Company News
C'est Bon, Le Pre-Nup
2nd February 2012
Although pre-nuptial agreements are persuasive rather than binding in the British courts, a recent ruling of the High Court on a French ‘pre-nup’...
Conduct Determines Legal Ownership
31st January 2012
When a property is owned by two people as joint tenants (where the title to the property is owned by each of them, so that if one dies, the other inherits the property by survivorship), each of them is considered to be the legal owner of the...
Six-Figure Settlement for Botched Heart Surgery
27th January 2012
A North Somerset man has received a six-figure sum in compensation after a mistake during an operation on his heart led to him having to have a pacemaker fitted. Steve Edwards, 51, an NHS manager from...
If You do Not Understand it, Take Advice
25th January 2012
The wave of litigation which has followed the turmoil in the financial markets as a result of the credit crunch has led to many decisions that have resulted in those suing financial institutions being left to lick their wounds (and also facing...
Lotto Win Not Part of Family Assets
23rd January 2012
A court ruling that a spouse’s lottery winnings were not ‘matrimonial property’ so were not subject to the usual rule of equal division...
Government to Outlaw Squatting in Residential Premises
20th January 2012
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has now published its response to the recent consultation on proposals to criminalise...
Father's Gifts to Daughter Challenged by Sister
17th January 2012
When a Jersey multi-millionaire gave most of his assets away to one of his daughters in the months prior to his death, leaving an estate of less than £100,000 to be shared by all three of his children, it was perhaps inevitable that a...
Tribunal Confirms No Compensation for Rock Shareholders
12th January 2012
The scheme set up by the Government to assess the value of Northern Rock shares, for the purposes of deciding whether or not compensation was due to shareholders, concluded that without government support the shares would be valueless.
HMRC Tighten Property Ownership Disclosure
9th January 2012
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have had difficulties in the past in checking on property sales to ensure that the ‘principal private residence’ exemption for Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is being used correctly. Notwithstanding the...
Swiss Assets Unfrozen by Court
5th January 2012
When a marriage or civil partnership breaks up and there is a significant risk that one party may move assets (normally cash in bank accounts) ‘out of sight’, it is sometimes possible to obtain a ‘freezing order’ to...
Will Stands Against Challenge
3rd January 2012
A recent case illustrates how strong the evidence must be before the presumption that a person making a will has the mental capacity to do so will be...
House Sales - Replying to Enquiries
30th December 2011
When a house is bought or sold, the prospective purchaser makes what are called ‘pre-contract enquiries’ in order to establish the exact details of the property being bought. These are normally in the form of a standard set of...
Solid Obstruction in Road Is Authority's Responsibility
28th December 2011
Most people probably do not realise that a highway authority’s responsibility for keeping the roads safe to use is very limited. In practical terms, so many things can happen to a road that it would be unreasonable for the authority to...
Dealing With an Insolvent Estate
23rd December 2011
One of the rules that applies to the administration of estates is that whilst a person appointed as executor under a will can refuse to accept the appointment, once an executor ‘intermeddles’ in the estate, in principle he or she...
Children's Interests Need to be Assessed Individually
20th December 2011
The cardinal rule in proceedings involving children is that the welfare of the child comes first. In some cases, the interests of individual children in a family are sufficiently different for them to be considered separately.
IHT Planning Exercise Fails Due to Covenants
15th December 2011
In order for an asset to be removed from an estate for Inheritance Tax (IHT) purposes, the donor of the asset must retain no benefit from it after the legal title to it passes. Complex ‘reservation of benefit’ legislation exists to...
Wind Turbines - New Planning Regulations on the Way
12th December 2011
The UK has been proceeding apace in its attempts to develop ‘green’ energy, and wind turbines are appearing all over the country – including in such seemingly unlikely spots as beside the M25.
Long-Term Gym Membership Contracts Unfair
9th December 2011
The High Court has upheld a challenge by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to various terms found in some gym membership contracts – most notably lengthy...
Court Reversal for Vendor Who Didn't Know What He Had Sold
9th December 2011
The recent case in which the court was asked to rule regarding a vacant flat that was part of a property sold at auction – the existence of which neither...
Husband Loses Appeal Over 163;7 Million Trust Fund Assets
9th December 2011
A husband has lost his appeal against an order made in July 2010 for ancillary relief (the legal term for financial provision for an ex-spouse) that put family...
