Blog

Dawn Pennell of Capron & Helliwell solicitors, considers the recent Supreme Court decision in the case of Owens In July 2017 I wrote about the Court of Appeal decision in this case and wondered whether permission would be sought to take the argument to the Supreme Court.  Well, more than a year on, the Supreme Court has considered it and on 25th July handed down its much anticipated judgement. Mr and Mrs Owens married in 1978, separated in early 2015 and have two adult children.  Mrs Owens wished to get divorced basing her Divorce Petition on her husband having behaved in su...

Dawn Pennell, Associate at Capron & Helliwell solicitors, considers second relationshipsIn a feedback questionnaire a client said “stop me from ever getting married again”.  Although the comment was made in a humorous way there are steps which may be taken and ways of dealing with such situations which could minimise difficulties which may be encountered.  Divorce statistics suggest that over 40% of first, over 50% of second and over 70% of third marriages end in divorce which can be painful and stressful. A pre-nuptial agreement may not seem the most romantic way...

I have written before about the importance of writing a Will, and about the dangers of writing a DIY Will.  In this article, I am going to mention just 10 things that can go wrong if you write your own Will.  Taking professional advice is important when writing such an important document.  Please note: this list is not exhaustive!   The Will may not cover funeral wishes.  Funeral wishes are not an absolutely essential clause and not having funeral wishes will not invalidate a Will per se but it is a sensible idea to include funeral wishes in a Will so as to mak...

Did you set up a Lasting Power of Attorney between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2017?  If so, you may be entitled to a partial refund of the application fee paid to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG).   For more information please see the following pages:  https://www.gov.uk/government/news/power-of-attorney-fee-refund-scheme-launched   and  https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney-refund   According to the OPG there are different ways of claiming the refund but you can only make a claim if you are a donor or attorney and the refund can only be paid to th...