Insights

A disproportionate amount of challenges against Wills are ones in which the deceased has left everything to animals.  I personally have an interest in such cases, as one of the first cases on the...

Most fundamentally disabled people are in receipt of some form of state assistance, either in the form of benefits or care services. Much of this is means tested, hence if they receive a legacy, it of...

I wrote recently on  death bed gifts, outlining the surprising change in the law of donatio mortis causa, following the case of Vallee –v- Birchwood, which made such gifts easy to effect. Perhap...

Further reforms to address the alleged costs of litigation went through on the 9th March 2015. These reforms introduced “enhanced” court fees whose aim is to tackle the cost to the state in provid...

The case of Re Estate of Joyce Smith (deceased) in 2014 established that the legal test to be applied when assessing whether a person had mental capacity to make a gift, is not the test set out under...

In the unusual circumstances where someone disappears without a trace, the family can be left in limbo without the right to a death certificate or a grant of probate.  For example Richey Edwards, the...

The general position in law is an assurance to do something is not enforceable without the person receiving something in exchange.  The court requires consideration to enforce a promise.  The except...

It is possible for the child of someone who has died to bring a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 for provision from the estate.  This is often crucial in the...