Blog
Keeping the peace at Christmas – top tips for shared parenting over the festive season
Lauren Evans
16 December 2021
Health and Safety - personal liability for directors operating in the built environment
The built environment presents health and safety risks like no other sector. Whether it be the risk of falls from height, hazardous substances, trapped by items collapsing or overturning, fire or moving vehicles there are a wide range of hazards that need to be managed from the outset. Directors can be held personally liable when health and safety duties are breached. In this blog we explore the scope of personal liability for directors in the built environment.
16 December 2021
Adverse Inferences in RICS Investigations: How Should You Respond?
If you’re the subject of an investigation by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), you will receive a letter from RICS setting out the allegations against you. The letter will likely include a section on the “adverse inference” that can be drawn if you do not respond: that a Disciplinary Panel may later conclude that you have no reasonable explanation for the alleged misconduct. So what is an “adverse inference”, and what does this mean for you?
16 December 2021
Mythbusting: Recovery of Costs in Private Prosecutions
Private prosecutions provide an effective way to seek justice; and particularly in circumstances when the traditional prosecuting agencies are unable or unwilling to act. Conducted appropriately they can be a useful, efficient and cost-effective tool to secure punishment of the guilty. Conducted badly they can be an expensive mistake with far reaching consequences.
In this blog series we draw on our experience of both bringing and defending private prosecutions to help clarify some of the common myths and misunderstandings about private prosecutions. In this blog we look at whether the private prosecutor is entitled to recover their full investigation and legal fees at the end of the case.
8 December 2021
RICS launches new standards of conduct
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (‘RICS’) has announced revised Rules of Conduct (“the Rules”) which set out the core principles of professional practice for RICS’ regulated members and firms worldwide. The revised Rules will take effect from 2 February 2022 and are designed to represent a transparent system of conduct and regulation and bring RICS’ ethical standards into one clear framework.
7 December 2021
Top Tips for Handling a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Investigation
Whether you are a professional individual or a firm, Regulated Members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) are expected to comply with ethical, conduct and competence-related professional standards. When things go wrong and a Regulated Member has seemingly breached these standards, RICS may investigate and take disciplinary action.