As an experiment, we recently had our Contested Probate Website – Contesting A Will  re-designed because the quality of the leads we were getting from our site, whilst prolific, left quite a lot to be desired.

Indeed, the old website was flatteringly described by one of our probate team as ‘tacky’.

There is no doubt whatsoever that following the re-launch last week the quality of the leads this site has generated is hugely improved.

There is a school of thought that web-site design does not matter and that your advertising can be the child of  creative chaos and can look like a ‘car crash’ without it affecting your results.

We no longer subscribe to this view.

Chris Sherliker      cjs@silvermansherliker.co.uk

Our heartiest congratulations to Maeve for her magnificent performance on the BBC TV Breakfast Show on Saturday morning.

Maeve O'Higgins Queen of PreNups

Whisked away by BBC chauffeur to Shepherd’s Bush before dawn, Maeve pulled off a masterful ‘double bill’ performance at 6.10am and again, as a panellist, at 7.10am, dealing most skilfully with all questions thrown at her by Charlie Stayt in spite of the unearthly hour, the glare of the TV cameras and her national audience.

 Maeve is now undeniably the Queen of PreNups  in the UK….!

Hits on our Pre-Nuptial Agreement Site  increased by 250% as a result!

Well done, Maeve!!!!!!

BBC and Telegraph are featuring the huge rise in pre-nuptial agreements and you can post your comments at the BBC if you really want to…. but since we are setting the agenda here we suggest that you post your comments below.

Maeve really is the Queen of PreNups

Contact Maeve at prenups@silvermansherliker.co.uk

Full marks! Dangerous, Invincible and Bad…but at least the King of Pop made a Will  …though it hasn’t stopped mother Katherine Jackson, allegedly egged on by father Joe (totally ignored in the Will ), from mounting a legal challenge and contesting a will that leaves everything to The Michael Jackson Family Trust.

She is seeking to wrest control of the USD500 million estate from the executors appointed by the Will, notwithstanding a ‘no contest’ clause in the Will that disinherits any beneficiary who challenges its validity or its terms.

It will no doubt be a thriller and there will be blood on the dance floor at the end of it all.  Ho, Ho.

In the UK the number of people contesting a Will is rising steeply. In the last 2 years the number of cases coming before the Courts has apparently risen threefold.  Our own experience, bears out the trend. Our Private Client Unit launched a free Contesting A Will legal advice service last week and has been inundated with enquiries.

This is due to a number of identifiable factors including the increasing number of long-term ‘common law’ marriages, the number of people relying on cheap and inadequate ‘DIY wills’, successive remarriages leading to rival clans of children, avarious second wives and husbands, the increasing value of estates due to rising property prices and the increasing number of people leaving all of their estate to charitable or political institutions.

Increasingly, people are contesting a will on the grounds that the testator may not have been of sound mind or have had ‘testamentary capacity’ when making the will.

Notably,  a will was successfully challenged last year on the basis that the deceased had left all of his £8 million estate to the Conservative Party. One assumes that the court did not take that to be evidence in itself that the testator must have been delusional when he made the will and that the case wasn’t won on ‘res ipsa loquitur’ argument.

The courts are showing increasing willingness to order that the costs of cases contesting a will should be paid out of the estate itself or shared between the parties and the increasing availabilty of legal costs insurance cover and conditional fee agreements means that fewer would-be litigants are deterred by the costs risk of launching a legal challenge.

The Moral being …make a proper will …unless you want the entertainment to continue after you’ve gone!