LCF In The Media January 2022 by LCFPrint

IN THE MEDIA JANUARY 2022

FIRM WIDE

Ilkley Business Awards finalists revealed

The finalists of this year’s Ilkley Business Awards has now been revealed.

The finalists are as follows:

Judging took place on January 11 and was completed by Susanne Marchant from Leeds University Business School, Vicky Wainwright from Naylor Wintersgill Accountants and President of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce, Ian Ward, the Manager of The Broadway Shopping Centre and Chairman of Bradford BID, James Mason, Coach and Charity Fundraiser and Chris Allen Managing Partner of Black Solicitors.

B2B Business Of The Year: Commercial Finance Partnership Limited; Elite Accountancy Services Ltd; Pronto

Committee member Helen Rhodes, manager of Ilkley BID and Director of Ideal Extraction said: “We have been really pleased with the number and quality of entries this year. The judges had a difficult job choosing the finalists and commented particularly on the entrepreneurial spirit our businesses showed during the Covid pandemic, often completely pivoting their business as a direct response.”

Best Boss: Claire Wareham, Claire Wareham Hair; Janice Brooke, Ilkley Agency; Zara Gonzalez, Galo’s Kitchen Covid – The Extra Mile Award: Home Instead Ilkley; Ilkley & District Good Neighbours; Martinez Wines; Moin Moin Ltd Established Business Of The Year: Ashlands Veterinary Centre; Dillons Premium Fitness; The Ilkley Shoe Company New Business Of The Year: Arlo; Bathe of Wharfedale Ltd; Bini Brew Co Ltd; New Brook Street Deli Food, Drink & Leisure Business Of The Year: Broadley’s Bistro & Wine Bar; Galo’s Kitchen; Sachi’s Restaurant; The Little Tea House

FIRM WIDE

Hair, Beauty & Wellness Business Of The Year: LFW Podiatry; The Valley Clinic Ltd; William David Hair Ltd

ALSO APPEARED IN

Outstanding Tradesperson Of The Year: Complete Digital Installations; Mike Sant Painter and Decorator; SK Plumbing of Ilkley

• Wharfedale & Airedale Observer • Wharfedale Observer

Professional Services Business Of The Year: Brooke Financial; LCF Law; Leap Into Languages

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Retailer Of The Year: The Ilkley Shoe Company; Martinez Wines; Tennant & Darragh Jewellery Workshop; Waste Not Rising Star: Ella Hutchinson, Kyle Anderson and Ryan Aspden, Access Hospitality; Felicity Swale, Brooke Financial and Yorkshire Building Society; Helen Holmes, LFW Podiatry Social Conscience Award: Milestone Design Ltd; Soul & Co; The Bobbin The non-profit making event is organised by a small committee of volunteers and supported financially by the Ilkley Business Forum and a range of local business sponsors. The committee would like to extend their thanks to this year’s sponsors Ilkley BID Ltd, BNI, Ilkley, Clip ‘n Climb Ilkley, Galo’s Kitchen, Harvest Associates, Home Instead, Ideal Extraction Ltd, Ilkley Gazette & LOCALiQ, Ilkley Shoe Company, Ilkley Town Council, LCF Law, LFW Podiatry, RDC Solicitors, Stowe Family Law, Tennant & Darragh Jewellery Workshop, The Craiglands Hotel, The Kindr Company and The Valley Clinic.

FIRM WIDE

Appointment of new IT director

LCF Law has appointed James Hood as head of IT, following significant investment in digital technology at the business. In 2020 LCF Law unveiled a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure across its four offices in Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate and Ilkley allowing staff easy, secure and remote access to the firms IT resources and tools, whilst also providing the highest level of security against cyber threat and data protection for both clients and staff. Hood, who has over 20 years’ experience in the IT industry, has headed the IT functions at well-known legal and accountancy firms in Yorkshire, as well as spending most of his early career in a managed services environment, which has helped him to drive a customer-centric focus to the services he delivers.

He said: “Having worked in the managed IT services sector for many years, predominantly with professional services firms as my bread-andbutter client base, I found that I really enjoyed working in the legal sector. “When the role at LCF Law came up, it felt like a great fit for me. The team are a really friendly group of people, and I was keen to join a firm that is forward thinking and open to new ideas.” Just over a year ago LCF Law made a significant investment in moving to cloud technology. Hood will lead a team of four which is currently working on a significant pipeline of projects that covers everything from business improvement to managed print and electronic document workflow systems, management information reporting, Microsoft Teams telephony and collaboration, digital client onboarding and more.

FIRM WIDE

Simon Stell, managing partner, said: “James will help to maximise our return on our recent IT investment, and will maintain our position at the forefront of our industry by spearheading a number of exciting business improvement projects. “Our IT team is a major asset that can help us realise our strategic growth plans and James will be instrumental in this.”

