header-logo header-logo

29 September 2023 / Gareth Williams
Issue: 8042 / Categories: Features , Wills & Probate
printer mail-detail

A race against time?

139630
Delays in the processing of statutory wills are causing serious issues with estate distribution: Gareth Williams proposes a simple solution
  • With the resourcing issues currently faced by the court, any application for a statutory is now likely to take months.
  • Measures such as holding wills could be introduced to overcome the potential consequences to those lacking mental capacity and the distribution of their estate.

Court of Protection, wealth protection, trusts and estates practitioners will all share the same primary concern when submitting an application for a statutory will; namely, that the person whose mental capacity is in question (P) doesn’t live long enough for them to get to the end of the process and successfully achieve the desired outcome.

With the resourcing issues currently faced by the court, the same for the Official Solicitor and often a number of other represented parties, there is an uncomfortable expectancy now that any application will be resolved in months, rather than weeks; all while P’s circumstances remain unpredictable.

Much legal toing and froing and the associated

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—David Abbott & Claire Keat

DWF—David Abbott & Claire Keat

Senior appointments in insurance services and commercial services announced

Clyde & Co—Nick Roberts

Clyde & Co—Nick Roberts

Aviation disputes practice strengthened by London partner hire

Ellisons—Marion Knocker

Ellisons—Marion Knocker

Residential property lawyer promoted to partnership

NEWS
he 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
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
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
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
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
back-to-top-scroll