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How, if at all, is the duty of local authorities to allow children in their care reasonable contact with their parents affected by social distancing rules arising from the COVID-19 pandemic? The Court of Appeal confronted that issue in a guideline case. The case concerned three young children who were taken into interim care after one of them suffered a broken leg, an injury which was considered likely to have been inflicted. The mother was in the pool of potential perpetrators and the children were therefore taken from her care...

Amidst widespread homelessness, owners of investment properties who allow them to stand empty for extended periods can find themselves on the receiving end of compulsory purchase orders (CPOs). Exactly that happened in a case concerning a desirable end-of-terrace property which had been vacant for 25 years. The house was located in an urban area where about 5,000 people were in urgent, high or medium need of permanent accommodation. The local authority took the view that the property's vacant status since 1994, combined with its deteriorating condition, was detrimental to the...

The whole point of engaging a professional to draft your will is to make your wishes clear in precise and unambiguous terms. If your will falls below that high standard the result, as a High Court ruling showed, can be family stalemate after you are gone. The case concerned a widower who died without children, leaving an estate worth over £600,000. By his will, he made some modest charitable gifts and bequeathed the remainder to 'such all of my nephew's and niece's children'. It was agreed that the apostrophes in...

When long-term relationships between unmarried couples break down, disentangling their property and financial affairs can be challenging, particularly where children are involved. As one case showed, however, a clean break is often the best option for all concerned. The case involved a middle-aged couple who had continued to live uncomfortably under the same roof for more than three years after their relationship ended. Their oldest child had grown up and gone to university but their 14-year-old son still lived in the house with them amidst an increasingly fraught atmosphere. The...