Closing a client matter properly is a basic client care, risk management and housekeeping requirement. There are also regulatory and best practice issues to consider. This Practice Note is a ‘how to’ guide for law firms on matter closure. It covers the practical steps involved in, and regulatory and other considerations surrounding, closing a client matter. Regulatory requirements SRA requirements The SRA Standards and Regulations require you to show that you provide services to clients in a manner which protects their interests, subject to the proper administration of justice. The Standards and Regulations are not prescriptive about how you might do this. Where you supervise or manage others providing legal services, you remain accountable for the work carried out through them and for ensuring that the individuals you manage are competent to carry out their role and understand their regulatory obligations. The Law Society suggests you should have a written, standardised policy for file closure. It also suggests you should have a checklist, which accords with your policy, to help preserve a consistent approach. See

This Practice Note is a ‘how to’ guide on collating all the necessary parts of a construction contract ready for execution. Compiling the full set of documents which make up a construction contract is sometimes overlooked in the rush to start the works. Sometimes work is even allowed to commence before the contract negotiations are fully concluded or the contract executed, for which you would generally use a letter of intent (see Practice Note: Letters of intent—construction). This is generally inadvisable, and it is vitally important to finalise the contract and ensure that a full set of documents is compiled and available to each party throughout the works, to facilitate efficient contract management and administration and ensure that issues and potential disputes can be managed effectively and smoothly. General considerations Construction contracts are often voluminous, comprising various technical and commercial schedules as well as a lengthy main body of conditions and contract particulars. The documents which are required to create the construction contract will be influenced by a number of factors including:

The resolution to wind-up A company may only enter voluntary liquidation if: • it has a fixed period for its duration which has expired or an event has occurred which its articles say is an event leading to liquidation and the company has passed an ordinary resolution to wind-up, or • it passes a special resolution that it be wound-up voluntarily. See: ◦ 97 Notice of meeting to pass ordinary or special resolution to wind up: Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents [1441] ◦ 103 Special resolution to wind up and appoint liquidator: Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents [1452] The old procedure of using an extraordinary resolution is no longer possible following the Companies Act 2006. If the directors make a declaration of solvency under section 89 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986), the company can enter into a members’ voluntary liquidation (MVL). For further information, see Practice Note: What is a members’ voluntary liquidation and when is it typically used? If they cannot, the company must enter creditors’

The voluntary winding-up of a company is the responsibility of the directors, who must ensure that the process is conducted in accordance with the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986) and Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 (IR 2016), SI 2016/1024. The board of directors must instruct a licensed insolvency practitioner to act for the company and written instructions should be obtained as to the scope of the instruction. Any licensed insolvency practitioner should ensure that they are able to act on behalf of the company and have not had any material professional relationship in the previous three years. The board of directors must ask whether the company is solvent, ie whether, having made full inquiry into its affairs, the company will be able to pay its debts in full, with interest, in the next 12 months. If the directors conclude that it is solvent on that basis, then a majority of them may make a declaration of solvency to enable the company to be placed into members’

When conducting litigation it will be necessary to interact with the court office and its staff. Although the volume and frequency of communications will vary from case to case, it is inevitable that, at some point, practitioners will need to write to or telephone the court office. There are technical rules governing communications with the court, particularly in relation to electronic forms of communication. The following Practice Notes provide guidance on these rules and are an important starting point: • Communicating with the court in civil claims • Electronic communication and filing of documents by email—CPR PD 5B This Practice Note assumes knowledge of the technical rules referred to above and instead focuses on the practical reality of day-to-day communications with the court office. It provides guidance on how to approach these interactions so as to avoid common pitfalls. Use appropriate language Regardless of the type of communication, be professional and polite at all times. This may sound so obvious as to be trite, but it cannot be emphasised enough. The process

The Charity Commission is the regulatory body for in excess of 170,000 charities (as at 31 March 2025) and during the financial year 2024–25 it regulated charity income exceeding £100 billion. Its area of operations is confined to England and Wales. In Scotland similar functions to the Charity Commission are performed by the Office of the Charity Regulator (OSCR). The websites of both the England and Wales and Scotland regulators are similar in providing information on all aspects of creating and running a charity and should be the first port of call for anyone concerned with charity operations. The Charity Commission is a body corporate with its functions currently regulated, on behalf of the Crown, by the provisions of the Charities Act 2011 (CA 2011), as amended. Objectives, functions and duties The Charity Commission (CC) has certain statutory objectives, which can broadly be summarised as follows: • public confidence—to ensure that the public have trust and confidence in charities • public benefit—to promote the principle and the keynote requirement that charity activities are

