The days when secret passwords were the staple of children’s books and not a part of everyday life are long past. Increasingly, the issue of what to do about Internet passwords and, to a lesser extent, Internet property is proving…
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has fined a firm of estate agents after a contractor who was working for them was killed when he fell from a roof. Roger Jary, 79, was a contractor for Morris, Marshall & Poole…
When Oscar-winning composer Sir Malcolm Arnold died in 2006, aged 84, he left a will bequeathing his house, his car, his valuable manuscripts and a half-share in the annual royalties from his compositions to Anthony Day, who had helped him…
Three sisters who challenged their late father’s will have lost their battle at the High Court. The will was made the day George Wharton, who was suffering from terminal cancer, was discharged from hospital, in anticipation of his marriage to…
A recent case in the Court of Appeal shows that ‘buyer beware’ is still a valid principle. Just because someone is paid for introducing you to someone else does not necessarily impose on them a duty to inform you of…
The laws relating to defamation apply just as much to material posted on the Internet as they do to articles in newspapers and magazines. It is therefore risky to post comments that can be construed as defamatory on the Internet.…
A benevolent fund is a fund that exists to benefit people who are linked together in a specific way – normally through a relationship with a particular company or person. Recently, the Upper Tribunal (the senior court for ruling on…
The combination of a deathbed marriage, a millionaire and a new will was always likely to end in a court battle, and so it proved recently when a family challenged their late father’s will, which left everything to his…
When an obvious error is made, the courts will sometimes be willing to correct the mistake – but not always. In a recent case, the court was asked to consider wills executed by an elderly couple. Each will was…
The newspapers have recently reported several incidences of the exploitation of vulnerable elderly people. In one such case, Stevenage care worker Jo-ann Tharle has been jailed for the theft of savings of more than £10,000 from an elderly man…