news&viewsIssue 17 | November 2016

01484 538 421 info@ridleyandhall.co.uk ridleyhall.co.ukRidley & Hall Legal Limited, Queens House, 35 Market Street, Huddersfield, HD1 2HL

Meet the Public Law Team...

In support of The Poppy Appeal & SSAFACreate a new will with Ridley & Hall’s wills & probate team and

we will donate £50 to charity from the standard fee30th October until 11th November 2016

Take a look at Ridley & Hall in the limelightridleyhall.co.uk/videos

We W ll Remember

The Public Law Team helps people to challenge local authorities to ensure that they are meeting their legal duties and responsibilities towards vulnerable people, adults and children with disabilities or long term health conditions and carers.We specialise in:

• Community Care (health and social care)

• Kinship Care (family and friends caring for children – financial and social care/health support)

• Adoption and adoption support

• Judicial Reviews – challenging public bodies in the Administrative Court

• Care Proceedings

Legal Aid is still available for these areas of work and Ridley & Hall Solicitors has a contract with the Legal Aid Agency in the areas of Family and Community Care.

Nigel Priestley is Senior Partner and head of the Public Law Team. He is a member of the children’s Panel and won the Legal Champion of the Year Award at the Kinship Care Awards 2015. Nigel regularly represents children, parents and grandparents in care proceedings and has brought successful judicial review proceedings on behalf of kinship carers. He advises adopters facing post adoption support challenges and represents potential adopters in getting adoption orders and grandparents and other family and friends carers in obtaining special guardianship orders (SGO’s) and child arrangement orders. He has brought successful judicial reviews against local authorities and has been involved in landmark decisions.

Tracey Ling is a solicitor specialising in Community Care. She advises and represents adults and children with social care and health care needs and their carers. The work that she is involved with includes obtaining and challenging assessments of need, carers’ assessments and care and support plans, challenging funding decisions and cuts to services and providing advice in relation to disabled facilities grants, care costs, including care home fees and

NHS Continuing Healthcare decision appeals. Tracey is also experienced in obtaining special guardianship allowances, child arrangement order allowances and fostering allowances and other social care support from local authorities for kinship carers and the children placed in their care. She has dealt with successful judicial review claims on behalf of carers and helped to negotiate out of court settlements.

Peter Kearney is a solicitor who specialises in providing advice and representation to adoptive parents. He is a passionate advocate for ensuring that adoptive parents get the support they need. Peter also represents family carers, advising them on obtaining the support they need and ensuring they get the right legal status. He has developed a particular expertise in helping carers obtain special guardianship orders.

Helen Jarvis is a solicitor who specialises in kinship care and care proceedings. Helen is passionate about obtaining support for family members and friends who find themselves caring for child relatives, often at the insistence of Social Services. Helen has expertise in obtaining assessments for SGO’S and child arrangement orders allowances. She also challenges local authorities in relation to fostering payments for family and friends carers and has successfully challenged local authorities across the country in relation to unlawful decisions they have made. Helen acts for carers and parents within care proceedings and has a particular interest in advising carers about support under SGO’s.

Rosie Turner is a Community Care Administrator. She has completed her Law Degree and Legal Practice Course. Rosie provides support to Nigel and the rest of the team in most aspects of work.

The team is also assisted by Jane Bolton, PA to Nigel Priestley, and Helen Crowe, Secretary to Tracey Ling.

Locally and nationally Very special! This year has been very special for Ridley & Hall - we are delighted to have been shortlisted for nine prestigious awards.

The firm has been shortlisted for Regional Firm of the Year (North) at the Family Law Awards, where the important work of family lawyers is recognised and their many successes and outstanding achievements are celebrated. Nigel Priestley, Senior Partner at Ridley & Hall, has also been shortlisted at the awards for Partner of the Year.

We were also shortlisted at the very prestigious Law Society Excellence Awards in the

category of Excellence in Business Development.

Ridley & Hall hope to be flying the flag high for Yorkshire, being shortlisted for the Yorkshire Legal Awards in Family Law and Nigel Priestley once again shortlisted for Partner of the Year.

