Private Client
Solicitor to pay costs after being summonsed over will drafting
A solicitor has been ordered to pay costs of £5,700 after she had to be summonsed to be cross-examined over a contested will that she drafted.
Film client meeting when capacity could be issue, judge tells solicitors
Solicitors dealing with clients where their mental capacity could be in question should record their meetings electronically, a judge has suggested in upholding the deathbed revocation of a will.
Modernising the will-making process: Embracing technology and accessibility
By Debra Burton, partner in the inheritance disputes team at Lime Solicitors The will-making process has seen a significant transformation in recent years, driven by technological advancements and a growing demand for accessible, user-friendly services. The Covid-19 pandemic was a… Read More
Law firm rebuked for not distributing estate after merger
A Surrey law firm that failed to deal with an estate it took on after merging with another practice has been rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Delays fall as Probate Service performance improves
The Probate Service has now been issuing more grants per month than the number of applications it receives for a year, with delays now falling, new figures have shown.
Number of LPAs registered soars by 28%
There was a 28% surge in the number of applications for lasting powers of attorney last year, but the Office of the Public Guardian still managed to reduce its backlog.
High Court rectifies will after solicitor’s “clerical error”
A High Court judge has rectified a will after finding it was “beyond doubt” that the solicitor who drafted it “made a clerical error” in failing to implement her client’s instructions.
Solicitor used LPA to steal cash from vulnerable client
A solicitor who stole cash from a vulnerable client using her debit card while acting under a lasting power of attorney has been struck off.
Neill urges Probate Service to share more data with lawyers
The Probate Service needs to share more data about its performance so that lawyers can manage client expectations, the outgoing chair of the justice select committee has said.
Use of solicitors for wills falls but firms get better at cross-selling
The proportion of people using a solicitor for their will has continued to fall and is now down to 50%, five percentage points lower than in 2019, a report has found.
Blog
The new metrics for success in conveyancing
While technology has made much of the conveyancing process faster, there remains a practical limit to how many matters anyone can manage while still keeping standards intact.
The UK legal market is polarising – and the middle is disappearing
Consolidation and the boutique boom are not contradictory. They are the same market stretching apart at both ends – and it changes what your firm is worth, and to whom.
Conveyancing’s consistency problem is about pressure, not skills
When I qualified, a conveyancer had perhaps 10 or 12 plates to keep spinning. Today’s conveyancers have 20 or 30, and almost none of the room for error I had starting out.
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