I’m getting married but have had to postpone the wedding. Should I delay putting a prenuptial agreement in place until a later date?

You had until 23 April 2020 to submit your return in order to be considered for eligibility.

If a business has been provided with a loan from 23 March on commercial terms, providing the borrower meets the CBILS eligibility criteria, lenders have been asked to bring these facilities onto CBILS wherever possible (e.g. where the lender is accredited to offer the same facility through CBILS) and changes retrospectively applied as necessary. Please contact us if this applies to you and we can review facilities and advise upon the potential changes that may be made retrospectively to the benefit of the business.

Partner at Ward Hadaway Adrian Ballam talks to corporate finance expert and CBILS specialist Chris Silverwood (CorpFin and cashflow.co.uk) to explore the practical ins, outs, dos and don’ts of CBILS applications, answering the questions:

1. How are banks making their assessments of whether a business can afford a CBILS loan when for many they cannot accurately forecast their revenues for at least the next three months?
2. What are the red flags that banks are looking for when assessing whether or not to grant a request for a CBILS loan?
3. What cost mitigation measures should a business have already implemented prior to applying for a CBILS loan?
4. What level of information should a business provide to support a CBILS application?
5. What common mistakes are businesses making when applying for funding?
6. What general tips do you have for businesses seeking CBILS funding?

Click read more to view the video.

With the outbreak of coronavirus leading to a requirement for more employees to be working remotely, especially following Government advice that all non-essential travel including to and from work should be avoided, there has been an increased requirement for businesses to be more flexible in their approach to signing contracts.

The traditional approach has been for contracts to be printed and signed with a “wet ink” signature. However, this is not a strict legal requirement in the majority of circumstances and contracts can be formed without this degree of formality. English law recognises that contracts can be formed by electronic means – including the exchange of emails or the typing of a name into a document to signify agreement to it.

Whilst this approach offers a lot of flexibility, more sophisticated electronic signature tools are recommended for important documents, to enable the identity of the signatory to be validated and reduce the possibility of fraud.

If businesses are considering changing their contracting processes because of coronavirus, or because of a general shift towards paperless working, it is important to ensure that proper approval processes remain in place, and to consider whether a software tool should be used to complement them. Systems such as DocuSign are widely used.

There also remain some situations where legal advice is recommended before relying on an electronic signature:

• Where the other party is abroad – as local laws that are different from English law might apply
• If executing a deed – the law requires certain types of document to be executed as a deed (for example, transfers of land and powers of attorney), and the issues around electronic signature and witnessing are more complicated here

The Vice President of the COP, Mr Justice Hayden, has issued guidance to assist parties during this challenging time.

The latest guidance with all relevant updates on developments is available on the judiciary website here.