ALSO APPEARED IN • Business Link • Bradford T&A • Bdaily • EUBankers.net • Wharfedale & Airedale Observer • Gazette & Observer READ ARTICLE ONLINE

PERSONAL LAW

Families face fines if they clog up the court

The Lord Chancellor is reportedly drawing up plans to financially penalise parents who unnecessarily clog up the family court, in a bid to reduce the amount of civil family disputes in the system. The fines are part of a plan to encourage more people to use mediation to settle their dispute, rather than the court. Mediation helps people to communicate when separating by discussing arrangements for the children, finances and property. Yorkshire based, Rachel Spencer Robb is a partner and head of LCF Law’s Family Law team, with more than 20 years’ experience dealing exclusively with family law issues. She said: “Most parents with the benefit of legal advice would be steered away from court in the first instance and encouraged to use mediation. If they end up in court, with a lawyer, then they probably need to be there! We make it very clear to clients that court should always be a last resort, as it is not an easy journey and not something to be entered into lightly.”

A Law Society spokesperson said: “The best way to keep more cases out of court and to reduce the number of inappropriate applications is not to introduce financial penalties, but to ensure that all separating couples can get legal advice and representation to guide them through the process.” Rachel, who is a qualified mediator and Accredited Specialist of Resolution, added: “Unfortunately, the withdrawal of legal aid and the cost of representation has forced many people to apply to court when mediation might otherwise have solved the issue. Despite politicians blaming the parents, it’s not them who are purposefully clogging up the system, but the underfunded court system that is backing everything up. “If parents are going to be charged, it has not been made clear on what basis this will happen, or who will decide what is a genuine case and what is classed as clogging up. Threats to the people in need of using the system aren’t helpful, and I would suggest the focus should be on addressing the problems with the infrastructure of the court system instead. What if a worried parent was put off getting help because they were scared about the financial risk?”

PERSONAL LAW

The Law Society spokesperson added: “There seems to be a belief among many people that lawyers necessarily mean courts, when in fact the opposite is the case. The evidence of the past decade is that taking lawyers out of the equation led to fewer cases going to mediation, and more cases going to court. With parents acting without advice and representation, they often bring misconceived arguments and irrelevant issues to court.” Family mediation was the government’s flagship solution to the removal of legal aid for most private family law matters in 2013, but referrals nosedived. Earlier this year the Ministry of Justice introduced a £1m voucher scheme to encourage eligible families towards mediation and that scheme was topped up with a further £800,000 in the summer. LCF Law offers a collaborative approach to divorce, which means clients can avoid going to court, in the majority of cases. Contact Rachel Spencer Robb call 01943 885 790, email rspencerrobb@lcf.co.uk or visit www.lcf.co.uk for more information. READ ARTICLE ONLINE

DISPUTES

Crossing boundaries now a big issue

Disputes between neighbours are on the rise due in part to an increase in the amount of time spent at home during the pandemic. Tom Edwards, a partner and litigation solicitor in the disputes team at LCF Law, says that the firm has seen a 150 per cent rise in boundary disputes over the last 18 months. The huge uplift in home and garden improvements and new fences and extensions have in turn led to issues revolving around boundaries. Here, Tom explains some of the real life problems encountered: The fundamental problem lies in how to work out the location of the boundary. Often, people solely rely on the red boundary lines indicated on Land Registry title plans but in most cases, they only show the general location. Boundaries can also change over time depending on how land is used. This can lead to disputes, particularly where one neighbour tries to build or extend their garden onto a neighbour’s property because they think they own more land than they do.

There are cases where neighbours have spent thousands of pounds trying to address a boundary issue and even gone to court over the dispute. These disputes also have a big impact on the mental wellbeing of those involved. One of the cases we were involved in was when a client’s neighbour built an extension over the entire width of their own driveway. This resulted in the neighbour being unable to get into their back garden without going through their own house. However, the Land Registry title plans appeared to show that the neighbour owned a small strip of land on the other side of their house so they thought it could be used for access. The problem being that when the properties were built, the developer put a boundary fence in that prevented access to the rear of their property by that route, and it had been in situ for over 20 years.

DISPUTES

The neighbour had therefore effectively built over their only external physical access point to their rear garden. Our client came home to find that the neighbour had removed the dividing fence, was using our client’s gated driveway as access to the rear of their property and their child was playing in our client’s garden. We had to establish where the boundaries were situated, and if our client had to give access, bearing in mind that such access had never been used and could not physically have been used since the properties were built many years before. This dispute could have been avoided if the neighbour had taken advice on the location of their boundaries, with reference to the features on the ground before they built their extension. In another case, an issue arose over the ownership of a fence dividing two gardens. Our client wanted to replace a damaged fence but the neighbour claimed it was theirs. The title plans and deeds showed an inward facing ‘T’ mark on the relevant title plan, meaning it was our client’s responsibility to maintain the fence. Due to the misunderstanding, relations soured so when our client put up the new fence, their neighbour hired a digger, drove it into our client’s garden and smashed the fence to pieces. A review of the deeds before the issue was raised could have prevented the dispute. Another recent case involved the owner of a terraced house, which was on a private road that was used for pedestrian access only. Our client built a shed and flower beds on the road outside their property, something others had also done. However, the neighbour opposite claimed that they owned the entire width of the road and told everyone to remove their sheds and garden features because they were trespassing.

