...basically, we deal in disputesThe litigation team specialises in disputed wills, personal injury law and cases involving vulnerable people who lack mental capacity - these cases are dealt with by a special court, called the Court of Protection.

We can help with Inheritance Act work (for example, where a spouse or cohabitee has been excluded from a will), cycling injury work, particularly serious cases, and accidents at work. Our court of protection work includes disputes over financial issues as well as health and welfare decisions.

You will shortly be able to visit our court of protection legal centre website and our cycling legal centre website is now live!

The team is headed up by Sarah Young and includes experienced paralegal Samantha Hirst, with Helen Dandridge who qualified as a solicitor in 2014, assisting the team.

From the left of the photo, partner Sarah Young has expertise in inheritance disputes and missing people cases. Helen Dandridge is a solicitor who is growing

the firm's Court of Protection work and Janet Watson is a highly experienced legal executive dealing with personal injury work. Tracey Thwaites (PA to Sarah Young) and Ellie Moore (secretary) provide invaluable support to the team and are always happy to speak to clients. Finally Sam Hirst (paralegal) has worked closely with Janet to develop our newly launched online Cycling Legal Centre.

Ridley & Hall fundraising reaches new heights

Happy Families? Moving in with Mum!

Family First website is re-launched

Meet the Litigation team

Ridley & Hall leading the way in kinship care

see inside

news&viewsIssue 13 | November 2015

01484 538 421 info@ridleyandhall.co.uk ridleyhall.co.ukRidley & Hall Legal Limited, Queens House, 35 Market Street, Huddersfield, HD1 2HL

The 2015 Legal 500 rankings have been announced and Ridley & Hall is pleased to be named as the highest ranking law firm in Huddersfield in all the categories it was nominated for.

The Legal 500 is the leading guide to law firms in the UK and over four million users visit The Legal 500 website each year. Aimed at buyers of legal services, it is researched and written by an experienced team and firms are ranked according to location and practice area.

The best Lexcel result in our historyIn the latest Lexcel audit, Ridley & Hall achieved the highest result in our 11 years of being audited. This is the Law Society’s legal practice quality mark for excellence in legal practice management and excellence in client care. The inspection took place on 23rd September 2015 and Ridley & Hall passed with flying colours. In fact the inspector did not find a single thing to make an adverse comment about.

Meet The Litigation Team...

Ridley & Hall leading the way in kinship careThere is a national shortage of foster carers. This has led to a significant growth in the number of kinship carers – relatives caring for children who would otherwise be fostered. Many lack appropriate support. Nigel Priestley, head of Kinship and Community Care, and his team have developed an expertise in representing vulnerable carers. One of the key kinship support groups, Grandparents as Parents, states on its website that Ridley & Hall is “the leading firm in England and Wales for advice on kinship care.” It further states, “Their commitment to human rights and their cutting edge legal work means that we can provide advice on the responsibilities of local authorities and we know how to hold them to account for their actions.” Ridley & Hall frequently supports individuals and families in their challenges to local authorities. In 2014 there were five significant court decisions which either had a national impact or a significant outcome for the family involved.

Another marker in the Legal 500In the Legal 500, the Wills, Probate & Trusts department was ranked in the fourth tier of the Yorkshire & Humberside region. The department continues to provide comprehensive and excellent services covering Wills, Probate, Powers of Attorney, Trusts and Court of Protection work under the stewardship of experienced solicitor and Head of Department Jill Waddington.

James CookChild Care & Adoption

Here to serve you...

Shahida KarimFamily

Alison MasonLicensed Conveyancer

Sam HirstPersonal Injury &

Contentious Probate

Jill WaddingtonPrivate Client

Sam SandersChild Care & Adoption

Michael GeorgeChild Care

Johanna AllenFamily

Victoria MaudePrivate Client

Vicky MeddFamily & Mediation

Ridley & Hall celebrates top position in the Legal 500 guide

Northamptonshire County Council v AS and ORS [2015] EWHC 199 (Fam) We have had several clients approach us

recently to say that they have agreed for

their child to be accommodated by the

local authority, often to allow them some

respite at difficult times. However, the

child has ended up staying away for

months and in some cases even years.

Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 allows a

local authority to find alternative

accommodation for a child but can often leave

parents out of the loop with important

planning for the child. The parents retain

parental responsibility for their child and the local authority do not acquire it but parents frequently feel that they are not having a say in contact arrangements or the child’s education and ultimately, if and when the child can be reunited with their care.

This recent case highlights the disadvantages of delaying the issue of proceedings. The local authority:

1. Deprived the children of the benefit of an independent Children’s Guardian to represent their interests.

2. Deprived the court of the ability to control the planning for the child.

3. Deprived the court of the ability to prevent

or reduce unnecessary and avoidable delay in

securing a permanent placement for the child

at the earliest possible opportunity.

It is likely that local authorities who

continue to misuse section 20 will leave

themselves open to widespread judicial

criticism.

The Care and Adoption department at Ridley & Hall is

headed by James Cook. The team undertakes a

diverse range of cases from special guardianship to

representing parents and relatives in public child care

cases. They have represented clients on cases involving

the abduction of children, removal of children from

the jurisdiction of the UK and injunctions under the

inherent jurisdiction of the High Court.

C A S E S P O T L I G H TThe Care Team at Ridley & Hall comment on a recent case...

“It is great that our hard work to become one of the leading law firms in West Yorkshire is recognised by organisations such as the Legal 500. I want to thank all the departments involved whose hard work has resulted in the final rankings. We have a double celebration as we have recently passed our Lexcel audit. We are very proud of these recent announcements!”Adam Fletcher, Managing Partner LEADING FIRM

2015

RH News & Views Oct 2015 S3.pdf 1 02/11/2015 14:43

100% SATISFACTION

ridley&hallsolicitors

familyfirst

Every firm in every walk of life will tell you that they provide excellent service; let’s be honest, so do we. But you don’t have to take our word for it.

Sarah Young discusses a problem that she feels she will see more of in the future

Happy Families? Moving in with Mum!

For a long time now Ridley & Hall have been asking clients to give us feedback on the service we have provided, be it buying or selling a house or dealing with complex family matters. From the beginning of October 2014 to the end of June 2015 100% of our clients who returned a client satisfaction survey* said that they would be happy to recommend our services to others.

Even with this feedback, we are always looking to improve our service so if you have any ideas on how we can do this then please do get in touch.

*250 surveys were returned during the period 1st October 2014 to 30th June 2015.

FAMILY FIRST WEBSITE IS RE-LAUNCHEDIt has now been over 18 months since Familyfirst was launched by Ridley & Hall. Our family service provides fixed fee packages to suit all budgets for those people going through divorce, separation, or difficult times with children.

Over the last couple of years, Ridley & Hall have been able to test the ideas that our family team have had. Everyone has been involved in updating the website and making it look current and easy to navigate.

We have now updated the website to make it much easier to navigate. Our pricing structure is also now presented in a much clearer fashion.

Vicky Medd, head of the family and mediation team said “I am really pleased to be able to deliver a clear website, which sets out the work we do and how we charge. We aim to be transparent with our clients, who are already going through a difficult time. We are continuing to provide fixed fee packages to clients where they are appropriate, and our clients appreciate the choice of services that we have.”

The Family team has been ranked in the fourth tier in the North and West Yorkshire

region in the Legal 500.

Congratulations!Please visit our new website at http://ridleyhall.co.uk/affiliated-services/family-first/ or ring us on 01484 538421 for a free half an hour appointment.

Living on your own can be lonely, especially as you grow older. For many families the logical

answer is that an elderly parent sells their home and moves in with one of their adult children. But life doesn’t always go to plan.

I am increasingly coming across cases where family arrangements like this, made without the benefit of legal advice, have gone horribly wrong as a result of unforeseen circumstances.

In one case a mother sold the family home and used the proceeds of sale to pay off her son’s mortgage. She moved in with him and it was always intended that her name would be put on the deeds to reflect her share of the property, but that never happened. Her son sadly died some years later and because he hadn’t updated his will, his estate, which included the house, all went to his two young sons who were living with his estranged wife. On the face of it my client, the elderly mother, had no evidence to prove her interest in the property. She was confused about what had been agreed in the past and there weren’t any bank statements or documents.

It took a lot of detective work to prove that my client owned a substantial share in the property and it was deeply distressing for her and the family to deal with the dispute immediately following their bereavement.

