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Legal Update

Legal updates for landlords: August 2023

Industry News James Wood 02/08/2023

Our Head of Policy James Wood explains more about recent legislative changes, including a new Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service and advance notice of a new version of the How to Rent guide.

While the Renters (Reform) Bill is likely to be the main legislation affecting the private rented sector over the next year, it is not the only change that landlords should be aware of.

As of this week, the Government has launched the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service, and later in the year there will be new fire safety requirements for some HMO landlords and owners of blocks of flats.

Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service

This week, the Government launched the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service. This service replaces the Housing Possession Court Duty Schemes (HCPDS).

The new service allows tenants to access legal advice where they are at risk of losing their home. This advice can be provided once the tenant has evidence they are at risk of possession proceedings.

The legal advice can cover a range of including:

• repossession claims
• rent arrears
• issues with welfare benefits payments
• debt concerns
• repair and other problems with housing conditions

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Legal Update

UK Legal Update – July 2023 – Contracts and Commercial Law

Our round-up of recent and forthcoming developments in UK law
and practice for our international stakeholders.

Highlights

  • Beyond Brexit – what’s the latest on
    importing EU goods into the UK? What do The Windsor Framework and
    the 2019 Hague Judgments Convention mean? And where are we on the
    revocation of retained EU Law?


  • ESG – one of the defining issues of our
    time and at the top of our clients’ agenda across all sectors;
    we discuss mandatory climate-related disclosures and reporting
    standards, the UK’s 2023 Green Finance Strategy and measures to
    promote ethical practices in the workplace


  • Digital regulation – reforming UK data
    protection, strengthening cybersecurity and regulating AI


  • Employment Law – post-Brexit changes on
    business transfers, ethical workplace issues and reform of
    non-compete covenants


  • Competition and consumer protection –
    the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill, a tougher
    regulatory environment for consumer-facing businesses operating in
    the UK


  • UK cases round-up – the latest cases
    affecting UK-based commercial and M&A-related contracts


  • Preparing for the next Silicon Valley Bank UK
    Limited     – what happens when a lender fails to fund? And
    the end of Sterling LIBOR


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Law News

Knock-back for Nature Restoration Law in last-minute political wrangling

The law, which would apply to all EU member states, was voted through by a majority of MEPs last month.

It was due to be formally approved by environment ministers at a Council of Ministers meeting in Brussels next Monday.

However, what was expected to be a rubber-stamping exercise has turned into a bitter row with several member states declaring in pre-Council talks this week that they will not accept it and others abstaining.

Hungary, which previously supported the law, wavered during the week and despite being given extra time to finalize its stance by today, has still not declared one way or the other.

Finalization of the law has now been taken off Monday’s agenda..

While that does necessarily mean the legislation is dead, Monday is the last scheduled meeting of environment ministers before the European elections in June and unless the issue can be resolved over the weekend, the prospects for it look bleak.

Environmental organizations expressed shock and dismay, saying the law had been “held hostage by last-minute political maneuvers”.

“This law, the most significant piece of natural legislation in the EU since the 1990s, now faces an uncertain future, contradicting the EU’s stated commitment to biodiversity

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Law Firm

CMS and Slaughters latest firms to withdraw TC offers

SQE fallout continues


CMS and Slaughter and May have become the latest law firms to rescind the training contract offers of future trainees who failed to pass the SQE at the first time of asking. It comes just days after we revealed Clifford Chance had let go of around four offer holders under similar circumstances.

CMS, which takes on 95 trainees each year on a starting salary of £50,000 in London, has confirmed a number of training contracts offered have been revoked following the most recent batch of SQE1 results.

A spokesperson for the firm told Legal Cheek:

“While we hold the hope for successful completion of the SQE examinations on the first attempt, we understand that occasional setbacks may occur. Considering the recent SQE1 results, we have regretfully withdrawn certain training contract offers; however, we have diligently evaluated each circumstance individually. We maintain ongoing communication with all our students to ensure they are informed about and utilizing the additional support resources at their disposal, should the need arise.”

The SQE Hub: Your ultimate resource for all things SQE

Meanwhile it’s understood that Slaughters have also taken similar action.

A spokesperson for the firm, which also recruits around 95

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M
Legal Update

Minnesota DFL seeks to end Legal Marijuana Now’s major party status

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota’s DFL Party has officially challenged the status of the Legal Marijuana Now Party.

DFL officials filed a petition Tuesday with the Minnesota Supreme Court in the wake of LMNP filing what they believe are dubious certifications following two rejections by the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office.

A new law passed by the Democratic majority last legislative session requires these conditions to be met for major party status to be granted:

  • A party must have held a convention in 2022 “in all state congressional districts and at least 45 counties or legislative districts.”
  • A party had “an executive committee consisting of a chair and officers for each congressional district and at least 45 counties or legislative districts.”
  • A party had “obtained sufficient support from the voters in prior elections.”

DFL officials alleged LMNP, in its resubmitted status certification, claimed to have “implausibly” held 76 conventions in a single hour on June 8, 2023.

In the petition, the DFL also points to a Star Tribune article from last month about Krystal Gabel, a Colorado woman who said she was surprised to find out she was LMNP’s candidate on Minnesota’s presidential primary ballot.

RELATED: How Minnesota will embrace

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Law News

Portion of sentence reform law ruled unconstitutional, but sponsor sees fix this session

LINCOLN, Neb. (Nebraska Examiner) – A district court judge has ruled that a portion of a sentencing reform law passed by the State Legislature last year is unconstitutional.

