1975 Act Claims: The Spouse’s Inheritance Act Claim

March 14th 2025 | contested probate

Inheritance Act Claims are based upon reasonable financial provision.  Reasonable financial provision is considered according to the following criteria: For civil partners, former spouses (who have not remarried or formed a new civil partnership), children and dependants it is that of ‘such financial provision as it would be reasonable in read more...

1975 Act Claims: Conditional Fee Arrangements

February 19th 2025 | contested probate

Continuing our series of articles about 1975 Act Claims (claims for reasonable financial provision from a deceased person's estate resulting in a maintenance award), I write now to address the topic of funding such a claim. One way to do this is by entering into a conditional fee agreement (CFA). read more...

Do Executors Have To Step Down When Asked?

June 14th 2024 | contested probate

The role of executor can be a complex one, and we have warned in a previous blog  about the need to think very carefully before appointing friends or family members as executors. The task can be very involved and time consuming. It involves gathering in estate assets, preparing accounts, declaring read more...

1975 Act Claims: Adult Children

March 13th 2024 | contested probate

In our previous blog , we discussed the position of minor children in bringing claims against the estate of a deceased person. Claims by children generally mean claims against the estate of the deceased’s child or a ‘child of the family’ e.g. stepchildren. This blog discusses the position of adult read more...

1975 Act Claims: Can You Claim Against Your In-Laws Estates?

February 6th 2024 | contested probate

Claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975 – or as they are often called Inheritance Act claims, or 1975 claims – are claims that a deceased person has failed to make reasonable provision for the applicant in their will or that reasonable provision has not been read more...

Why Has There Been An Increase In Inheritance Disputes?

January 24th 2024 | contested probate

A recent report by the Times has shown that court cases relating to disputed wills have increased by over 34% since 2017 and by more than 140% in the past decade. However, these figures should be taken with a pinch of salt as this only represents the disputes that end read more...

What To Do If You Have Been Left Out of a Parent’s Will

June 21st 2023 | contested probate

In the UK, we have the intestacy rules which say what will happen to your estate if you die without  leaving a will.   There is a set order of priority in which people will inherit your estate.  The intestacy rules are complex but in brief: If you die leaving a read more...

My Partner has Died, Can I Stay in the House?

March 31st 2023 | dispute resolution

If your partner has passed away, you may find yourself wondering what will happen to your living situation.  The answer really depends on a number of factors, including if the house was owned, by whom, and how. This blog considers some scenarios relating to owned property (not rented) and assumes read more...

How Do I Address A Judge?

December 9th 2022 | dispute resolution

When engaging in court proceedings, there are a number of different rules and protocols that must be followed. In particular, it is important that you address the Judge correctly when speaking in court as you always want to try and keep them on your side. The Lord Chief Justice and read more...

Put Up Or Shut Up: Dealing With Potential Will Validity Claims

June 9th 2022 | dispute resolution

The position for an executor where a person disputes the validity of a Will is extremely difficult. The job of the executor is to distribute the estate in accordance with the Will and in a reasonable timeframe, however if it is invalid, the estate may need to be distributed differently read more...

Litigation Privilege: The Dangers of Discussing Litigation in Emails

October 22nd 2019 | dispute resolution

We have discussed before in a previous blog post the difficulties in maintaining privilege in documents produced for employment cases within a company. However, there is similar difficulties in maintaining litigation privilege in commercial disputes. But what is privilege? In order to understand privilege, you need to understand the process read more...
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