Lasting powers of attorney (refund fees deadline)
We reported previously that the Office of the Public Guardian are making partial refunds to people who had paid to register their Lasting Powers of Attorney between the 1st April 2013 and the 31st March 2017. This was due to the Office of the Public Guardian...
The small business (online and copyright)
On Thursday 4th June, Four Oaks Legal Services Director, Stuart McIntosh, ran an online Zoom session aimed at small businesses. The session covered copyright issues that affect small businesses online. The feedback from the session was fantastic, so for those of you...
Stuart McIntosh and EBM are inviting you to another webinar…
After the success of last week's webinar, Stuart is back this week with another session for small businesses. This time the topic will be "Your Website and Social Media Output – it is your property ?" The webinar will take place via Zoom on Thursday 18th June at 9am....
Online seminar invitation
“THE SMALL BUSINESS ONLINE and COPYRIGHT.” Because of the pandemic, small businesses should be looking carefully at the way they do business and how they may benefit from increasing use of online facilities. Stuart McIntosh, from Four Oaks Legal Services in Lichfield,...
Disposing of personal items in your will
During our lifetime, we collect many personal items (or chattels as we lawyers like to call them), such as our breakfast bowl, jewellery, cars and, perhaps even, works of art. We dispose of some of these items too, as they either wear out; cease to be of interest to...
‘Lost’ wills following closure of law firm
It is not uncommon through the passage of time, that law firms re-locate or sadly close down. This can result in other law firms inheriting their Will Banks and on occasions, this can sometimes result in the original Will Writer not knowing the current location of...
Homemade wills are ok? Aren’t they?
We often get asked to comment on Wills that a person has drawn up themselves or has prepared via an internet based provider. The number one question asked is “Are they legally valid?”. The second is “Are they worth the paper they are written on?”. To be...
Probate fees
The Law Society has welcomed the lapse of a planned increase in probate fees as a result of parliament being suspended. Fees would have risen from the fixed amounts of £215 (personal applications) or £155 (Solicitor applications), to a sliding scale of up to...
Probate registry office closure
HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has announced that the Probate Registry Office in Birmingham will be closing at the end of the month. This is the first announced closure with further closures expected across the country as the Probate Service attempts...
‘Cause if you like it, then you shoulda put a ring on it…
The rise of cohabiting couples has continued in the UK, with the numbers growing by 25% to 3.4 million families from 2008 to 2018. Cohabiting couples however still only represent 18 per cent of the UK's 19.1 million families. Marriages and civil partnerships...
Modern family structures and unintended consequences
When couples talk to me about making a Will, they often ask what would happen if they both died together in a car crash-who would inherit their assets if they didn’t have a Will. Answer-in the legal world, where the order of death is uncertain, the older...
Probate fees update
The proposed considerable increases in Probate Court fees have yet to materialise, despite concerns that these would be brought in on the 1st April 2019. With Parliamentary timetabling, the earliest these could be reviewed would be the start of the Autumn...