Disputed Wills & Proabte Opinions Archives

Last week a farmer’s daughter dubbed a ‘real life Cinderella’ by the media won her case for a fair share of her parent’s £7 million estate, after suing them for changing their Will. The woman, who was regularly left to work at the family farm while her sisters pursued their own interests, had been promised that the farm would be left to her in return for her contribution. However in 2009 her parents reneged on this promise and changed their Will to leave all three siblings an equal share. A bitter family dispute followed culminating in a decision by the Court that the parents should be held accountable for the promises they made to their daughter.

You only get one chance to have your dying wishes met – the importance of making end of life plans

This week sees the fifth annual Dying Matters Awareness Week. With a focus on ‘You Only Die Once’, the coalition, which was set up in 2009 to change public knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards dying, death and bereavement, is hoping to raise awareness of the importance of making proper end of life plans. To coincide with the week long awareness raising event, Dying Matters has released the results of a recent survey which show that millions of Britons are failing to make adequate plans for their death and don’t know the wishes of their loved ones.

Who decides what happens to my body when I die?

Not many of us wish to consider this whilst we are alive. We assume that there will never be an argument about whether you are cremated or buried, or where you are buried. Unfortunately, with the modern family, this can become a problem. In law, no one owns a corpse. However the primary duty to…

Deathbed gifts – probate litigation

It is a fairly common scene in films and on television to see a dying person (the Donor), lay in bed and clearly in their final few minutes, speaking with their nearest and dearest (the Donee) and then offering a valuable trinket or other gift and saying that they want the person to have it,…

Inheritance disputes for cohabitees and civil partners

With the recent dramatic increase in property values and the emergence of a Society that is not afraid of seeking resolution of disputes through the Courts, wills and inheritance disputes have increased substantially. At the same time, there has been a marked increase in the number of couples choosing to cohabit rather than marry. In…

Increase in disputes relating to Wills and estates

Maybe it’s because over recent years the size of estates have grown so significantly because of the rise in property prices that we have seen a remarkable increase in cases where family members are challenging Wills or Estates (or in many instances due to the lack of a Will). What do these cases comprise of…

Coronation Street’s Baldwins do battle

Has Coronation Street got a warning message for us all? Many of us will continue to be transfixed about the storyline following the death of Mike Baldwin and the battle between his two sons, Danny and Adam. But what is the underlying message behind all of this? The facts: Mike died having been diagnosed with…

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