Private Client

The Probate Service seems to have finally overcome its backlog, with average wait times in December 2024 now six and half weeks, compared to nearly 16 weeks a year earlier.

The Octopus Group, the £13bn financial services and energy business, has launched a law firm to handle probate and estate administration work, Legal Futures can reveal.

The SRA is to question probate solicitors who “simply listed” in their training records what they had done, rather than providing “evidence of reflection”.

A young lawyer who changed dates on lasting powers of attorney and misled clients about when they were sent to the Office of the Public Guardian has been struck off.

Supporting clients who have opted to use an online divorce provider can be challenging for family lawyers, but they can offer valuable assistance to protect their clients’ interests. Educating clients about the limitations and risks of online divorce services is essential, especially to avoid pitfalls like those in Vince v Wyatt [2015] UKSC 14.

Big increases in grants of representation and powers of attorney applications have increased the growth rate of the wills and probate market to 7% but 500 firms left it too.

Law firms handling probate work could do more to guard against the risks of a conflict when administering estates and also acting as the executor, the SRA has cautioned.

An Essex law firm at the centre of a BBC investigation into possible abuse of LPAs has described it as “inaccurate” and “based on second or third-hand hearsay”.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.