

Hi, I would be grateful for some free (and taken in that spirit of course) opinion he I'm a tenant, renting a house and I have excellent relations with the landlord. I normally pay my rent (and also have submitted a deposit) via a letting agent appointed by him. We've been doing this happily since 2003.

It has come to my attention that the opposing party has altered a court order without permission of the court. As a result they have dropped the case but isn't this an offence and what kind of offence.

Suppose someone finds a property they're interested in through a web search with Rightmove or even through advertising of an estate agent. Surely the vendor can withdraw their house from the market anytime they want, meet someone after they withdraw it from the market, change their minds and do a deal afterwards. Thus is it legal to approach the vendor directly to give them an offer, cutting...

There is some brownfield land nearby the house, upon which there is a derelict 17th century Public House and for which a planning application had been refused in 2006 to erect self contained flats. In the space of a few months this year, a boarding has been removed from the front of the public house, there had been a fire and the building (and land) has been sold. I noted just last week a...

My daughter has just handed her resignation in to a one of a national optician chain after their 'less than ideal' employee relations - too many appalling employee relation instances to mention but suffice it to say she could not possibly stay for the optional year her contract allows for. To do so would almost certainly involve her having a nervous breakdown! She has about two weeks holiday...

Hi all, I bought a leather swivel chair (typist style chair) from ebuyer some time ago, and the gas lift mechanism has developed a fault. I`ve contacted ebuyer who have told me to arrange a date for a courier to collect it from me. I no longer have the packing the chair came in, nor do I have anything suitable to pack it in, as even dismantled it`s a big bugger. EBuyer tried telling me...

How much notice does a lodger have to give before he leaves? A deposit of one month's rent has been given at the start. Marcus

It's not uncommon for contracts of employment, or business IT policies, to state that employee use of the Internet (including web browsing and the content of any email, including personal email) may be monitored for compliance with any policy restrictions. It's also not uncommon for emails to carry a footer stating, among other things, that the content of the email is confidential and may not be...