In the exclusive Modern Law Awards, we were shortlisted in three categories - Best Marketing Campaign, Lawyer of the Year with Nigel Priestley, as well as Ridley & Hall’s Peter Kearney, adoption solicitor, being shortlisted in the Rising Star of the Year category.

Most recently, Nigel has been shortlisted as one

of the five finalists for the Lifetime Achievement Award at The National Adoption Week Awards, recognising and celebrating good practice and exceptional achievement among those working or involved in adoption.

We are really looking forward to the upcoming awards ceremonies and hope our hard work and dedication to clients will be recognised.

Congratulations to all!

HELEN JARVISQUESTION TIME WITH...

Helen is a newly qualified solicitor but has spent nearly 5 years working on behalf of kinship carers, challenging local authorities to secure access to support services. She also acts on behalf of various family members in care proceedings.

What do you think makes R&H a special law firm? R&H have a strong national presence and are always willing to travel to help clients in need to support.

What is your first memory of R&H?Meeting my lovely team and being made to feel very welcome by everyone.

Which famous celebrity would you like to take to lunch and why?Louis Theroux, to ask him about all the weird and wonderful people from his documentaries.

What book would you recommend to others as a ‘must read’? ‘A Piece of Cake’ by Cupcake Brown.

Name your three favourite hobbies and interests outside work…Eating out, baking & rugby league

Do you have a favourite holiday location? Cala d’Or in Majorca.

What have you never understood?Maths

If you weren’t working in the law profession what would you be doing? I was initially going to do an English degree so maybe a journalist.

What’s your favourite word?Pineapple

Fish and chips with mushy peas, gravy or curry sauce?None! Tomato ketchup!

Nigel Priestley,Head of Department

UPDATE ON RUNNING DOWN DEMENTIAA big thank you to all those who have sponsored Nigel’s Nutty Nine in their

campaign to run 100km over the summer months. Many of the nine have now completed the task and although we still have one or two stragglers all have

the finishing post in sight.

Here at Ridley & Hall we are passionate about helping those living with dementia and their carers and we hope to raise as much money as we can for

Alzheimer’s Research UK.

There’s still time to sponsor us at: http://bit.ly/29uY6AE

Hilary Sisson, legal adviser in the wills and probate department, said:

“Having previously served in the Army and the Army Cadet force as well as being an RAF widow these charities are close to my heart.

I am proud that I can, together with Ridley & Hall, support these two deserving charities, at the same time as helping you arrange your affairs. “

To commemorate Remembrance Day, Ridley & Hall want to help and support veterans, currently serving members of all the armed services and their families, both nationally and locally.

It is very important to create a will to ensure that whatever you have, whether it is a modest amount, a substantial amount, or

even items of sentimental value, it is passed onto the people of your choice, instead of who the law dictates will receive your assets.

Will you help and support this wonderful cause? Call today on 01484 538 421 and book your appointment.

Scan me

In the middle of September, it became clear that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were separating after a 10 year relationship and parenting six children. It would appear that despite good intentions initially, ‘the fur has started to fly’. At the end of September 2016, Brad Pitt’s “other woman” hit back after being dragged into the divorce storm.

Angelina Jolie filed on the basis of “irreconcilable differences”. The law in the US regarding divorce is different to that in England and Wales, where

the Divorce Petition has to be issued on the basis of the irretrievable breakdown of the relationship which then has to be

supported by five facts:-

1 The husband/wife has behaved in a way that you consider to be unreasonable.

2 The husband/wife has committed adultery.

3 The husband/wife has deserted you (you have to have been separated for a period of 2 years)

4 You have been separated for 2 years and both of you consent to the divorce.

5 You have been separated for a period of 5 years.

Sadly, England and Wales have not yet introduced “no fault” divorce, although the Court in England and Wales have been talking for many years about introducing it. It is at the top of Resolution’s agenda this year to try and lobby government to secure no fault divorce.

