Although most never reach a final hearing at court, the number of will-related disputes is growing year on year. Contesting a will is rarely straightforward: it is a complicated legal process requiring careful management and is often emotionally and financially draining. This article endeavours to explain the practical considerations of this type of litigation and how to minimise the attendant risks.

Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs) are a fundamental right under data protection laws, allowing individuals to access the personal data about them that is being held by organisations. However, there is a growing trend where disgruntled employees utilise DSAR not for genuine data access, but as a tool to burden employers, especially during disputes or litigation.

The Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, has today (23rd March 2023) proposed a new rule that would make it mandatory for separating couples to try mediation to settle their child custody and financial disputes, only seeking the court’s intervention as a last resort.

Research by the Association of Lifetime Lawyers (ALL) shows only 52% of Wills are drafted by solicitors, suggesting that the remainder are created using templates or AI. The ALL warns that AI-drafted Wills often fail to meet legal standards, risk excluding or wrongly including beneficiaries, and can lead to costly disputes.

Nathan Talbott, Head of Commercial Litigation, and specialising in complex financial, tax and corporate disputes, dissects the recent report by the Committee of Public Accounts on the state of our tax system, and shares his thoughts on what HMRC needs to do to rebuild public trust.

Mediation is a well known tool amongst those familiar with disputes. It can be very effective in clearing a way to settlement, but it can also sometimes feel like a rather unsophisticated ‘cutting of the cake’, purely to avoid the costs risk of losing at court. There are more subtle alternatives, that might allow the parties to settle but within a framework that more clearly reflects the legal merits - for example, expert determination or early neutral evaluation.

In 2018 Pauline Lomax issued proceedings for reasonable financial provision from the estate of her late husband under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.

Adjudication and the insolvency process are not always easy companions, based as they are on very different legislation. This can be seen from the following scenario.

We helped a technology supplier with a major software licensing problem.

Generally speaking, courts take robust approach to adjudicators' decisions and tend to rubber stamp the vast majority when a successful party in an adjudication applies for a court order validating the adjudicator’s decision.