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CORONAVIRUS AND CONTRACTS: FORCE MAJEURE

30/06/202203/03/2020 by dwillis

The outbreak of coronavirus (also known as COVID-19) is having a significant impact on the ability of businesses to perform their contracts. As of 03 March 2020 there have been 2809 cases reported and 56 deaths. It is very likely to get much worse in the UK before it gets better. Businesses have to be … Read more

Zero Hours or Contracts with No Guaranteed Hours of Work

30/06/202218/02/2020 by dwillis

A zero hour contract is just as it sounds, a contract with zero hours or to put it another way, a contract with no guaranteed hours of work. In other words workers are not guaranteed any hours of work whatsoever from an employer/agency. Zero hour contracts are widely used in many sectors including the public … Read more

Professional Negligence with Wills, Tax and Probate

17/02/2020 by dwillis

Delay in preparing Will

The starting point is the House of Lords’ decision in White v Jones [1995] 2 AC 207 in which it was confirmed that that a solicitor or will draftsman may be liable to disappointed beneficiaries under a Will where the solicitor is guilty of undue delay in drawing up a Will for execution by the testator before the testator’s death.

In White v Jones the testator quarrelled with his two daughters, and executed a Will cutting them out of his estate. He was then reconciled with his daughters. On 17 July 1986 the defendant firm of solicitors received a letter from the testator asking them to prepare a new Will to

The law on mistake

17/02/202011/12/2019 by dwillis

Smith v Stanley [2019] 2 WLUK 174 has several points of interest. Reported mainly because the court intervened to correct the mistakes made, it is the mistakes themselves that are worth attention as they were easily made but carried serious consequences.

A testator died in 2015 leaving a pecuniary legacy of £4.2m to be held on trust for the benefit of his second wife for life, remainder to his children;

Delay in Probate will be over by Christmas

16/02/202011/12/2019 by dwillis

This is good news although the HMCTS didn’t say which Christmas!
In a meeting with the Law Society, HMCTS said grants of probate currently take around four weeks to be issued, but the process should take just two weeks by Christmas. It is also working to clear stopped applications that are blocking the system. HMCTS previously said the system would be back to normal in November.