Simon Morton worked long hours farming on the farm all his life for “modest pay” while his sister pursued a successful business career and was discouraged from working on the farm. Their father died in 2001 and mother in 2016, the latter leaving her share of the farm to Simon’s sister, cutting out Simon.
It was hugely encouraging to read, on The International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, of the positive impact that the Gay Farmer Helpline offers to an under-represented and often isolated group. I deal regularly with divorce cases with a farming connection – be it acting for a land owning husband, for a spouse who […]
The Farmer’s Guardian writes this week about the particular tendency within farming families to avoid tackling succession planning either at all, or until it almost too late. In the FG’s fabulously named Podcast: Have I Got Moos for You, rural & agricultural agent Heather Wildman highlights the fact that farmers often see themselves as different […]
Excellent news for UK farmers today as the government announces a £20 million fund from the European Regional Development Fund Programme to provide grants to SMEs, including farmers, for legal and other professional support to help post-lockdown recovery. As a family lawyer I have seen a huge increase in the last month in the number […]
Only yesterday I was getting excited about Oxfordshire farmers using throw-away plastics as an innovative new material for building animal housing and today I am even more excited to learn that I can buy eco-friendly ice-cream from North Aston Dairy. It really is inspiring to hear about the choices we are making in Oxfordshire to […]
With environmental protection concerns taking ever greater prominence and an increasing public demand to reduce plastic waste how nice to see that Oxfordshire is at the forefront of change once again. Not only are we home to the first “plastic free” Waitrose on the Botley Road but Fairytale Farm in Chipping Norton has used pioneering […]
Perhaps it’s just a sign of the times but the question of what rights a landlord retains to enter land held under an agricultural tenancy seems to have been under the spotlight recently. The case of the Rees family is of course deeply sad for them and other farming families who are similarly affected (by […]
This case involved a claim by the youngest daughter in a farming family for a share of the farm on the death of her father. This was despite a will whereby he left everything to his wife, the claimant’s mother. The basis of the claim was that the daughter has acted to her detriment on […]
The recent High Court case of Guest v Guest [2019] provides helpful guidance on the “Son, one day all this will be yours” cases. Follow the line to the helpful summary from Family Law Week. Assurances were given to the Claimant, a son of the Defendant farmer, about inheriting the business and farm land. The parties […]
If you’ve ever wondered if an illegitimate child can claim inheritance in the UK here’s a story that will be of interest to you. A DNA test proved that Jordan Adlard Rogers was a child of Charles Rogers (deceased) and therefore his heir. In another case involving illegitimate minors from 2018, the High Court awarded […]