Record Year for the Property Team!It has been another record breaking year for our property team.The new members to the department have certainly been kept busy with the work that we have been dealing with across Kirklees and beyond. The Government’s tax changes to ownership of second properties took effect on 1st April 2016 and it was reported in the national media that the surge in transactions trying to avoid the new tax almost took the property sector to breaking point. Our property team are renowned for going the extra mile and they worked out of hours and over the Easter Holidays to ensure that all

the deadlines were met. All transactions were completed before the tax changes were implemented.

Introducing Ashley Sowerby, Property Solicitor

Despite the uncertainty after Brexit, demand for our property

expertise has continued to rise over the summer months. Alison Mason, our partner and Head of Property, has recently recruited Ashley Sowerby into the department due to the increased demands of the property market. Ashley is very passionate about providing a high quality and personal service to her clients and we wish her the warmest of welcomes.

Alison said:

“We pride ourselves on delivering the highest standard of work possible, as the case load builds so does our property department. To ensure the standard and quality of our work doesn’t change I wanted to appoint a new residential property solicitor. I am very pleased with the recruitment of Ashley and believe she will continue the firm’s

C A S E S P O T L I G H TDouble celebration for Kinship Carer after battle with Middlesbrough Borough CouncilA battling grandmother caring for two grandchildren has won her fight to get Middlesbrough Council to pay allowances.The grandmother has been caring for her grandson, aged 4, since 2012. His mother had mental health issues and social services had concerns about her capacity to parent. Following assessment, he was removed from his mother’s care and placed in foster care.

The grandmother, who cannot be named for legal reasons (named Claire in this article), said:

“I put myself forward to care as I knew it was in his best interests to stay within the family and that I could give him the love and care that he needed. I knew it would not be an easy thing to take on as I was already caring for two of my own children, aged 9 and 10, but I was prepared to do it to ensure that my grandson was safe and well cared for.

“It soon became apparent to me that it was going to be even more of a challenge caring for my grandson than I had first anticipated. He had challenging behaviour, would wake during the night screaming, did not like change and found it traumatic if he was cared for by anyone other than me.

“I was on income support and could not return to work as I could not leave my grandson with anybody else. My partner had a zero hours contract and at times was without work. Cost of contact with his family was expensive but no financial support was provided to me by the Council even though they had a legal duty to pay me”

15 months after taking on the care of her grandson, his half-sister was born. Claire was contacted by Social Services while the mother was still pregnant. They had concerns about

the mother’s ability to care and, after the baby was born, they started care proceedings and with Claire’s agreement, placed the child with her until the outcome of the care proceedings were known.

The court decided that Claire and her partner should continue to care for their granddaughter and a Special Guardianship Order was made in January 2014.

Claire contacted specialist Solicitor, Tracey Ling, at Ridley & Hall who helped her to challenge Middlesbrough Council’s decision to stop paying SGO allowance for the 2nd child and requested they also start paying Child Arrangement Order allowance for the 1st child.

Tracey Ling said:

“Claire is an amazing woman. She is an unsung hero! She took on the care of a very challenging grandson and she then began to care for her granddaughter. Her granddaughter has disabilities and a life limiting condition. She has experienced a number of complications and additional health issues.

“Since being in Claire’s care, she has had to undergo a life-saving operation and will need further surgeries in the future. Her needs require very specialist care by Claire and has meant that it has not been possible for her to work.’’

In July 2015 Claire was informed of the Council’s decision to stop paying the Special Guardianship allowance for their granddaughter.

She said:

‘’These were outrageous decisions! I’m delighted that we were able to take up the battle with Middlesbrough – and win!’’

The local authority agreed to start paying Child Arrangement Order allowance and to reinstate

the Special Guardianship Order allowance. It was also agreed that they would pay lump sums for backdated allowances totalling over £10,000.

Ms Ling commented:

“This was a fight we had to win. Claire now receives a Child Arrangement Order allowance in respect of her grandson, aged 4, and a Special Guardianship Order allowance in respect of her granddaughter, aged 2.

It is important that kinship carers are aware that local authorities often still have responsibilities and duties towards the children, even after court orders have been made. Where there is a discretion to provide financial support, they must exercise this reasonably.