The law in this area isn’t always straight forward. Whenever money is used to part fund the purchase of a property or is used to repay a mortgage on a property there is a possibility that a trust may arise giving someone an interest in the property. This can happen, for example, with couples who cohabit where the property is in one of the party’s names as well in cases involving parents and children. However strong the ties of love and affection between those involved it’s vital to have clear discussions about everyone’s intentions; who owns what? What should happen if one of you dies? Ideally those decisions should be recorded in a declaration of trust which can be drawn up by a property lawyer to avoid any confusion later down the line.

The recession means that more families are having to live together for longer and for financial reasons

it may make all sorts of sense for a widowed parent to move in with one of their children. But if that person loses mental capacity for example; who will be able to give evidence about what was agreed in terms of any financial transaction? Arguments between families can often arise not just over their inheritance but also over gifts and loans made by their parent during their lifetime. It may sound harsh, but it’s best to plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Sarah Young is a Partner with Ridley & Hall Solicitors and specialises in will disputes, cases involving missing people and the Court of Protection. Sarah offers practical, friendly and cost effective advice. She understands the sensitive nature of cases which

often involve disputes between families and has a record of bringing the most complex cases to a successful conclusion.

For further information please contact Sarah on 01484 538421 or mobile 07860 165850.

We’re good, but don’t take our word for it!

Ridley & Hall fundraising reaches new heights for HospiceOver the past year, Ridley & Hall have really pulled out all the stops to raise over £7,000 for Dalton based Kirkwood Hospice.

Our enthusiastic and energetic staff organised a huge variety of events to raise funds for Kirkwood, from dressing up in festive costumes to taking on epic treks. We raised a grand total of £7,397.

In December, the team organised a 12 day festive fundraising drive, participating in a number of zany tasks, from dressing as their favourite ‘Frozen’ character to a colouring in challenge. Showing just how dedicated the whole team are to the cause, some members of staff even donned elf costumes to help out at Kirkwood’s annual Santa’s Grotto events.

A cycling soiree at the Huddersfield Criterium followed and a race night at Huddersfield’s Irish Centre. To top it all off, the Ridley & Hall team took on the formidable 3 peaks challenge, walking 40 gruelling kilometres in under 12 hours!

Kirkwood Hospice Fundraiser, Wasim Hussain, said: “We have enjoyed a fantastic relationship with Ridley & Hall over the past year. The amount of money raised for the Hospice is outstanding and the initiative they have shown in the ways they have raised it is truly inspiring. Taking on the Three Peaks is no mean feat in itself!

On behalf of everyone at Kirkwood Hospice, I would like to thank Ridley & Hall for all their hard work and dedication.”

We are delighted to have raised money for Kirkwood Hospice and enjoyed the experience. It has been a great year and we send the Hospice best wishes for the next 12 monthsNicki Heaversedge – on behalf of the Charity Committee.

VIEWPOINT VIEWPOINT

With 20 years’ experience, David joined Ridley & Hall in 2015 to head up the commercial property department. He brings to the firm his knowledge of the local market and takes pride in offering sensible, straightforward yet commercially astute advice to his clients across an exceptionally broad range of matters.What was the best piece of advice you have ever received?Only pick up a piece of paper once – otherwise, you are just putting off dealing with something.

Who is the person you admire the most?I would find it difficult to single out one person. I’ve never really tried to follow in anyone’s footsteps. If pressed to answer, then Bradley Wiggins, James Bond, Rumpole of the Bailey….

What was the best moment of your career?Qualification as a solicitor – it represented the end of a long time in higher education, followed by completion of the training contract.

What has changed since you started at R & H?This is a tricky one for me to answer, as I’ve only recently joined the firm,

but I would say that the firm feels like it is going places.

If you had to describe R & H in one word what would it be?Refreshing

What’s your idea of a perfect day outside work?Cycling up to the top of a moor on a rainy day with a group of friends. There’s even more satisfaction when the weather’s against you!

If you could go back in time, where would you go?I’m interested in Renaissance art but the children would never forgive me if I took them around art galleries, so I’d like to go back to Italy in the 14th century.

Three favourite songs?As by Stevie Wonder, St Matthew’s Passion by J.S. Bach, Autumn Leaves by Nat King Cole

What do you want for Christmas?A faster road bike. And faster legs!

QUESTION TIME WITH DAVID AMIES

RH News & Views Oct 2015 S3.pdf 2 02/11/2015 14:43