Author: Victoria Wells   The sudden death last month of former “Diff’rent Strokes” star Gary Coleman has highlighted the importance of having a valid Will, and keeping it up to date. Despite his showbiz background, Gary’s personal circumstances were in some ways not that different to many of us, with both an ex-wife and a former girlfriend on the scene, and the lack of clarity around his wishes has led - perhaps inevitably - to dispute between the two. There is also uncertainty about what to do with his ashes, surely a situation which none of us would want our loved ones to be left in. In his 1999 Will, Gary gave instructions about his funeral, that he wanted it conducted by people who had no financial ties to him and who “can look each other in the eyes and say they really cared personally for Gary Coleman”. He also in the Will appointed a close friend as his executor. In 2005 it appears that Gary made a new Will, in favour of his then girlfriend, Anna Gray. The Will specified that he did not want any sort of funeral service. Following his marriage to Shannon Price in 2007, he made a “homemade” Will, in which he named his wife as his sole beneficiary. Apparently this was signed, but not witnessed, so lacks full testamentary validity. They divorced in 2008. Perhaps inevitably, Ms Price and Ms Gray are now in dispute about who should administer Gary’s estate, and who is entitled to that estate. Ms Gray argues that they were together for eight years, and that the 2005 Will is the valid “last Will and Testament”. Ms Gray contends that, as they were still living together at Gary’s death, despite their divorce, she is entitled to be treated as his “wife”. A lawyer has now been appointed by the courts to sort out the mess, and in the meantime both Gary’s ashes and his estate remain in limbo. The heartache and expense of all of this could all have been avoided if Gary, following each major change of circumstance in his life, had taken professional advice to ensure that his latest Will matched his current situation and that his belongings and his funeral would be dealt with as he wished, by the people he wanted.

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TV Star’s Death Highlights Importance of Wills

Author: Marilyn Bell On 27 April this year the family court doors were opened. Some would say this was just by a crack because of the reporting restrictions. The Justice Secretary Jack Straw is now proposing to improve the transparency of the family court  by relaxing the reporting restrictions.    So far so good but where will this take us. Cases involving children are some of the most sensitive.  There are two main kinds of proceedings involving children:  Private law proceedings involve disputes, usually between the parents, as to where the children shall live and how much contact they shall have with the non resident parent. Understandably pressure has come from Fathers who feel they have been denied contact with their children and opening up the family court is welcomed as long as the anonymity of the children can be assured. Public law proceedings usually involve children being removed from their parents and taken into the care of the local authority. Ultimately the children may return to their parents, or be fostered, or adopted. The media can now attend Court and hear the evidence. However, they are already realising that the main body of the evidence is contained in the detailed documentation usually running to many lever arch folders. How is this to be approached in the light of greater transparency? Reporters are already suggesting they should be able to read the experts reports, but the experts reports refer to the documents the experts has relied on. Should all these documents therefore be available? Parents may disagree with the experts, if so, should the media therefore have the parents statements as well?         These are just some of the questions that will have to be taken into consideration.

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Opening up our family courts

It had all the trappings of a dream wedding: the happy couple stood before their priest on a seaside rooftop and said their vows in the sunshine before joining their guests for a lavish dinner. But Gillian Hudson was told yesterday that it was not a valid ceremony, she was not legally married and — most important of all — she could not file for divorce.

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Judge rules Gillian Hudson’s ceremony with priest was not a marriage