Claire stated:

“I would personally recommend Ridley & Hall to anyone who is having issues with support from the local authority…a personal huge thank you to Tracey Ling my solicitor for supporting me and my family. They’ve been amazing and patient when things were difficult for me and I am so glad I made that step and called. We can enjoy being a family for the first time in months.”

Ridley & Hall are able to provide advice on legal aspects of family and friends care (kinship care). This covers both financialsupport and general supportneeds which the child or carer may have.

Tracey Ling can be contacted on 01484 538 421 or tracey.ling@ridleyandhall.co.uk

Brad and Angelina’s separation Lessons to be learned

Silver Splitters and Will DisputesSarah Young comments...

A trend of older couples splitting up could see a rise in will disputes, according to Sarah Young, a disputed wills specialist with Ridley & Hall Solicitors.

The number of over 60’s divorcing rose by a third between 2003 and 2013. There were 15,275 divorces in 2011 compared to 13,554 the year before and 10,273 in the year 2000. The phenomenon of so called “silver splitters” is likely to lead to an increase in will disputes.

Sarah Young explains:-

Will disputes very often happen when there has been a relationship breakdown in a

family. When an older divorced parent remarries or lives with someone new, their adult children can become concerned about their parent’s finances and about where they stand in relation to their parent’s new partner and their family. The concern might be adult children wanting to protect their inheritance – or there could be concern that their parent might be taken advantage of. Sometimes an adult child might feel very strongly that if, say, their mum has died and their dad has remarried, he should bear in mind what his deceased wife’s wishes would

have been … which would not have included their hard earned money passing to a second wife and/or her family!

Nowadays when there are many different types of families it’s vital to consider updating your will at least every 5 years and when any significant life event occurs. Many people aren’t aware, for example, that a marriage revokes a will.

Couples will often make “mirror” wills which means that they leave their money and assets to the other – so if A dies everything goes to B and vice versa. If either A or B has children from a previous relationship, this can be a risky strategy. The couple may agree that whichever of them is the survivor will “look after” the other’s children when they die – and the intention to do so may be genuine at the time. However life doesn’t always turn out as we plan it. If A dies and B inherits A’s estate B may intend that when she dies, A’s children will receive some of her estate. But what if she falls out with her step children? Or what if she remarries or lives with someone else? How can A ensure that his children will not be disinherited?

There are options - and a qualified wills and probate solicitor (ideally STEP qualified and/or a member of Solicitors for the Elderly) can advise on them.

A final thought from Sarah Young:-

We all find it difficult to discuss death and money – but none of us want to leave a legacy of disputes, distress and misunderstanding for our children. So getting good advice and making your wishes as clear as you can to your loved ones (preferably before your death) is definitely to be recommended.

Sarah Young is a partner with Ridley & Hall Legal Limited, Queens House, 35 Market St, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire HD1 2HL Direct Dial: 01484 558838 Mobile: 07860 165850 Email: sarah.young@ridleyandhall.co.uk.

Sarah is a specialist in inheritance disputes. She is a member of the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists (ACTAPS) and Solicitors for the Elderly (SFE).

VIEWPOINT VIEWPOINT

Vicky Medd of Ridley & Hall is a specialist accredited Resolution member.She said “I have recently conducted a mediation where both couples wanted to divorce on as amicable a basis as possible.

They both sensibly put the children first and had shared care. They both said that they would have found it extremely difficult to try and co-parent if the allegations in the Divorce Petition were too serious. As a result, I was able to mediate

with the couple to get a form of agreed wording which they were both reasonably content with. This means that discussions were had beforehand and the shock of receiving a divorce petition will be completely negated”.

For more information about advice for family matters and for mediation, please contact Vicky Medd on 01484 538421

Tracey Ling ofRidley & Hall

CQS Award! We are delighted to announce that as of Autumn this year we have been re-accredited for the fifth year with The Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme award (CQS). This is recognition of the firm’s high standards in residential conveyancing and to achieve this assessment the property department must undergo strict assessment and compulsory training.