This seminar looks at Contentious Probate (i.e. validity) Disputes from a practical perspective.
Topics covered will include:
- The available pleas: lack of formality; lack of capacity; lack of knowledge and approval; undue influence; forgery and fraud;
- Case law including recent developments;
- Caveat procedure;
- Gathering evidence;
- High Court procedure under Order 76;
- Costs;
- The role of the solicitor draftsman in a validity dispute;
- Minimising future validity disputes including the “Golden Rule”.
The session will be delivered by Sheena Grattan. Sheena is a practising Chancery barrister in Northern Ireland specialising in private client work. Previously she was a senior lecturer in the Law School of Queen’s University, Belfast lecturing in Equity (including Trusts), Land Law, Inheritance and the Law and Revenue Law, having started her career as a solicitor in private practice.
Sheena is the author of several legal texts including Succession Law in Northern Ireland (SLS), and, with James Kessler QC, Drafting Trusts & Will Trusts in Northern Ireland (Bloomsbury). She is a founding member of the STEP: Northern Ireland branch and in 2012 was the recipient of a STEP Founder’s award for outstanding achievement.
She has been examiner and tutor for both the Administration of Trusts and Administration of Estates components of the STEP / CLT Diploma programme in Northern Ireland since its inception.