A landowner may be approached by a neighbour looking to graze livestock on an unused field for part of the year.

It is easy, at the end of a marriage, to assume that once an agreement has been reached, the hard work is done.

A recent High Court case has thrown into sharp focus just how much rests on the precise wording of a Will. In Wilkinson v Kirkham, decided in May 2026, a judge was asked to resolve a dispute that had arisen from a single word: “daughter.” The question before the court was whether that word, used in the singular, was intended to refer to one specific person or to two. The answer had significant financial consequences, with an estate worth around £281,000 at stake.

Retention payments, where a percentage of the contract sum is withheld until completion and rectification of defects, have long been a source of cashflow pressure and, ultimately disputes across the construction supply chain.

That position is about to change significantly. The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces new restrictions on fire and rehire that are currently scheduled to take effect from January 2027.

The introduction of Neonatal Care Leave and Pay in April 2025 marked one of the most compassionate changes to UK employment law in recent years.

Disputes over a Will often begin long before anyone steps into a courtroom. They begin with a shift in relationships, a breakdown in trust, or a growing sense that something is not quite right.

For many people buying a property in France, a swimming pool is part of the dream. Whether it is a holiday home in Provence, a countryside retreat in the Dordogne or a permanent residence on the Côte d’Azur, a pool can significantly enhance both lifestyle and property value.

Most business owners will have come across contracts that include a financial consequence if something goes wrong.

For families with significant assets, deciding how wealth should be held and passed on can be as important as deciding how it is invested.

The Employment Rights Bill introduces reforms that affect almost every stage of the employment relationship. Its purpose is to strengthen statutory protections and bring greater consistency to workplace rights. For employers, however, the significance of the Bill lies less in its stated aims and more in how it reshapes the legal and commercial risk attached to employing staff

Christmas should be a season of warmth, familiarity and celebration, but for separated families, it can also be the most difficult time of the year.

Family businesses aren't like any other. They are often built on sacrifice and shared effort, carrying with them not just the weight of financial investment but the values and memories of the people behind them.

For many families, inheritance tax planning is not about minimising a number on a balance sheet. It is about preserving something far more personal. A home that has been lived in for generations. Land that carries history as much as value. A business that represents decades of work.

Families change over time, be that through marriage or separation, children growing up, second relationships, or changes in financial or health circumstances.

Separating parents usually start with good intentions. You want to put your children first, maintain a positive relationship with your ex-partner as co-parents, and avoid the conflict and expense of court proceedings. Those intentions are admirable, and for plenty of families, they’re enough to navigate the challenges ahead.

For many couples, a wedding is no longer automatically tied to marriage. That shift is easy to see. Social media is full of carefully curated celebrations that look, on the surface, no different from a traditional wedding day. There is the ceremony, the vows, the photographs, the sense of commitment. But in some cases, what is missing is the legal step that sits behind it.

The way we talk about difference at work has changed. Diversity is no longer confined to what can be seen or easily categorised. Increasingly, attention has turned to how people think, process information and respond to their working environment.

Whistleblowing concerns rarely arrive in a convenient form. They can be raised by a long-serving employee who feels genuinely uneasy about something they have witnessed, or by someone already in conflict with management who frames workplace grievances as wrongdoing.

When someone dies, their estate may be subject to inheritance tax. The rules include allowances that can significantly reduce, or even eliminate, the tax due. For married couples and civil partners, those allowances can be more generous than many people expect.