Upon reviewing the deeds and based on legal presumptions, it was clear that our client and their neighbours owned up to the centre line of the road, so there was no trespass. Disputes even involve claims about the ownership of trees. A client’s neighbour chopped down a tree to improve the view from their garden as they thought because the tree was on the boundary, they were entitled to fell it. The tree and boundary were jointly owned, so the neighbour needed our client’s permission to chop it down. All these cases show there is more to boundary determination than meets the eye. If in doubt you should contact a property lawyer or land surveyor to determine exactly where the boundary is. We advise neighbours to do their best to avoid disputes, as such issues usually need to be disclosed when they sell their home. This can reduce its value or prevent a sale. Always communicate with your neighbour before work commences, as it is often the lack of communication that causes a dispute to escalate. READ ARTICLE ONLINE

DISPUTES

Challenging a will can get messy, says Bradford-based law expert

WE have seen a considerable rise in challenges to wills over the last decade, with more families than ever before launching legal bids. This is due in part to the change of modern-day family structures. Traditionally, there was an expectation that inheritance would pass to a spouse and then the children, but modern families are often more extended, which can leave expectant beneficiaries disappointed. In order to make a will, a person must have mental capacity, and if somebody is affected by a progressive and degenerative disease, like dementia for example, at the time they make a will, this can legally be brought into question. A high-profile case making headlines last year saw the children of Monty Python comedy legend Terry Jones launch a High Court battle with their late father’s widow over the estate that he left her in his will.

Terry passed away last year, nine years after his marriage to Swedish clothing designer Anna Soderstrom. His two adult children from his first marriage, have claimed their father’s 2016 will, which entitled Ms Soderstrom to his home in Highgate, North London, does not stand. They claim he did not have the mental capacity when he wrote the will, as he was suffering from dementia. In this case, Terry Jones’ children have launched a legal bid on the basis that Mr Jones did not have mental capacity to make a will due to his progressive illness. We are seeing more capacity challenges to wills just like this one, as people are living longer, and dementia and other agerelated capacity conditions are becoming more common. In this case, the Judge will have to decide if Mr Jones had capacity to make a will based on his medical records, possibly using evidence from doctors, who are experts in his condition, and people who knew him at the time the will was made, including the solicitor who prepared the will.

DISPUTES

If the challenge is successful, any earlier will Mr Jones had made would be the valid will. If he has no earlier will, his estate will pass to family under strict legal rules. The loser in the court proceedings is likely to face a large bill, paying both their own legal costs and the costs of the winners. This case highlights the importance of making a will as early as possible in life, ideally before the onset of any diseases that can impact mental capacity. Anyone re-marrying or having more children should always review their will and be as open and honest with its recipients as possible to avoid any future disputes. A number of cases that LCF Law has recently handled demonstrate how important this is. In one instance, a gentleman was very ill in hospital and made a new will during his time there, shortly before he died. The new will was largely in favour of his adult children from a previous relationship, and left nothing to his wife, who wasn’t the mother to his children. I acted on her behalf, and it was decided that the new will wasn’t valid because he didn’t have the mental capacity required at the time of writing it and instead his previous will should stand. In another interesting case, a lady who had never married and had no children, left her estate to a close friend in a will that she had made after the onset of dementia had been diagnosed. As a result, after her death, her wider family argued that dementia meant she didn’t have the mental capacity at the time of writing the will.

However, the solicitor who had written it had been extremely diligent throughout the process. This involved speaking to her GP, who had written a letter confirming that she was in a fit state to write a will, as well as clearly explaining and documenting all her decisions relating to it. This meant there were very detailed records of every aspect of her will and her decisions, so it was deemed valid. These examples show how evidence is taken into account when reviewing the validity of wills and that the outcome may not be as expected. It is therefore better to make your wishes clear and share them with loved ones, whilst you are in good health. * Bradford-based Ragan Montgomery is a partner at LCF Law with 20 years’ experience specialising in wills, trusts and inheritance disputes. Ragan, who operates across the UK, holds membership of the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists (ACTAPS), something only a handful of legal professionals have achieved in the North of England. She is also a recommended lawyer in both the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners High Net Worth Guides and an Affiliate Member of STEP Contentious Trusts and Estates Special Interest Groups. READ ARTICLE ONLINE