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Those who attempt to lie their way to a favourable result in divorce proceedings are more than likely to be found out and hit hard in the pocket. That was certainly so in the case of an elderly entrepreneur who treated his ex-wife's financial claims as if they were nothing more than an impertinence. The English man and his American ex-wife, both in their 70s, were married for almost 30 years before they entered into a separation agreement in New York. The wife subsequently petitioned for divorce in England. Their...

Borrowers who take out loans at high rates of interest with their eyes wide open may have only themselves to blame. As a High Court case showed, however, such loans may be vulnerable to arguments that they amount to a penalty or are the product of an unfair relationship between a commercial lender and a less sophisticated or vulnerable borrower. A property owner obtained a six-month bridging loan secured by second mortgages over three buy-to-let flats. The £355,000 loan was subject to interest at a rate of 2.5 per cent...

People may be blinkered, difficult and downright ruthless but that does not mean that they are incapable of making a rational will. The High Court made that point in the case of a highly successful businessman who all but disinherited his children. By his final will, the man bequeathed about £2 million to extended family members, friends and others whom he considered deserving. He left an estimated £4 million to a charitable trust he had established for the benefit of the people of his home town. His three children received...

Many families whose loved ones are in hospital on life support understandably cling to the hope that they will in time recover. As a High Court ruling showed, however, where such hopes run contrary to the weight of expert medical evidence, judges have the unenviable task of deciding where a patient's best interests lie. The case concerned a young father-of-two who sustained catastrophic brain and spinal injuries when a car in which he was travelling hit a tree. He had since been tended to round-the-clock in a hospital intensive care...