Blog Articles
There have been two stories in the media recently which relate to the subject of Wills and Probate – an area which Lawson-West are experts in.
A woman who divorced her husband 15 years ago has won the right to remain being supported by her ex because she has spent all of the £230,000 she won in the divorce.
There has been a story is the press recently about a daughter who was written out of her mother's Will. The older lady passed away in 2004 and had been estranged from her daughter since 1978 when they fell out over the daughter’s choice of boyfriend.
Senior judges at the Court of Appeal recently ruled that a woman cannot divorce her husband on the grounds which she cited. The woman states she is "trapped in a loveless and desperately unhappy marriage."
You Gov recently surveyed more than 1,000 cohabiting couples. The results show that 1/3rd believed that purchasing a property together afforded them the same legal rights as a married couple.
Property website Zoopla carried out research which concluded that it only takes people a mere 27 minutes to decide whether or not they wish to purchase the property they are viewing.
Settling finances as part of a divorce can be complex. A Financial Remedy Order covers the financial aspects of your divorce including the house, the car, the savings, the pensions, the bank accounts, the contents of the house, the debts, the income, the outgoings, etc...
In a landmark decision today, it has been decided by the Supreme Court that the Government’s decision back in 2013 to charge Employment Tribunal fees was unlawful and will be quashed.
Recently, the University of Exeter carried out a study that focussed on the attitudes of almost 300 workers regarding a fictional female employee who was expecting a baby and her intentions towards the duration of her maternity leave and return to work.
Is a £1 starting price for a property at auction the lowest on record? A Liverpool based Estate Agency have put the low price on a one bedroom flat in order to help first time buyers get on the property ladder...
The support offered by the employer when she first received the diagnosis was as you would expect – she was shown sympathy, concern and arrangements were made to fit treatments and appointments in around her work.
When a relationship breaks down and the couple decide to divorce, their finances are taken into account as part of the asset division process.
Lawson West Solicitors in Leicester has secured membership to the Law Society's Conveyancing Quality Scheme - the mark of excellence for the home buying process...
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has lost its bid to charge inheritance tax on farmhouses where the farmland and farmhouse are not owned by the same person...
David Cameron has announced recently that the government will put forward proposals for a transferable tax allowance for married couples and civil partners "shortly". This could be as soon as the Autumn...
The government’s department for Business, Innovation & Skills has confirmed that it will look at zero hours contracts, due to concern about their misuse by some employers...
The Law Society recently announced that it would create an accreditation scheme for firms providing Will-writing, probate and estate administration services in order to differentiate solicitors from other providers...
It has been reported that many women fall into debt due to banks refusing to stop ex-husbands raiding joint accounts...
If you buy a property with someone else be it husband, wife, partner, friend or family member, it is important to ensure your intentions as to the co-ownership are clear to avoid possible difficulties in the future...
Our clients were buying a freehold property with a mortgage. The house was located on a private road which we discovered was not an adopted highway and had not been registered at HM Land Registry. Because of this, our clients had no legal right of way over..
It has been reported recently that an Air New Zealand flight attendant who had been dismissed has been forced to hand over her bank records and Facebook pages to bosses in a row over sick leave...
A recent survey by law firm Slater & Gordon has found that over a quarter of mothers in the UK feel discriminated against at work. Of 1,975 women surveyed...
The Office for National Statistics has revealed figures that show the number of divorces among those over 60 is rising. The trend began in the 1990s and contrasts with falling divorce rates for all other age groups.
By the time she died in 2011 at age 104, the daughter of America’s second-richest man, Huguette Clark had lived as a recluse for more than half a century, spending her last 20 years confined to a New York hospital room...
An employment tribunal is considering the case of a female lawyer who was made redundant from her £100,000-a-year job when she asked to extend her six-month maternity leave due to suffering complications giving birth...
