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Santosh Kumar has over 25 years’ experience handling international child abduction cases. Here Ms Kumar explains why having a specialist solicitor is vital to getting a positive outcome with child abductions, particularly in Hague Convention cases. Background to the case I recently took over a child abduction case from a firm who had little understanding of Hague Convention cases. The client had come to me because she understood the case was not going well. What she could not have known is that her previous firm had not set out any defence...

The most straightforward means of minimising Inheritance Tax (IHT) payable on your estate is to give away your assets with warm hands when you are still hale and hearty. However, such gifts will bring no tax advantages at all unless they are absolute and unreserved. A recent High Court case concerned four British Virgin Islands-based trusts which were set up by a wealthy British businessman to hold various UK properties for the benefit of his two sons, their spouses and progeny. The objective of the trusts was to remove the...

Adopting children from overseas is fraught with legal pitfalls and those who attempt to do so without first taking expert advice expose themselves to heartbreak. In one case, however, the High Court came to the aid of a British woman who adopted a little girl who was found abandoned beside a Ugandan roadside. The girl appeared to be about eight months old when she was found. After attempts to trace her genetic parents or wider family failed, she was placed in the foster care of a British woman who had...

How should we handle disputes with builders? Home renovations are a notoriously frequent source of dispute. If you feel that you have been let down by a builder, you should consult a solicitor straight away. In a case on point, a householder won a £200,000 asset freezing order against a builder who he claimed left his home in a dangerous condition. On a friend's recommendation, the householder engaged the builder to carry out extensive works on his home at a price of almost £240,000. The project was blighted by delay...