Roman Kubiak and Oliver Rees look at the proposed changes scheduled to be brought in regarding ex gratia payments by the Charities Act 2022 as well as the recent announcements behind its delay The changes which are, subject to the government review, to be implemented by the Charities Act 2022 should allow charity trustees to …
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Kelly v Brennan [2020] provides welcome guidance on whether the court can rectify a foreign will and on time limits. Josh Lewison explains ‘Rectification is often run in the alternative to a construction claim. Construction claims have no time limit, so that if the court were inflexible in granting time extensions, the temptation would be …
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Josh Lewison asks whether AI could be used effectively to write wills ‘In my view, the introduction of AI to the will-drafting landscape is unlikely to give rise to any greatly complex new problems in liability or redress.’ According to a recent survey, a large proportion of members of the public would not want to …
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Dreamvar has implications not only for conveyancers but for breach of trust claims. Claire-Marie Cornford and Sarah Smith explain ‘The Court of Appeal held that the purchase monies should have remained in the vendor’s solicitor’s client account pending either a genuine completion of the sale or further instructions from the purchaser’s solicitors.’ The recent case …
Continue reading "Dreamvar: Who bears the loss?"
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Dreamvar has implications not only for conveyancers but for breach of trust claims against professional trustees. Claire-Marie Cornford and Sarah Smith explain ‘It was accepted that there had been failures in the identification checks undertaken by OWC and MMS; however, in both cases the claims against the vendors’ solicitors were dismissed at first instance on …
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2017 #169The first appellant was a legal practitioner and a partner of the second appellant, a law firm. The solicitor received instructions from Jeffrey Doddridge (who was 77 years old at the time) to prepare his will, by which the entirety of his estate was to pass to the respondent, Roger Calvert, whom Mr Doddridge treated as his son. Mr Doddridge made no provision for his daughter by his first marriage. She brought a claim under the Testator’s Family Maintenance Act 1912 (Tas) (the TFM Act), and was successful in obtaining a court order that provision be made out of the clients estate. The co...
Scott Allen and Josh Folkard highlight a case brought by disappointed beneficiaries against a financial adviser ‘The judge’s decision that a frustrated beneficiary claim could potentially be advanced by reference to any of the three potential tests for liability in tort could, if applied more widely, introduce uncertainty into what has generally been seen as …
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Alexander Learmonth examines the effect of the Supreme Court’s decision on the costs of the claim for rectification of a will in Marley v Rawlings [2014] ‘When advising clients contemplating the risks of litigation, litigators should continue to adopt a cautious approach; clients must be ready to negotiate in good faith, rather than relying on …
Continue reading "Trust And Probate Claims: Counting the cost"
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Edward Hicks explores the implications of Re Catling [2014] ‘The Ministry of Justice has recently rejected regulation of the will-writing sector. This case is an illustration of the potential disastrous consequences of allowing unregulated so-called “professionals” to act in this sector.’ In 2005 Mrs Catling was an elderly widow. She had eight children. She was …
Continue reading "Wills: A will writer’s work of fiction"
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Stuart Adams discusses the correct procedure for the safe custody and registration of wills ‘When a solicitor takes a will into safe custody they are required to make arrangements to ensure that it is securely stored until such time as it shall be needed.’ It is often said that a will is one of the …
Continue reading "Wills: Lost and found"
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