Plea on probate cover

Probate solicitors this week expressed concern over government proposals to reduce the number of probate registries.

A consultation paper from the Lord Chancellor's Department, on a comprehensive review of probate business, recommended that the current plethora of registries and sub-registries be reduced to six larger, regional registries.

But Jan Wright, treasurer of the Law Society's probate section, said the large number of venues helped ensure direct access to justice.

She also opposed proposals to require solicitors to use specific registries according to postcode instead of choosing the registry.

She gave the example of the London registry, which has to deal with many personal applications and so does not process solicitors' applications quickly, unlike others, such as the Winchester registry.

Ms Wright added that as the size of estates becomes public, some families prefer non-local registries.

The government is also planning to replace swearing oaths with the bereaved making a statement of truth.

This would remove the need to travel to a registry, have an interview, and swear the oath in person.

Ms Wright said the section was 'quite concerned' about the proposal to remove the interview from the process other than in exceptional circumstances, as this ran the risk of encouraging fraud in cases where money had been left to charities.

'On the other hand, we do support the modernisation that is being proposed,' Ms Wright added.

LINKS: www.courtservice.gov.uk

Chris Baker