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Unmarried couples should be under no illusions that they have legal rights equivalent to those who have tied the knot. The point could hardly have been more powerfully made than by a case concerning an unmarried former couple whose close-knit life together yielded three children and a family business. During their relationship, the couple were the sole directors and equal shareholders of a company that ran a vehicle repair and MOT garage. Had they been married, the value of the business would have formed part of the financial pot to...

If you have paid good money for goods or services and feel that you have not got what you bargained for, you should see a solicitor without delay. A case on point concerned a man who paid about £4,000 for what he believed would be a surgical hair transplant but got what he viewed as a toupee. The man underwent what was described as a step-by-step hair replacement which involved samples being taken from his scalp and matched to a fine mesh of human and synthetic hair that was later...

One good reason why sensible homebuyers engage the services of a surveyor prior to purchase is that, if things go wrong, they at least have someone to sue. In a case on point, a couple who paid £1.2 million for a seaside home which turned out to be riddled with defects won six-figure compensation from a negligent surveyor. The property had been largely rebuilt in the months before the couple bought it. They instructed a surveyor to conduct a non-structural inspection. He reported potential problems with drainage, rainwater pipes and...

Just because someone is old, frail and vulnerable does not mean that they are incapable of understanding the contents of their will. However, as a High Court ruling in the context of a bitter inheritance dispute showed, the benefits of professional advice become all the greater as the inevitable effects of old age begin to bite. The case concerned a mother who was in her 80s when she made a new will leaving her estate, which had a gross value of about £325,000, to one of her daughters and nothing...