ust over a year after his first impeachment, Donald Trump became the first president in US history to be impeached for a second time. Politically and legally, the US government and judicial system is now in uncharted waters so let’s try to unpack what impeachment means and what the potential consequences could be. Impeachment is a charge of misconduct brought before a holder of public office. In this second case, a single article of impeachment accused Mr Trump of inciting the riot which resulted in a group of his supporters breaking into the Capitol building.Impeachment proceedings need to pass through the House of Representatives, which only needs a majority vote to approve, and then the Senate, which requires a 2/3 majority vote to confirm articles of impeachment. Articles of impeachment have already been confirmed by Congress, with one of the stark differences to the first impeachment being that 10 Republicans broke ranks and voted against the president, as opposed to last year when none of them did. Proceedings now move to the Senate for confirmation. The Senate trial will likely bleed into the start of Mr Biden’s term as president, causing the President-elect a political and legal headache. Articles of impeachment, especially those as unprecedented as these, will take up a lot of time in the Senate, whom he needs to help enact his important first-100-day plan. It is being reported that in order to keep the country moving and ensuring as peaceful a transition as possible, he will request that the Senate work on this part time, allowing members of the Senate to work on appointments and legislation at times when they are not sitting on the jury for the impeachment. But what does all this practically mean for President Trump’s future? Due to the complex and often vague nature of the US Constitution, a lot of it will be open to interpretation by Congress. At present, it seems that if impeachment is confirmed, there will be further votes on what privileges Mr Trump will be disqualified from which would usually be afforded to former presidents. These include a £220,000 a year pension, security detail, paid office space, and others.Regardless of how impeachment proceedings are finalised, we can be assured of a lengthy legal battle from Mr Trump’s legal team over his treatment at the hands of his former colleagues. As experts in employment law who have seen our fair share of post-employment cases, we’re keeping our eyes on this one!

Consumer groups across many countries are challenging Amazon on their cancellation procedures for Prime membership, saying they are purposefully difficult and off-putting. Cancelling Prime membership involves scrolling through many pages of text with multiple prompts to retain membership, often described as a ‘dark pattern’. These are techniques of features in a system designed to manipulate the user. In a study of 1000 Norwegian consumers, a quarter of them reported difficulties in cancelling their membership of digital content services, indicating that this issue is far wider than Amazon alone. The online retail giant has refuted these claims, saying that the process is straightforward and that all information being cited is simple giving “a full view of the benefits and services that members are cancelling”.Here in the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that one of Amazon’s page layouts was misleading and meant that many people could have easily signed up for Prime membership without meaning to.The Norwegian Consumer Council are one of the loudest voices on this issue and have filed a complaint with Norway’s consumer protection authority, claiming that it violates EU consumer law. They claim that it should be just as simple to end a subscription as it is to start one and that Amazon should stop “hindering customers and tricking them into continuing a paid service”.Consumer rights are becoming more of a hot topic, especially as our purchasing habits and shopping processes adapt to new technologies and markets. If you have any questions about your right as a consumer or customer, our experienced team of solicitors are here to answer any questions you may have about your situation.

Manak Solicitors are delighted to announce the acquisition of My Sevenoaks Community from Mountain Marketing Ltd.We are equally pleased to announce that Steph Harrison will be managing the business from today, independently and outside of Manak Solicitors. She will be amalgamating her incredibly successful ‘Sevenoaks Community’ social pages into the ‘My Sevenoaks Community’ brand with immediate effect, bringing everything under one cohesive brand.Steph commented on the move, “I’m absolutely over the moon to be taking on the My Sevenoaks Community’ role again; with the backing and technology behind me from Manak this is going to be extremely exciting for the town. They’re committed to making sure this brand grows and benefits every single person in and around Sevenoaks. I have a great relationship with the guys there and know that there is huge potential with this to do some amazing work for Sevenoaks. It’s also brilliant that we all have one community brand now- far less confusing!”.MSC has launched today with a new and improved look, more streamlined website and big plans for 2021. Head of Marketing at Manak Solicitors, Ben Frost, is looking forward to helping the brand go from strength to strength: “The town has been fantastic to us since we arrived in 2018 and we have always worked very closely with My Sevenoaks Community as their main sponsor. We have worked extensively with Steph personally too, through our work with Breast Cancer Now. So, when the opportunity arose to acquire this brand we knew instantly that it was a perfect fit and having Steph in place to run it is the final piece of the jigsaw. She will have the freedom to run My Sevenoaks Community just as before and we will be working behind the scenes to improve the website functionality and content offering over time for the benefit of everyone. We see this as an opportunity to give something back to this town and we will do everything we can to support Steph, ensuring this is a real community hub that everyone can be proud of”.mysevenoakscommunity.com is live now and will be updated extensively over the coming weeks.

