Blog

In recent years some insurers have striven to increase the efficiency with which they handle personal injury claims. Many now adopt a proactive approach and look to make first contact with an injured victim and potential claimant as part of a process called third party capture. The phrase is apt — the objective is to persuade the injured person to deal directly with the insurer… Read more

George Ide LLP is thrilled to announce the completion of another successful Make a Will Fortnight in aid of St Wilfrid’s palliative care hospice in Chichester. As part of this year’s two-week annual fundraising effort, our private client department drafted more than 60 wills free of charge in return for donations totaling more than £8,000 given by our clients to the local end-of-life charity. We… Read more

The United Kingdom unexpectedly voted for Brexit on 23 June and since then, reassured by soothing words from the Bank of England and the Chancellor, not to mention a recent reduction in base interest rate to an historic low of 0.25%, the main United Kingdom investment market has held its nerve. However, for those who are nervous about the ups and downs of markets, cash… Read more

Trusts can be established during a person’s lifetime or by their will and there are a number of different types of trust. The person establishing the trust is referred to as 'the settlor', or 'the testator' if the trust is established by their will. Trust funds are held by the trustees (who are appointed by the settlor or testator) and a common theme for all… Read more

One of the basic principles of insurance law is that of ‘uberrimae fidei’ which, roughly translated from the Latin, means that the parties to a contract of insurance are required to act in the ‘utmost good faith’. Basically this meant that, as a consumer seeking insurance, you had a duty to accurately disclose to your insurer any material information and not to make any material… Read more

Have you ever been asked to give evidence as a witness for a personal injury/clinical negligence claim? Evidence may be required in a case where someone has been injured in an accident to show how the injuries have affected them, or, as someone's employer, you may be asked to explain how they coped before they were injured and what the differences are since they were… Read more

A lease is a contract between you and a landlord giving you an exclusive right to occupy and use a property.  Just as any other contract, the lease reflects the circumstances that the parties have agreed and the needs of those parties.  So a short lease over a small space will be wholly different from a much longer lease over a high quality premises.  Longer… Read more

In last autumn’s budget the then Chancellor, George Osborne, proposed a series of changes affecting claims for personal injury. He proposed increasing what is called the 'small claims track' limit (SCT) and further proposed scrapping a person’s entitlement to claim compensation for 'minor' soft tissue injuries. 'Minor' has still not been defined. The SCT limit relates to the value of a person’s claim for injury… Read more

In the wake of the UK referendum vote to leave the European Union, differing views have been voiced on how Brexit may affect Britain’s property market. Already, it seems, overseas investors are snapping up properties in places like London. Estate agents have reported receiving calls from Chinese, Middle Eastern, Italian and Spanish investors shopping around for bargains. Early indications show that while a number of… Read more

Amidst all the current uncertainty, it may be a comfort to know that despite the UK’s long-standing membership of the EU, property law in the UK has remained essentially national with, for the most part, little intervention from the EU. As a result, it looks as though Brexit will have limited impact on how UK property is owned or dealt with. In particular, leaving the… Read more