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Parental Responsibility

Family and MatrimonialBy sills August 19, 2016

Parental Responsibility In any dispute involving a child the starting point is Parental Responsibility. This term describes who in a child’s life has the legal right to make decisions about their welfare and upbringing and can cover making decisions such as which school they attend to giving consent for medical treatment. Who has parental responsibility? Mothers automatically have Parental Responsibility as do Fathers who are named on the child’s birth certificate or where the parents are married. Unmarried father’s can also obtain Parental Responsibility either by agreement with the mother or ultimately by a Court Order. Because having Parental Responsibility is important for anyone with day to day care of…

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Making a Will? You Can Make Whatever Bequests You Wish!

Legal NewsBy sills July 6, 2016

It seems only right that people can do what they want with their own money and can make whatever bequests they wish in their wills. In one case which underlined that fundamental freedom, a judge upheld a businessman’s right to cut his daughter out of his estate and leave his entire £2 million fortune to his girlfriend. The man was in a nursing home, suffering from cancer, and had only a few months to live when he changed his will, leaving everything he had to his girlfriend. Under a previous will, his daughter would have received £100,000. She argued that he was confused and lacked the required mental capacity to…

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Traffic Noise Blight Householders Win £125,000 Compensation

Legal NewsBy sills July 4, 2016

It is often thought that if a planning decision with which you are unhappy goes ahead and the development takes place, you must simply grin and bear it. This is not always the case. For example, if public construction works have an impact on the value of your home, you should take specialist legal advice to ensure that you are properly compensated for your loss. In one recent case, householders whose properties were blighted by a road building project secured a settlement of more than £125,000. Twelve homeowners argued that their properties had been devalued by the noise of traffic travelling along a newly constructed bypass. However, Transport for London,…

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Jersey Tax Avoidance Scheme Runs Aground

Legal NewsBy sills July 1, 2016

The lengths to which people go to avoid paying taxes are sometimes surprising, and the schemes that are created to facilitate tax avoidance come under close scrutiny from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). So it was that a tax avoidance scheme based on a Jersey Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) led to an appearance before the First-tier Tribunal (FTT). The LLP ‘traded’ in the UK and it contained 99 members who put more than £62 million into it. The LLP used the cash to buy the rights to the dividends from a company registered in the Cayman Islands and by a convoluted scheme claimed that it incurred a trading loss, even…

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Sixteen Old Enough to Banish Parental Knowledge

Legal NewsBy sills June 28, 2016

The respective rights of children and their parents has long been a tricky subject for the courts. A recent case on this topic involved a couple’s adopted 16-year-old child, who was born female but wished to change gender and attended the Tavistock Gender Identity Clinic. He changed his name to a male name by deed poll. His adoptive parents did not come to terms with the decision and used his prior name in conversation with him, which caused him distress and made him decide that he wished them to have no information about his day-to-day life or about his attendance at and potential gender reassignment treatment from the Tavistock Clinic.…

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‘Know Your Client’ Failure Costs Firm

Legal NewsBy sills June 23, 2016

Although clients often regard as a nuisance the extensive ‘know your client’ procedures that are required by financial institutions and professional firms, the importance of strict adherence is clear, as a recent case involving a property fraud illustrates. The case involved the seemingly straightforward sale of a South London property. The ‘vendor’ pretended to be the real owner, who was actually abroad. When the house was sold, the proceeds of sale were transferred to the fake vendor’s account in Dubai and disappeared. The purchaser, having laid out £470,000 to buy the property, found his title to it was void. He sued the vendor’s solicitors and the conveyancing firm he used.…

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High Court Puts Right £400,000 IHT Blunder

Legal NewsBy sills June 22, 2016

Even the most sensible attempts at tax planning can be undone by changes in the law and achieve the exact opposite of the intended objective. However, one High Court case has shown that, when inadvertent mistakes are made, the law can put them right. A couple jointly owned a £1.4 million home. In the hope of achieving significant tax advantages, they transferred title to the property to the husband alone. Three days later, it was transferred again into both their names, but this time in their capacity as trustees of a settlement which was simultaneously established by deed. Those transactions were carried out in ignorance of a Budget statement a…

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Help to Buy Aids 150,000

Legal NewsBy sills June 20, 2016

The Government has released statistics which show that more than 150,000 properties have been sold to buyers who have made use of the ‘Help to Buy’ mortgage guarantee and equity loan schemes. Nearly 80 per cent of those sales were to first-time buyers and the average price of houses bought by them was significantly below the national average. The ‘Help to Buy ISA’, launched in December 2015, has also already attracted more than 250,000 subscribers. Using the ISA enables first-time buyers to obtain up to £3,000 from the Government by way of a bonus when they use savings to purchase a property. The contents of this article are intended for…

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Relationship Breakdown Hurts, But a Lawyer Can Help Ease the Pain

Legal NewsBy sills June 17, 2016

The breakdown of a relationship is sadly often accompanied by dispute over the ownership of once shared possessions. However, one High Court case vividly shows why it is nearly always sensible to seek compromise with the benefit of legal advice, rather than resort to costly litigation. A wealthy same-sex couple had never formalised their 15-year relationship, but both viewed it as akin to marriage. Together they had achieved considerable financial success, establishing a substantial property portfolio and a lucrative chain of tanning salons. Following the acrimonious parting of their ways, however, they could not agree on who owned what. Title to numerous personal possessions, including a Mercedes CLK 200 cabriolet…

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P2P Lending Losses Compensation Terms Announced

Legal NewsBy sills June 14, 2016

Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending has grown very quickly over recent years. It is a system whereby an intermediary acts as a broker to enable individuals to make loans directly to those seeking loan finance. The attraction for the borrower is often that they can borrow relatively small amounts of money in a less formal way and at less cost than borrowing from an established financial institution. For the lender, the available rates of return are much higher than those offered on the high street. However, P2P lending is riskier than placing money on deposit and, as a result, the P2P lending industry is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. It has…

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