From 1st January 2021, the Immigration system, as we know it, will be changed. The Government plans to overhaul the current Rules with the aim of boosting the UK economy. The focus is greatly on attracting skilled workers, global talent and innovators who could enhance the UK economy. Changes have been made to almost all entry routes.Re Workers:The main condition appears to be that they must be able to speak English at level B1The Cap on number of applicants will be Suspend and as such there will be no limit on the number of skilled workers who can come to the UK The Resident Labour Market Test (RLMT) will be abolished Re Students:The applicant must be able to speak English at level B2 unless they are coming to study in UK Schools at pre graduate levelThe main routes will be as follows:- Skilled Workers – Tier 2 Visas Students (Adults & Children)Start-Up and InnovatorGraduate VisitorsShort-Term Study to Learn English Language Intra-Company Transfers (ICT) Intra-Company Graduate Trainees (ICGT)Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) – Only available to people from participating countries with an opportunity to experience life in the UK to live and work for 2 years. Sports PersonCreative PersonCharity Ministers of Religion & Religious Workers Government Authorised Exchange (GAE)International Agreement UK AncestrySo far, the Home Office has only published vague details of the new proposals. We will be avidly monitoring the situation and providing updates in due course. Our Immigration team is committed to ensure your matter is dealt with smoothly and accurately. Please send your enquiries to [email protected] or call 01474 324 529. 

We at Manak Solicitors have a specialised legal team working with a number of Landlords across the South East.With the introduction of the new stamp duty rates which came into force on 8th July 2020; now may be the perfect time to look at your portfolio in order to carry out tax efficient planning for the future.From April 2020, Landlords with portfolios in their personal names rather than a limited company will only be able to claim a tax credit of 20% of mortgage interest payments. Contrasting this to tax year 2017-18 this figure was 75% mortgage relief.Therefore, it is evident from April 2020 many Landlords have been adversely effected financially.It can be more advantageous from a tax efficient standpoint for Landlords to hold their portfolio in a dedicated limited company although, many landlords have been hesitant to transfer their properties to a limited company due to the Stamp Duty implications. In view of the new rules; any properties valued under £500,000.00 will only be liable for 3% stamp duty rather than the higher rates before July 2020 providing a much welcome relief to Landlords at such turbulent times.We recommend Landlords speak to their financial advisors before taking any decisions to transfer their portfolio but on the face of the new rules this does seem like a glimmer of hope. We invite you to contact our qualified team with regards to any property law questions you might have.

After the past few days, the leaks from the Treasury about the SDLT changes/holidays/exemptions have caused trepidation and effectively slammed the brakes on the recovery of the conveyancing market for residential transactions.The other concern was that the rumoured “delay in the implementation” of any such changes until Autumn would have frozen the market completely.We are glad that today, the Chancellor has now clarified those issues and implemented the changes “effective immediately” in order to keep the wheels of the market turning.We will be reviewing in detail the scale of the proposed changes but are hopeful it will encourage potential Buyers and that we see a thawing of the market which has been slow to recover following the Covid19 Lockdown.The noted 31 Mach 2020 timeframe will undoubtedly cause a “rush” and this brings back memories of the SDLT changes to the Buy to Let market which were brough in at the same time in April 2016. Many of our clients will recall that we worked tirelessly with them to get deals through and were successful in 100% of all matters.Manak Solicitors therefore have proven experience in working to such deadlines and we are proud that we have highly qualified staff, state of the art technology and solid infrastructure to cope with such demands -even during times of pandemic and unforeseen circumstances.Furthermore, as our Conveyancing Teams are all working in the office, this once again makes transactions far easier to deal with from a client’s perspective – as will be noted from recent feedback.Jas JanduDirector of Conveyancing

UK confirms new path to British citizenship for millions of Hong Kong ResidentsThe UK government has confirmed it will offer new residence rights to 2.9 million Hong Kong residents with British National Overseas (BN (O) status, following China’s imposition of a national security law. Under the new route, those who hold BN(O) status and their dependents will have access to limited leave to remain in the UK on a 5-year work or study visa, removing the current six-month time limit. After five years, individuals will be able to apply for settled status and, after a further 12 months, apply for British citizenship. Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, has confirmed that there will be a simple application with no limit on numbers or quotas. Further, he commented that there will be no minimum salary threshold to obtain the visa.The government will announce further details of the eligibility criteria, conditions of leave and application fees in due course.Visit our service page to find out more about immigration law and do not hesitate to contact us with any legal questions you might have.

