Question 1You are the manager of a ‘Business Advisory’ firm. A client is seeking advice on the following matter: he has decided to start up a business with a former colleague but is unsure of the legal constitution this business should take. The client is seeking your advice as to the advantages and disadvantages of various business and corporate forms.
Advise this client as to the legal regulation surrounding the creation, running and dissolution of the two following types of enterprise:
-a partnership
-a company
Cite relevant statutory provisions, along with supporting case law references, in support of your advice
Question 2
Both judiciary and government favour a narrow interpretation of exclusion clauses in signed contracts as well as in unsigned notices.
By so restricting the use and application of exclusion clauses, the law aims to ensure that no ‘unfair’ term may be enforceable within a contract; particularly where one party deals as a consumer. This conservative approach further maintains that contracting parties are aware of, and assenting to, all the terms of their agreement prior to consent and legal binding.
Discuss and analyse this statement with reference to tests used to determine the validity of exclusion clauses under
i) the common law
ii) the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999
Question 3The Tort of Professional Negligence strives to ensure that the integrity of the ‘special relationship’ between a professional and client is maintained. As such, common law reasoning aims to strike a reasonable balance between enforcing high standards of professional conduct whilst maintaining a fair and realistic understanding of the often innate risk in business transactions. Explain and analyse the above statement with regard to common law decisions explaining the tests and standards imposed when determining professional negligence under the law of tort.