WHAT HAPPENS IF SOMEONE MAKES A COMPLETELY UNMERITORIOUS CLAIM AGAINST THE LEGAL VALIDITY OF A WILL If such a claim is made (that a Will is invalid) and either no grounds to support such a claim are provided or those that are have no foundation in law or are entirely without merit, then typically a Caveat might have been entered to prevent the lawful administration of the estate whilst the […]
HOW TO CONTEST A WILL – DOES A RICH BROTHER DESERVE A SHARE OF WILL? As reported in The Times (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/our-rich-brother-doesnt-deserve-equal-share-of-will-say-sisters-dlrhwl9vf) two sisters considered their rich brother didn’t deserve a share of their late mother’s estate which was worth 1.5m. Their mother had split the estate equally but according to The Times article he should have been entitled to less than the third he had been left as “he is […]
HOW TO CONTEST A WILL – HOW THE ADULT CHILD CAN BRING A CLAIM FOR FINANCIAL PROVISION UNDER THE INHERITANCE (PROVISION FOR FAMILY AND DEPENDANTS) ACT 1975 In my previous Blog on this topic, I described that there are limited grounds to dispute or contest the validity of a Will and how an adult child can do it by bringing a claim for financial provision from his or her parent’s […]
HOW TO CONTEST A WILL – HOW HARD IS IT FOR AN ADULT CHILD TO BRING A CLAIM FOR FINANCIAL PROVISION UNDER THE INHERITANCE (PROVISION FOR FAMILY AND DEPENDANTS) ACT 1975 There are limited grounds to dispute or contest the validity of a Will. By far the most common is a claim by an adult child for financial provision from his or her parent’s estate, pursuant to section 2 of […]
HOW TO CONTEST A WILL – THE CAPACITY REQUIRED TO MAKE ONE There are limited grounds to dispute or contest the validity of a Will. By far the most common (which is usually the easiest to prove), is that the person making the Will (called the “testator”) lacked sufficient mental capacity to do so. Dispelling the myths We are often told that a particular individual cannot have had sufficient mental […]
This unfortunate case is reported in The Times and a number of papers. An earl’s daughter who “hated” her family’s aristocratic lifestyle has lost her attempt at claiming a larger share of his £1.3m fortune (she appears to have been left only £20,000 by his Will and she might well have lost that to legal costs as well). https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/earl-s-wild-child-daughter-lady-tara-wellesley-loses-claim-to-share-of-1-3m-fortune-d5k02hhl8 In The Times report a number of facts are mentioned which […]
1. DO YOU WORK ON EVERY SINGLE WILL DISPUTE CASE WHICH IS REFERRED TO YOU? We will only work on a will dispute and will contest case where we think we can win it. This means that the no win no fee arrangement in will dispute and will contest claims operates as a natural filter to ensure that our clients do not waste time in dealing with a contest over […]
1. WHAT PERCENTAGE OF YOUR WILL DISPUTE CLIENTS DO YOU WORK FOR UNDER A NO WIN NO FEE ARRANGEMENT? We act for about 99% of our will dispute and will contest clients under a no win no fee arrangement. 2. WHAT DO YOUR WILL DISPUTE AND WILL CONTEST CLIENTS HAVE TO PAY UPFRONT AND/OR AS THE CLAIM PROCEEDS UNDER A NO WIN NO FEE ARRANGEMENT? Our will dispute and will […]
1. IS IT TRUE THAT I HAVE ONLY SIX MONTHS FOLLOWING THE DEATH TO CONTEST A WILL? There is no time limit if you are claiming that a Will is not legally valid, because, for instance: • The person making it didn’t sign it (their signature was forged) • The person making it didn’t sign it in front of two witnesses who also signed (a legal requirement under section 9 […]
In the Sunday Times on 21 October 2018 a family Will dispute involving a £28m fortune was reported on in detail (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/family-torn-apart-by-28m-fortune-fp5fnmsbn), and was cited as “extremely bitter, long-running and costly”. The article appears to have arisen as a result of a published appeal relating to costs associated with the dispute (Griffin v Higgs and others 2018 EWHC 2498 (ch) – see https://www.casemine.com/judgement/uk/5bbc78c02c94e077fac1106b). What was this will dispute case about? […]
What is at risk if you contest a Will? What I am describing is a situation where the legal validity of a Will is challenged; the typical grounds being that the testator was subject to undue influence and/or because he or she didn’t or couldn’t have understood what was going on when the Will was made (typically because of the effects of an illness such as dementia).If the legal validity […]
A lesson from the past? What can happen to your inheritance when your mother or father remarries? In a heart wrenching article, Jane Cassell recounts how her mother remarried when she was 9 years old and then a year later on holiday in north Africa, died from a heart attack (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/know-bitter-experience-parents-need-make-new-will-remarry). She hadn’t made a Will. It seems there may have been a previous Will. However, as Jane Cassell writes, […]
REMOVING AN EXECUTOR IN A WILL CONTEST CLAIM (before a Grant of Probate) Here is the scenario. There is no Will and one of the potential beneficiaries who is also a potential Executor owns a property jointly with the deceased and by that joint ownership is entitled to 50% of the proceeds of the property with the remaining 50% falling into the estate to be divided amongst a number of […]
What are the potential pitfalls? • To contest the legal validity of a Will you need to have an interest in the outcome of your dispute – for instance, if you prove the Will is not valid, you must be a beneficiary under a previous valid Will or if there is no previous Will by the rules of intestacy (under which in general you will only be a beneficiary if […]
HOW DISINHERITED INFANT CHILDREN CAN INHERIT (and dispute a Will) What can be done when infant children have been disinherited?• In England and Wales it is perfectly legal (but immoral) for a father (or mother) to leave infant children nothing by the terms of their Wills • If so, what can be done?• The state has intervened in these unusual circumstances (not least to protect unrelated tax payers from this […]
HOW TO CONTEST A WILL WITHOUT CHALLENGING ITS LEGAL VALIDITY (part 2) This is the second part of our two part blog about contesting the legal validity of a Will, without actually challenging its legal validity. In our first part we explained how the deceased, who was married to our client (her husband), left him nothing under the terms of her Will, because she mistakenly believed that he would automatically […]
HOW TO CONTEST A WILL WITHOUT CHALLENGING ITS LEGAL VALIDITY (part 1 of 2) This is another example of a recent Will contest claim involving the widower of the deceased. In this case, our client who had been married to the deceased for over 20 years and whose older wife (he was 12 years her junior) sadly died prematurely due to cancer. Not only did this happen but when her […]
This is an example of a typical recent Will contest claim involving a so-called adult child pursuing a claim for financial provision under section 2 of the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1975/63). To explain, a claim under the 1975 Inheritance Act, is not a claim that there is something wrong with the Will, rather that it unreasonably fails to make financial provision. A claim of this […]
The tragic case of Sotherby’s legend, Nicholas Rayner, was reported in the Daily Mail on Tuesday 31 July 2018. Once a high-flying playboy who had excelled at the Cresta Run, raced his classic Aston Martin across the frozen lake at St Moritz and who had flown his Auster plane in all weathers, once even damaging its wing when he flew too low hitting telephone cables, by 2010 he was a […]
We have all seen this – Auntie Hilda, a frail, vulnerable and yet compos mentis 86 year old spinster has trouble getting to the bank in her local town, where, on a weekly basis, she withdraws £100 cash for her shopping, newspaper and gin. The same bank account holds all of her worldly savings which includes a large lump sum in life insurance which she received after her sister’s death. […]