During the coronavirus pandemic you still have to follow the correct redundancy procedures as employees have the same redundancy rights, including redundancy pay.We advise our clients to start with a plan that will help them to manage the process. The plan should include avoiding redundancies, consulting staff, selecting for redundancy, giving staff notice of pending redundancies, working out redundancy pay and how to support staff and plan for the future.Avoid job losses: You can avoid job losses by offering voluntary redundancy or retrain employees to do other jobs in your business. You could also ask employees to agree to work less hours (‘short time working’) or temporarily stop working (‘temporary lay off’) if it is included in their contract of employment. If not, you can ask to update their contract. They do not have to agree. Consult: During the coronavirus you must still consult your employees but you can do so remotely. There is no legal requirement for it to be face to face. However, you are required to sit down individually with each employee who may be affected by the redundancy and explain your planned changes, obtaining their feedback and input. You must consult any employees who are on maternity leave.During the consultation period you must let employees know in writing why you need to make redundancies, the number of employees and which jobs are at risk, how you will select employees for redundancy, how you plan to carry out the redundancies, including timeframes, how you will calculate redundancy pay, if you’re using agency workers, how many, where they’re working and the type of work they’re doing.You must discuss with employees ways to avoid or reduce the redundancies. You must consider and respond to any suggestions made by employees. You can reject any ideas you do not think are reasonable but you should explain why. It’s important to document all discussions and the reasons for your decisions. There are no rules for how long the consultation should last. You do not need to reach agreement for the consultation to come to an end. You simply need to show that the consultation was genuine and that you aimed to reach agreement. You must be able to show that you’ve listened to your employees and that you responded to questions and suggestions.Selection – You must select employees for redundancy in a fair way and not discriminate against any individuals or groups. You should base the selection criteria on:standard of workskills, qualifications or experienceattendance record which must be accurate and not include absences relating to disability, pregnancy or maternitydisciplinary recordDuring the coronavirus pandemic you must not select employees for redundancy just because they’re shielding. This could be viewed as disability discrimination.You should set up an appeals process for employees who feel they have been unfairly selected. This can reduce the chances of someone making a claim against you to an employment tribunal.Notice: You can only give an employee notice of redundancy once you’ve finished consulting.  You should also let them know in writing. You should include in the letter:their notice periodleaving datehow much redundancy pay they’re duehow you calculated the redundancy payany other pay you owe them (for example holiday pay)when and how you’ll pay themhow they can appealYou must give employees at least the statutory notice period. This is based on how long they’ve worked for you. You should also check your employment contracts.Redundancy pay:  How much redundancy pay each employee receives depends on their age and how long they’ve worked for you. It’s capped at 20 years – working backwards from the date you made them redundant. You must pay:1.5 weeks pay for each year of work after their 41st birthday1 week pay for each year of work after their 22nd birthdayhalf a week for each year of work before their 22nd birthdayThe limit for weekly pay is £538. The maximum total amount of statutory redundancy pay is £16,140.You should check your employment contracts as you might need to pay more than the statutory amount. You should pay redundancy no later than an employee’s final pay day. NOTICE: The above guide is when you are planning to make less than 20 employees at the same workplace redundant. If you’re planning to make 20 or more employees at the same workplace redundant within 90 days (large-scale or ‘collective’ redundancies), there are set rules for collective redundancies which you must follow.Find out more about employment law and contact our qualified team of solicitors with any legal questions you might have.Source referenced www.acas.org.uk/redundancy:

Mali has specialised in employment law over a 20 year period and has worked for many years in Central London based solicitor firms.Mali was called to the Bar in 1999 and became a solicitor in 2008.Mali came to the legal profession from a marketing and commercial background where she acquired excellent communication skills and the ability to relate to people from all walks of life.This commercial experience allows Mali to deal easily with both Employee and Employer clients and Mali also provides good insight into office politics on both sides of the table (i.e. from the Employer and Employee perspective).Mali has a wealth of experience in advising various sized companies, general Employers and Employees (both individual and groups of employees) on all aspects of contentious and non-contentious employment law issues, including but not limited to:·         Complex service agreements/contracts;·         Employment policies;   ·         Employment tribunal claims – complex unfair dismissal, discrimination, maternity, TUPE and whistleblowing claims ·         Redundancy and restructuring advice, outsourcing and TUPE·         Performance management, disciplinary and grievances issues·         Difficult terminations- settlement agreements   ·         General day to day support including ill health issues, crisis managementMali also advised and represented employees and senior executives in respect of:·         Service agreements/contracts·         Negotiation of termination packages·         Employment tribunal claims – unfair dismissal, discrimination, maternity, whistleblowing, TUPE ·         Disciplinary issues, performance management and grievances·         Post termination restrictions/confidentiality breaches including High Court actions and injunctionsExperience Highlights·         Advised a construction business in respect of a restructure and redundancies which included a removal of a team from a particular site. The restructure process was successfully completed and the right people were removed saving the company time and money;·         Advised employees on disability discrimination and assisted them in securing a large sum in compensation.·         Advised a coffee business on whistle blowing claim and reached an amicable agreement saving the company time and money;·         Advised schools and care homes on performance, grievances and disciplinary procedures and provided them with up-to-date Employees Handbook and Policies;·         Advised senior executives on restrictive covenants enabling them to accept their new job offer.