Featured Articles

by DAVID BUNKER AS AN ACCOUNTANT, there are few commercial matters which are more disappointing than to see a management buy-out descend into a dispute between buyer and seller. After all, the transaction nearly always starts with the best of intentions; the existing owner is desirous to sell and is often anxious to see the management team which has helped to develop a business have the opportunity to take it on and profit directly from their hard endeavours.

The existence of a ready-made purchaser has other obvious benefits to the seller: certainty, the lack of selling agent costs and a saving in time among them. For those reasons the terms offered to the purchaser are often beneficial. Either the purchase price is discounted or the terms for payment of the price are extended.

TONY SYKES of The IT Group has been instructed in many groundbreaking IT disputes. Here he sets out some observations and opinions on the types of disputes, why they occur, and gives some practical advice on how to manage the cost of expert assistance.

FORENSIC COMPUTER analysis and early document review can sometimes seem expensive in the early stages of an IT dispute; but in reality, in many cases, the really high costs occur later in the process and having the results of forensic computer analysis and a well researched expert opinion on the documents and disclosure can lead to huge savings in the long run.

Dr ANDREI SEMIKHODSKI of Medical Genomics Ltd looks at some statistical misconceptions THE PROBATIVE value of DNA evidence is reflected by the value of the probability of a random match between DNA profiles from the crime scene sample and the accused.

Any probabilistic approach introduces uncertainly into the interpretation of scientific evidence which, if not properly understood, can give rise to misunderstanding of the evidence and inaccurate conclusions as to what the evidence really means. Some of those errors affect the way random match probability is calculated; others affect how DNA data is interpreted in court.

by GARY WHITWORTH FIFireE FIFSM FIMgt MIFPO MIIRSM Dip CFPA[Europe], IFSM-accredited fire risk assessor and registered expert witness.

THE REGULATORY Reform [Fire Safety] Order 2005 (known briefly as ‘the RRO’) came into force on 1 October 2006. The delay in its introduction was due mainly to the availability of a large number of Guidance Documents which covered the whole range of different types of property embraced by the legislation: offices, shops, factories, warehouses, sleeping accommodation (including flats), residential care premises, educational premises, small and medium-sized places of assembly (including places of worship), large places of assembly, theatres, cinemas and similar premises, open air events and venues, healthcare premises and transport premises. There are very few properties outside the scope of the Act; they include ‘single private dwellings’, ‘aircraft’, ‘locomotives or rolling stock’, ‘mines (other than buildings on the surface of a mine)’, ‘borehole sites’, ‘offshore installations’ and ‘ships and normal ship-board activities’.