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Will drafting is an exact science, requiring years of professional training, and a single mischosen or out-of-place word can have very serious consequences. Exactly that happened in a High Court case concerning the mistaken use of the word 'both' – rather than 'each' – in a millionaire businessman's will. The businessman, whose estate was worth £6.4 million, was the main shareholder in a company in which his wife and a close friend and colleague – the beneficiaries – held minority stakes. By his will, he conferred power on his executors...

Whether or not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 is a matter of personal choice. A family judge robustly made that point in declining to authorise vaccination of a care home resident suffering from acute dementia who had fiercely objected to the procedure. The 86-year-old woman believed that she was living in the late 1940s or early 1950s, that her long-deceased parents were still alive and that she worked at a cake factory where she had been employed in her youth. Every day at 4pm, when the factory siren once signalled...

Professional tax advice, however carefully considered, cannot always be correct, but you are generally entitled to rely on it. A tribunal made that point in relieving a retired executive of a tax bill that would have had a devastating impact on his pension. The Finance Act 2004 imposed a highly controversial charge to Income Tax known as the lifetime allowance charge (LAL). As from 6 April 2006, a threshold was imposed on lifetime pension savings. Any savings in excess of that threshold were subject to LAL when pension benefits were...

We are delighted to announce that Oliver Conway has been shortlisted for a Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year award 2021 in the Family category. Oliver is a trainee solicitor at Oliver Fisher Solicitors and will qualify in August 2021. Oliver is ideologically committed to legal aid work and is deeply concerned about access to justice. He is passionate about the children’s work and intends to specialise in this area when he qualifies. His innate empathy and compassion make him effective in representing clients who have learning difficulties, emotional and...