This Practice Note is a ‘How to’ guide to completing Form IHT35 for personal representatives (PRs) wishing to claim relief on shares or securities that were part of a deceased individual’s estate and were sold at a loss compared to the value as at the date of death on which inheritance tax (IHT) has been recorded in the IHT400 and paid. It should be read in conjunction with the following: • Claim for relief loss on sale of Shares • Listed stocks and shares IHT411 This Practice Note assumes some understanding of the background to, and the mechanics of, the submission of an IHT400 account, as well as the ability to claim for relief on the loss on a sale of shares by the PRs. It aims to assist with the preparation of the following document: • Claim for relief loss on sale of Shares This form is also available through Lexis®Smart (subscription sensitive): Claim for relief loss on sale of Shares The basic conditions

This Practice Note is a ‘How to’ guide to completing Form IHT38 for personal representatives (PRs) wishing to claim relief on land that was part of a deceased individual’s estate and was sold at a loss compared to the value as at the date of death on which inheritance tax (IHT) has been recorded in the IHT400 and has been paid. It should be read in conjunction with the following: • Claim for relief on loss on sale of land • Houses, land, buildings and interests in land IHT405 This Practice Note assumes some understanding of the background to, and the mechanics of, the submission of an IHT400 account, as well as the ability to claim for relief on the loss on a sale of land by the PRs. It aims to assist with the preparation of the following document: • Form: IHT38: Claim for relief — loss on sale of land This form is also available through Lexis®Smart (subscription sensitive): Claim for relief on loss

FORTHCOMING CHANGE relating to IHT on pension death benefits: At Autumn Budget 2024 on 30 October 2024, the government announced that it will bring unused pension funds and death benefits payable from a pension into a person’s estate for IHT purposes from 6 April 2027. This will apply both to defined contribution and defined benefit schemes, as well as to UK registered schemes and qualifying non-UK pension schemes. A technical consultation on the implementation of these changes ran from 30 October 2024 to 22 January 2025 and the changes are included in Finance Act 2026. For more information, see Practice Notes: Hot topic—the reform of inheritance tax on pensions and News Analysis: Autumn Budget 2024—Private Client analysis—Inheritance tax. This Practice Note provides a ‘How to’ guide to completing Form IHT400 (IHT account) and supplementary Schedules IHT401–IHT436 as part of the application for probate or letters of administration and the wider estate administration process. Form IHT400 is used to report full information to HMRC about the estate’s assets and liabilities in order

The Court of Protection (CoP) has power under MCA 2005 to order that a Will be executed on behalf of a person (referred to below as ‘P’) who is incapable of doing so for themselves. Practice Note Statutory Wills—Court of Protection applications sets out an overview of this jurisdiction, the situations when such applications are appropriate and the procedure involved. The CoP has a number of standard forms in relation to such applications, including the Form COP24 witness statement. The purpose of this ‘How to’ guide is to provide a starting point for preparing a COP24 witness statement in relation to a statutory Will application. The headings set out below refer to the boxes on the COP24 witness statement form. Relevant procedural rules are set out in the Court of Protection Rules 2017, SI 2017/1035 (COPR 2017), pt 14, and Practice Direction 14A—Written Evidence accompanying Part 14 of COPR 2017 (PD 14A). These should be considered carefully in preparing any evidence. This note does focuses on witness

The Court of Protection (CoP) has power to make an order authorising the sale of a property in which a person (referred to, below, as ‘P’) who lacks the requisite mental capacity has an interest, and where the sale is deemed to be in the best interests of P. See Practice Note: Property transactions involving protected persons for further details. Such an application might be necessary where there is no property and affairs deputy or attorney appointed under a lasting power of attorney. It might also be necessary where there is a deputy or attorney appointed but their powers do not extend to dealing with P’s property. The CoP has a number of proforma documents in relation to such applications, including draft witness statements (Form COP24). The purpose of this ‘How-to’ guide is to provide a starting point for preparing a COP24 Witness Statement in relation to the sale of P’s property. The headings

When an individual (P) no longer has the requisite mental capacity to carry out their functions as a trustee, an application may need to be made to the Court of Protection (CoP) to remove them and, sometimes, to appoint a new trustee in their place. This is the case even where P has a property and affairs deputy, as section 20(3) of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA 2005) prevents the deputy from exercising any powers vested in P as a trustee. This does not mean that the person appointed as deputy cannot also be appointed as a trustee, but they are distinct and separate roles and require separate applications. The position is slightly different in respect of attorneys acting under lasting powers of attorney (LPAs) and enduring powers of attorney (EPAs), who may acquire trustee functions in respect of trusts of land under the Trustee Delegation Act 1999 (TDA 1999). An LPA or EPA attorney may exercise the donor’s trustee powers under TDA 1999