But the author of the bill, State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, said Thursday that there’s still time in the 2024 session to remedy the problem.

The law, Legislative Bill 50, was part of an effort by Wayne to provide more incentives for inmates to engage in rehabilitation programming and perhaps get released on parole earlier. The larger goal was to reduce the state’s chronic prison overcrowding and perhaps avoid the need to build a second new prison, besides one already planned in Lincoln.

LB 50 was a wide-ranging bill that included clauses to allow “geriatric parole” under some circumstances, for inmates 75 years of age or older, and allowed for a “streamlined,” early parole process, granting additional “good time” for well -behaved inmates who participate in rehabilitation programming.

Some of the provisions of LB 50 came out of a review of the state’s prison overcrowding issues led by the nonprofit Crime and Justice Institute. Nebraska’s prisons last year held nearly 1,900 more inmates than they were designed to house.

In October,

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Attorney

No charges will be filed in nonbinary teen Nex Benedict’s death, Oklahoma district attorney says

An Oklahoma district attorney declined to file charges in connection with the death of nonbinary teenager Nex Benedict, officials said Thursday.

Benedict, a 16-year-old student at Owasso High School near Tulsa, died by suicide on Feb. 8, one day after a fight in a high school bathroom.

“Based upon the investigation of the Owasso Police Department, I am in agreement with their assessment that the filing of juvenile
charges are not warranted,” Tulsa County District Attorney Stephen A. Kunzweiler said in a statement.

“From all of the evidence gathered, this fight was an instance of mutual combat,” Kunzweiler wrote. “I do not have a reasonable belief that the State of Oklahoma could sustain its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt if charges were presented for prosecution.”

1709077692079.png
Nex Benedict.

CBS News


Benedict, who identified as nonbinary and used they/them pronouns, was sent to a hospital by a school nurse immediately following the fight. Benedict, while in the hospital, spoke to police officers and told them the bathroom fight had started when three girls harassed them. Benedict responded by throwing water at the girls, which sparked the fight.

Owassa police during their investigation discovered brief notes written by Benedict that appeared

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U
Legal Update

Uncertain and afraid: Florida’s immigrants grapple with a disrupted reality under new law

MIAMI (AP) — For many in Florida’s vast immigrant community, daily life in recent months has become one governed entirely by fear.

Some try to drive as little as possible and make fewer trips to the supermarket. Others no longer take their children to the park and worry about allowing them to attend school. Others are still hiding out — avoiding travel to other states, not getting regular medical check-ups, or closing their businesses and leaving town. And many are just on high alert — all because of a new immigration law Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in May.

One of the strictest in the nation, the law criminalized transporting immigrants lacking permanent legal status into the state, invalidated any US government identification they might have and blocked local governments from providing them with ID cards. Florida hospitals that accept Medicaid are now mandated to ask patients about immigration status and businesses employing 25 or more people must verify their workers’ legal status.

Other aspects of the law go into effect next year.

DeSantis, who is running for presidentsigned the bill in hopes of appealing to conservative voters and has criticized President Joe Biden’s administration for the

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Case Lawyer

Highlights from Trump’s classified documents hearing after Judge Cannon denies a dismissal request

Before leaving after hearing arguments this morning, Trump looked around the room and with his lips pursed, eyed special counsel Jack Smith. He looked left to co-defendant Walt Nauta and gave a slight nod. He rarely looked around the room otherwise, instead looking at Judge Cannon, sometimes with his head cocked, such as when there was a discussion of Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified documents or John Brennan’s security clearance.

As he got up to leave, standing and beginning to walk toward a side exit, Trump leaned on the prosecutors’ table almost as if losing his step briefly.

During the hearing, Trump spoke intently with his defense attorney Todd Blanche at different moments. Sometimes he would lean forward toward the judge, his arms crossed. At other times, Trump pushed his back against the seat.

Jack Smith, seated on a bench behind prosecuting attorneys Jay Bratt and David Harbach, made very brief, frequent glances around the room in Trump’s direction and toward the judge. He looked up as Trump’s attorney Emil Bove argued that Clinton was not prosecuted for her handling of classified documents.

Before the start of the hearing, court staff brought in additional chairs for the defense table.

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Legal Update

Bill C-21: Liberal gun control bill becomes law

The federal Liberal government’s contentious gun control legislation Bill C-21 passed the Senate without changes on Thursday, becoming law on Friday.

The bill passed the House of Commons in May after months of division and political acrimony. The version that made it to the Senate was significantly expanded from what the federal government had initially tabled a year ago.

Bill C-21 passed by a vote of 60 to 24and with applause in the upper chamber.

The legislation includes measures to:

  • Tighten gun laws to include “red flag” and “yellow flag” provisions relating to a gun owner posing a risk to themselves or others;

  • Impose a “freeze” on the sale, purchase or transfer of handguns in Canada;

  • A prospective Criminal Code “technical definition” of what constitutes a prohibited assault-style firearm, meant to “cement in law” a permanent ban on future models once the bill comes into force;

  • A series of provisions meant to make it illegal to make or buy ghost guns and to combat firearms smuggling; and

  • Wording makes clear the government’s intent to uphold Indigenous treaty rights.

The bill also includes a requirement for a parliamentary review of the technical definition five

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