Legless in Gaza? No, but in the wake of my Smokedo: Smoke yourself fit with Charon antics, I am now going to be a wine reviewer for LawandMore. I used to do restaurant reviews for them, but as I far prefer drinking to eating - and I am miles away from good restaurants it makes sense to review wines.  There is another advantage - the wines come to me by courier! I have spoken to two wine  people this morning - both very enthusiastic blokes - and warned them that my reviews tend to be less technical, but more surreal, than the real experts.  While I studied wine in my late twenties I gave up;  preferring instead to drink the goddam stuff than worry what colour the soil was or where the sun was pointing when grape turned into nectar of the gods. It is unlikely, also, I told them that I would be writing about fruits or wine tasting of old cricket bats. I will be concentrating on taste, of course and will also (because I am an enthusaistic if infrequent cook) give an idea of what food it will go with -  but I will be asking one essential question - Did it do the business? I shall, of course, have a grading system based on  a 1-5 scale.  One  is not a good score.  Five  will be nirvana. I am pleased to report that my Smokedo programme is going well. I am now a 30aday Dan and managing to do 1000 press-ups, and 500 squats, calf lifts and 500 repetitions of five arm exercises with a 5kg dumbell daily  - courtsey of Mr Amazon who delivered said dumbells to me only yesterday.  I rather overdid it yesterday evening  and found my right arm throwing tea into my face when I lifted my cup this morning - but, in time….  my body will get used to the new muscles. The drawing to the left is a simulation. For political reasons I cannot be photographed smoking as I use these dumbells.  The technique of gripping the cigarette between the teeth allows natural breathing in and out while using the dumbell equipment.  As always, please do not try this at home unless a Smokedo master is present to advise.

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Legless in Gaza?….

When two tribes go to war? The Times reports: “A City accountant convicted of leaving a lawyer’s face virtually unrecognisable in a brawl after drinking lager, champagne and tequila at a leaving party in a Fleet Street pub was spared jail but faces being struck off the chartered accountants’ register. Graham Carr, 39, who worked for KPMG, admitted causing actual bodily harm to Simon McPhee, of the City law firm Freshfields, after repeatedly punching him in the face in the Punch Tavern for talking too loudly. He was sentenced to a 12-month community order and 110 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £500 costs, reduced after the court was told that he had just been made redundant.” I don’t know the circumstances of this matter, of course - but it seems to me than an assault leaving a man’s face ‘virtually unrecognisable’ goes far beyond a minor altercation in a pub.   It is astonishing that a professional man can resort to such violence  over such a trivial matter as talking too loudly.  Custodial sentence?  I’m not a criminal lawyer and did not hear the evidence, of course.  Presumably assaults of this severity usually attract a custodial sentence? Perhaps a reader who does practice in the criminal courts can shed some light? It is just as well that Mr Carr was not a guest at an Inn of Court dining night - there would have been a hundred  or so lawyers talking loudly.

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And in the red corner tonight…

Dave’s Free Press Is asking for contributing parodies based on the spoof advert below. I quote quote from Dave’s site…”The Filth currently have an incredibly stupid poster campaign going on, encouraging people to waste police time and money by phoning their “anti-terrorist hotline” about nothing at all. Of course, the real objective is to keep the sheople scared so that the state can use the excuse of TERRRRRRRRRRRR to trample even more on our civil liberties.” Here’s my remix … Have a go yourself on Dave’s site… please follow his request for a link in the comments…

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Dave’s Free Press…

Blawg Review #206: Tartan Week -  All Things Scottish… is up… written by J. Craig Williams of May It Please The Court. I liked the quote - being a Scot myself… “ Quote of the Day - Golf is an exercise in Scottish pointlessness for people who are no longer able to throw telephone poles at each other. - Florence King.”

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Blawg Review #206: Tartan Week - All Things Scottish

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G20 Redux…

News up on Insite law together with daily news podcast and updates. Please note that news, professional news, law reports and what is happening on the blogs now have their own sections and these may be accessed through the links on the right hand panel of the Insite Law front page. So… what is the mood following G20? The stock markets, for the moment, have digested the news positively. Nationwide announced that house prices rose last month, but one swallow does not a summer make and one wonders, given that Halifax reported a green shoot but two months ago, whether there is an element of wish fulfilment here and over generous interpretation of data. Robert Peston in his BBC blog is taking the line that G20 is historic, that banking is to be made boring and the increased regulation demanded by the French and Germans is a victory for them - a move away from the free market concepts of the ‘anglo-saxons’.  More editorial…

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3rd April: News up on Insite Law