Outlining the importance of fathers being involved in their children’s lives, a judge has ruled that a vegetarian mother who stopped her son from seeing his father for reasons which included a fear he might feed him meat must let him see the child or risk the Judge ordering that the child should live with his father...
A new study has found that lack of supply and growth in London has driven up the national average house price by 0.5% for the second month in a row...
Lib Dem peer Lord Marks has introduced a new cohabitation bill, following calls from lawyers and campaign groups for laws that give the growing number of people who live together specific rights...
Under current legislation, children and cohabitees who find themselves excluded in someone’s will are unable to contest it if the deceased didn’t live in England or Wales...
New research suggests that nearly two thirds of women have been the victim of inappropriate behaviour from a male work colleague, with 21% of those classing the behaviour as persistent...
New research commissioned by the London Central Portfolio shows that the jump to 3% Stamp Duty on property purchases over £250,000 is having a ‘devastating’ effect on the market...
The Relationships Alliance, a new group of politicians and charities, is warning that relationship breakdown will cost the UK economy almost £50bn this year. It says the disintegration of romantic, social and family relationships costs the average taxpayer around £1,500 per year...
Following a theme addressed in popular ITV drama Downton Abbey recently, The Law Society is advising the public about the importance of writing a will...
A Pagan witch has won a religious discrimination case and has been awarded more than £15,000 in what is believed to be the first successful claim of its kind in Britain...
A new study has shown that one in eight divorced or separated fathers has lost all contact with their children. It is thought that almost a million men in the UK have dependent children that don’t live with them, with almost 130,000 of these having no contact with them at all...
The first recommendations in response to Iain Duncan-Smith’s Family Stability Review, launched to gather ideas on how to keep families together, have now been published...
Following comments from Chancellor George Osborne that the country can ‘now afford’ to raise the National Minimum Wage, the government is cracking down on employers who break the law by failing to pay staff the legal minimum, currently £6.31 per hour for workers over 21...
The Supreme Court has ruled that disputed Wills should be interpreted using the same rules at those that apply to the interpretation of contracts. The judgment was made in a case involving mirror Wills, where the husband and wife had signed each other’s Wills by mistake...
English Heritage, the body responsible for around 400 historical sites across the country, has accepted a Crown Censure for safety failings after a young boy was injured when a glass floor panel broke at Yarmouth Castle on the Isle of Wight...
An analysis of official divorce figures between 1971 and 2011 has shown an increase in the number of divorces where women have 'behaved unreasonably'. Separations for this reason have risen dramatically over the last forty years, potentially because of women's increasing financial independence leading to a greater willingness to assert themselves...
There has been a lot of news coverage about the Government Help to Buy Scheme recently. The Scheme is designed to help people who cannot afford large deposits to get on to the property ladder. This in turn keeps the property market moving...
The Law Society has issued controversial guidance to solicitors which may mean they are able to write “Sharia compliant” Islamic wills that deny women an equal share of inheritances and exclude unbelievers altogether...
Employees who are working illegally, e.g. without a necessary work permit or without paying tax, cannot bring unfair dismissal claims if their employment is terminated. However, a recent case shows that the position is different in relation to discrimination claims...
Figures released recently show that battles in Court where an executor of a Will is accused of mishandling an estate have multiplied threefold in the past 12 months...
Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna has said that the next Labour Government will scrap the Government’s employment tribunal system and replace it with a fairer one that doesn’t deter employees who have been treated unfairly at work from making a claim...
Alison Sharland, who claims her former husband cheated her out of millions in their divorce settlement, has now been given permission to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold the original sum...
An employment tribunal has ruled that a deputy head teacher who was sacked after giving former pupils a tour of her school building was unfairly dismissed...
As property lawyers there’s nothing better than acting for a seller or buyer whose property does not bring up any ‘issues.’ These ‘issues’ can arise from search results e.g. the environmental report carried out by a buyer comes back as adverse, the local authority search reveals the passageway to the rear of the property is private, or from a check of the deeds...
