Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Summer 2023 #191On 18 February 2011, Ray McElroy passed away, survived by his wife of five months, Lynne, and his brother, Paul. Prior to his marriage to Lynne, Ray had made a will pursuant to which Paul was his sole beneficiary. After marrying Lynne, Ray did not execute a further will. On 24 August 2011, Lynne was granted letters of administration in respect of Ray’s estate, having sworn that Ray was domiciled in England and Wales and was intestate. Lynne proceeded to administer Ray’s estate and distribute the assets, including selling a property within the estate in part exchange for a new residence i...
Jemma Pollock highlights issues of transparency versus privacy in the family courts following the judgment in Barclay v Barclay The courts have discretion to shift the balance as to privacy in favour of transparency, and recent case law evidences a trend toward that approach, particularly in cases such as Barclay where there are issues of …
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Karen Holden examines cases involving complex business assets and the approach of the courts to such assets The court will have ultimate discretion when dividing assets on divorce and attributing weight to the values of assets, guided by fundamental principles of sharing, needs and fairness. The courts have various powers when dealing with company assets, …
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Shlomit Glaser and Tim Jones examine issues of privacy and confidentiality in family proceedings ‘There remains a judicial discretion to determine whether the media can be in attendance and the extent to which what they witness may be reported.’ Confidentiality can be a significant issue in family proceedings for many divorcing couples. This is particularly …
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Vanessa McMurtrie examines the lessons to be learnt from the outcome in the long-running case of Wyatt v Vince ‘Good practice means we should always be looking for, and encouraging our clients to consider, the possibility of compromise.’ If ever there was a good example of why divorcees of modest means should agree a clean-break …
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Patricia Robinson considers best practice when dealing with disclosure The parties’ duty to the court to provide full, frank and clear disclosure is absolute, and also a breach by commission is serious and amounts to plain perjury, whereas a breach by omission can be excused as an oversight. As set out in the Family Procedure …
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James Brown revisits issues of privacy in family proceedings ‘Family proceedings are not, and should not, be seen to be as a separate category from other civil proceedings save for in recognised classes of cases or other situations that manifestly require permanent confidentiality.’ Two recent cases (A mbrosiadou v Coward [2010] and Lykiardopulo v Lykiardopulo …
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Andrew Meehan considers the courts’ approach to privacy in ancillary relief proceedings ‘There is no public policy objection to parties opting for an arbitrator, taking cases out of the court system by way of alternative dispute resolution, collaborative practice or non-binding arbitration in order to preserve privacy.’ The Court of Appeal recently considered, in Lykiardopulo …
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