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Signing a contract before you are sure you are willing to complete it can be a huge mistake: judges do not flinch from enforcing valid contracts, as a recent case shows. It involved a man who reneged on a deal to buy a family home for £5 million. He had not viewed the property before contracts were exchanged and had dealt with the vendors through an intermediary whom he had never previously met. However, he had signed the contract in person and a judge rejected claims that the intermediary had...

Family judges know that children normally do best when they have direct contact with both parents. The Court of Appeal underlined that point in a case concerning five ultra-Orthodox Jewish children whose transgender father had been ostracised by the close community in which they lived. After the father left the family home and began life as a woman, both parents agreed that the children, aged between three and 13, should remain living within the Charedi community in which they were brought up. However, purely because she was transgender, members of...

Thefts from hotel rooms are thankfully not an everyday occurrence, but when such a crime is committed, who, if anyone, is liable to pay compensation can become an issue, especially as the perpetrators, even if caught, frequently turn out to be penniless. In a recent case, a woman succeeded in winning substantial damages when her prized jewellery collection was stolen from her hotel room as she slept. The recently widowed woman, aged in her 70s, had been staying in a seaside hotel during a family reunion. In the early hours,...

When the male partner of a cohabiting couple died, apparently without leaving a will, after they had lived together for more than 40 years, his estate was administered according to the laws of intestacy, with the result that no provision was made for his partner because she had no right to a share of it under the intestacy rules. Instead, his estate was destined to pass by law to his cousins. His partner could have brought a claim against his estate under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act...