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No amount of internet research can ever replace professional legal advice. A man found that out when his reliance on flawed web content very nearly cost him the opportunity to complete his family by adopting his stepson. The man applied for an adoption order two days before his stepson turned 18. On the same day, he gave notice of the application to his local authority. His wife – the boy's mother – and the boy himself supported the application. The boy's natural father at first resisted, but subsequently withdrew his...

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) adopts a tough approach when considering whether a person who claims non-resident tax status has spent more than the permitted number of days in the UK. It certainly brooked no compromise in the case of a woman who ended up with a seven-figure tax bill. The day before the end of a tax year, the woman moved to Ireland. In the following tax year, her husband transferred shares to her on which she received about £8 million in dividends. HMRC rejected her claim to non-resident...

It is quite common for people to get married in the knowledge that they only have a short while to live. However, as a High Court ruling underlined, such a step is often fraught with legal difficulty in terms of inheritance and should never be taken without legal advice. The case concerned a woman who was fully aware that she was terminally ill. Her assets in England and abroad were worth about £10 million. She was being cared for in a hospice when, a few days prior to her death,...

A woman's financial claims against her ex-husband following their overseas divorce did not survive his death. In reaching that conclusion, the Supreme Court noted that the case had exposed a defect in the law that can only be remedied by Parliament. After the breakdown of the couple's long marriage, the husband obtained a divorce in Pakistan. The divorce was recognised as valid in this country and the wife applied to the English courts for financial relief under Section 12(1) of the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984. If successful, she...