LawSkills Articles

This is a very interesting judgment by Lord Justice Baker that concerns two applications brought by the Public Guardian, and made under section 23 and Schedule 1 paragraph 11 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, in relation to the validity of the [...]

Lord Templeman is famous for being the law lord who set down the ‘golden rule’ in relation to Will drafting in the case of Re Simpson. Ironically, there is a dispute over his last Will between the stepchildren of his second wife and his own [...]

All probate practitioners will remember the 2017 storm caused by the callous and unprincipled attempt by Government to hike up probate fees for bereaved clients through the statutory instrument procedure. Hopefully, you all got involved in [...]

Most Practitioners would probably consider themselves unlucky to be presented with a missing beneficiary problem more than once a year. However, it does occur and when it does it is vital that the PR can provide good quality advice to his or her [...]

As every student or practitioner knows there are three elements to proprietary estoppel, as confirmed in Thorner v Major [2009] 1WLR 776, namely; A representation or assurance made to the claimant; Reliance on that assurance by the claimant; and [...]

When we decided to launch Executor Solutions we spent a lot of time speaking to solicitors trying to work out exactly what services they required from a service provider. One thing that kept coming up was the problem of valuing property. We [...]

The making of gifts by attorneys regularly crops up in cases before the CoP usually because the attorney has overstepped the mark and retrospective approval is sought or the misbehaviour is so severe as to justify the Court removing the [...]

An anonymous utility company created an Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) – a discretionary trust - the object of which was to encourage or facilitate the holding of shares in the utility company for the benefit of the employees. The EBT held 73% of [...]

The mist, or should I say fog, was definitely around one morning as I tried in vain to fly to Manchester airport to give a presentation in the city and I had to revert to good old fashioned train travel. It felt like something of a metaphor – in [...]

This case is a significant case on how certain benefits should apply consistently to both married and unmarried couples when they are primarily directed to benefit their children. It is largely concerned with the compatibility of the UK [...]