First interview

Initial instructions and conflict of interest checks

Prior to meeting the client or taking instructions, sufficient information should be taken over the telephone or by email to enable a conflict of interest check to be carried out in compliance with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) SRA Standards and Regulations. The check should be against the client, the other party and any relevant third parties. The full names of each person and any other name(s) by which they have been known should be obtained.

It may be helpful for the client to provide in advance of the first meeting a written statement of the parties’ relationship, with details of their financial circumstances where appropriate, perhaps using a questionnaire sent by email. Clients should be asked to bring any relevant documentation, such as:

  1. the marriage or registration certificate if civil partners

  2. any pre- or post-nuptial agreement

  3. any cohabitation agreement, and

  4. any relevant deed of trust

Compliance with the requirements of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 is essential. The client should be informed in advance of the first meeting of the documentation required. The Law Society guidance

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Latest Family News

High Court judgment demonstrates usefulness of section 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986 in Schedule 1 claims (Re P (A Child) (Financial Provision))

Family analysis: In this Schedule 1 case the mother received, for her son’s benefit: a housing fund of nearly £1m (the property to be held on trust); child maintenance (including ‘HECSA’/carer’s allowance) until completion of his first degree; and lump sums in respect of his capital needs and her own substantial liabilities (chiefly relating to her unpaid legal fees). The father (whose resources could be measured in the ‘tens of millions of pounds’) had sought to prejudice the mother’s claims via transferring his valuable shares to family members, who then transferred the same into a trust structure (settled under Czech law). A further onwards transfer was then made of the trust’s assets into a Liechtenstein foundation. Inferences were drawn by the court in respect of the level of the father’s wealth, and specifically as to the value of the transferred shares. Detailed findings were made against him in respect of the identified transactions, which had been the focus of the mother’s section 423 application. Although a section 423(2) order was not actually made, the application was adjourned pending the father’s compliance with the award, with security in the sum of £600,000 also ordered, alongside a continuation of the freezing orders made earlier in the proceedings. David Wilkinson, solicitor at Slater Heelis, considers the issues.

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