Staff

By Claire Wilson Associate Solicitor Two sisters have been allowed to correct an error in a family trust that would have prevented them from benefiting in the way intended when the document was drawn up. The sisters were aged 58 and 56. When their mother died in 2005, they had inherited equally her 50% share of the house that she and their father owned. For tax reasons, they created a…

By Carol Fish Head of Personal Injury As it stands there is no specific requirement under UK law for compulsory motor insurance on private land and indeed many private land owners do not insure vehicles that they do not use on a road or public place for example, a quad bike on a farm. In a recent case an individual was rendered tetraplegic when he was struck by a vehicle…

By Laura Bright Solicitor If you own a leasehold property and want to extend the length of the lease, or buy the property, the procedure (known as ‘enfranchisement’) is currently a complicated, costly and time consuming one.  Radical reforms to provide a better deal for leaseholders who want to purchase the freehold or to extend the lease of their home have been put forward by the Law Commission. The proposals…

By Carol Fish Head of Personal Injury Working parents who lose a child will soon be entitled to claim parental leave. The new Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay Act will give all employed parents the right to two weeks’ leave if they lose a child under the age of 18 or suffer a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy. Employed parents will also be able to claim pay for this period, subject to meeting…

By Jonathan Carroll, Head of Agriculture  Yet again a farming family dispute has led to huge legal costs, when a decent partnership agreement would have prevented it for a tiny fraction of the sums lost. The Wild family farmed Beard Hall Farm from 1965, which was owned by dad, Ben.  Ben and his wife Jean brought their son, Malcolm, into the partnership in 1978 when he was just 16, but…