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No one knows when death will come calling and it is equally a truism that, if you fail to make a professionally drafted will, you store up trouble for your loved ones after you are gone. As an unusual Family Court ruling showed, that is particularly so if...

Boundaries between properties are usually marked by a line on a small-scale Land Registry plan but they may be invisible on the ground. Precisely that difficulty was the root cause of a bitter dispute between owners of two riverside homes. The owners could...

Businesses that operate in highly regulated fields can be permanently shut down at the stroke of an official pen. However, as a case concerning the wholesale liquor trade made plain , the law requires that such decisions are reasonable. The case involved a...

There can be few questions of greater importance than 'Who is my parent?'. A judge made that point in taking the unprecedented step of enabling rectification of an adopted woman's birth certificate to reflect the identity of her natural father. The...

Directors who cause insolvent companies to trade when there is no reasonable prospect of creditors being paid put not just their livelihoods but their careers on the line. That was certainly so in the case of a media company director who was disqualified...

In a ruling which will be greeted with joy by the growing community of self-builders , a couple who made a very handsome return on their 'Grand Designs'-style project have been relieved of a six-figure Capital Gains Tax (CGT) bill. The couple bought a plot...

Most people understand that companies have legal identities separate from the individuals who control them. The application of that basic principle can, however, be problematic and certainly posed a difficult conundrum in a case concerning an agricultural...

Lasting powers of attorney (LPAs) enable thousands of vulnerable people to have their financial and other affairs managed by others whom they trust. However, as a High Court case showed , it is vital to remember that they can only be granted by those who...

In divorce proceedings, those who make overly ambitious financial claims or fail to enter into reasonable negotiations are highly likely to end up worse off. The point was powerfully made by a case in which a bitterly opposed former couple ran up more than...

When buying properties that comprise more than one residence, multiple dwellings relief (MDR) is available against Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT). As a First-tier Tribunal (FTT) ruling showed , however, both the availability and extent of such relief is often...