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Surnames reflect family heritage and most people view them as an essential part of their identities as human beings. A family judge made that point in choosing a new double-barrelled surname for a little girl so that she would no longer bear a nominal connection to the stepfather who was alleged to have caused her harm. The girl, aged nine, was taken into care after suffering significant harm and neglect whilst in the care of her mother and stepfather. The latter was incorrectly identified as her father on her birth...

Agatha Christie would struggle to imagine the plots of some inheritance disputes that come before the courts. That was certainly so in one case in which a judge found that a son resorted to forgery in concocting a bogus will after his mother died. Prior to her death, the mother executed a professionally drafted will by which she left the whole of her estate to her niece. The son, however, claimed that, just four weeks after the first will was signed, he prepared another will at his mother's request. By...

Many homes or businesses are only accessible via neighbours' land and that can prove fertile ground for dispute. However, as a High Court case showed, expert lawyers are adept at ensuring their clients' unhindered use of rights of way. A couple's home and holiday accommodation business was accessed via a track that ran across land that formed part of the grounds of a country house hotel. They took action against the hotel's owners, asserting that they had for a number of years engaged in a persistent and systematic course of...

A record amount of Inheritance Tax (IHT) is being recouped from UK taxpayers by the Treasury, according to recent data published by HM Revenue and Customs. The statistics, released in late August, show that £2.1 billion was collected by the government from IHT in April to July 2021 – a £500 million increase on the amount collected during the same period the year before. Rising property and share prices are having a knock-on effect by increasing the value of estates passed on through inheritance and pushing them into a higher IHT...