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26 November 2009 / Michael Tringham
Issue: 7395 / Categories: Features , Wills & Probate
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2010: the Year of the Will?

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Michael Tringham predicts the future for inheritance law

If 2009 was the year of contentious probate, perhaps 2010’s sobriquet will be the Year of the Will.

BBC2 has recruited Sir Gerry Robinson, former chairman of broadcaster Granada, to present Legacy, a 6 x 60-minute TV series intended to help people “confront the emotional dilemmas of writing a will.

Sir Gerry will work alongside a lawyer to guide people through the process and deal with “the taboos of choosing between the people you love”. These include what to do, having remarried, about legacies for step-children. The programme makers were spurred on by research showing that even among the UK’s over-60s, one in four does not have a valid will.

Law Commission reviews intestacy laws

Meanwhile the Law Commission has set a legal cat among some pigeons with its consultation paper reviewing the intestacy laws. Comments are welcome until the end of February next year via the Law Commission’s website: www.lawcom.gov.uk.

The declared intention is to “bring inheritance law up to date

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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Sponsored by
Arc Pensions Law—Matthew Swynnerton

Arc Pensions Law—Matthew Swynnerton

Chair of the Association of Pension Lawyers joins as partner

Ampa Group—Kamal Chauhan

Ampa Group—Kamal Chauhan

Group names Shakespeare Martineau partner head of Sheffield office

Blake Morgan—four promotions

Blake Morgan—four promotions

Four legal directors promoted to partner across UK offices

NEWS
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NLJ this week: Renters’ Rights revolution begins—brace for tribunal chaos

The abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC

NLJ this week: Civil procedure gets a spring overhaul
Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
NLJ this week: Why GP complaints are going nowhere
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
NLJ this week: Prenups meet a jurisdictional brick wall
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
NLJ this week: Has Rylands v Fletcher come back from the dead?
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
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