No it hasn’t – you will recall that in May this year regulations came into force on the use of cookies – but no-one knew how to implement them. The Information Commissioner’s Office gave businesses 12 months to comply – a “lead-in” period - but the ICO is now saying that no-one has really engaged with this, and has issued revised guidance.

The qualifying period for the right to bring a claim for unfair dismissal will be extended from one to two years on 6 April 2012. This means that only after working for the same employer for two years or more will an employee be able to bring a claim for unfair dismissal.

Readers may well be aware that there has been a case grumbling on for a while about the ability of a company to use its rival’s trademark in its key words to attract traffic.

all used call centres to cold call members of the public offering Wills written by a “legal consultant

In Iqbal v. Ahmed, the deceased died leaving a relatively small estate. He was survived by his wife of over 20 years, Mrs Iqbal, and his son from a previous marriage, Mr Ahmed. Under the Will, Mrs Iqbal was given a right to occupy the family home for the rest of her life, subject to her paying the costs of repairs, insurance and other outgoings. Everything else was left to his son. The property was in a bad state of repair and needed £30,000 spending on it, which Mrs Iqbal did not have.

A recent case (Morris v Davies and others) helpfully sets out the principles. In this case, the deceased had lived and worked abroad since 2001.

Unregulated Will writer jailed for charging clients to update their Wills following imaginary changes in the law

Mr Singh made a Will leaving most of his estate to his 3 sons, in accordance with Sikh tradition. However, the Will was not correctly signed and witnessed and was declared invalid.

To anyone who’s listening, we keep going on about Free Software – sometimes but not always accurately described as Open Source. One of the key things about Free Software is that is subject to free software licence terms – most commonly, under the General Product Licence – now in version 3. Most of the Android operating system – you’ll see why this is relevant soon – is under version 2.

Some useful guidance just out in a case where the High Court considered whether an online marketer is entitled to use bought-in data to top up its databases to execute targeted direct marketing campaigns via e-mail and SMS messages.

It is both a privilege and a responsibility to be appointed as an Executor of a Will. Often Executors will want to administer an estate themselves; either because they wish to be involved or because they want to save money on a solicitor’s fees

The long awaited decision of Autoclenz ltd v Belcher has been made.

Currently many businesses are cutting back and operating in survival mode or have adopted a slower growth plan

The pitfalls for software and website developers in doing without contracts

People came and found out how the new Agency Workers legislation affected their business at our free breakfast seminar.

Family paralegal, Lee Higham has been promoted to trainee solicitor.

Three of Berwins’ specialist lawyers have again been designated Leaders in Their Field by the industry’s bible of the UK’s top law firms,

Berwins’ busy Property Team has welcomed new starters Emma and Maksudul today.

Berwins Solicitors has enjoyed its best ever showing in the Legal 500 this year after being ranked in six separate areas of law.

Berwins are to sponsor the 50th Harrogate Business lunch at the Pavilions of Harrogate where the guest speaker will be Lord Jeffrey Archer.