Shentons

Our Chloe Jay attended the launch of the business awards last week

Chloe Jay, Partner, answers your questions on what you can do if your child is accused of a crime
MY SON HAS BEEN ASKED IN FOR AN INTERVIEW WITH POLICE - WILL I BE ALLOWED TO GO WITH HIM?
It is important to establish whether your son is being interviewed under caution, (which means the police suspect him of involvement in a crime,) as opposed to simply being interviewed as a witness. If he is under 18 years of age the law dictates he must have an appropriate adult present fo...r an interview under caution. It may well be that you can fulfil this role provided you have not witnessed something material to the case which could exclude you. The role of the appropriate adult is to facilitate communication between the young person and the police, they cannot provide legal advice. It is always best therefore to ask for a lawyer to attend and advise on the merits of the case as well. If your son is aged 18 or over then he would only have an appropriate adult if he were to be considered mentally vulnerable in some way.
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Thank you for the lovely feedback, we are really proud of our family law team and the work that they do!

Congratulations to our Family Department for this lovely feedback!
For more information about our Family Law services just click here 👉 https://www.shentons.co.uk/family-matrimo nial-civil-partner… #familylaw

Victoria Toan and Mark Holmes from Vision Financial Planning with our Elisabeth Pollard at tonight’s wealth management talk.

What can you do if you're stuck in an abusive relationship? Solicitor Rachael Cole explores the options https://www.shentons.co.uk/shentons-news- abusive-relationsh…

How important is a survey on your DREAM HOUSE?
Michelle Hughes from our conveyancing team explains why you may not want to skip a step.. https://www.shentons.co.uk/shentons-news- survey.html

We are big fans of Winchester radio and their work!

The age of criminal responsibility in the UK is 10. This means that any child of that age can be arrested, prosecuted and sentenced in a criminal court. This is the youngest age in Europe with it being set at 14 in Germany, 15 in Sweden, 16 in Portugal and 18 in Luxembourg.
Should your child face questioning by police please do not hesitate to ask for professional help from our team. https://www.shentons.co.uk/criminal-law.h tml

JOB OPPORTUNITY We are looking for a Legal Secretary to assist in our busy Family and Civil Litigation department. Click here for more details:

Cases involving a death on the road are extremely challenging for all parties. Partner Chloe Jay tells us about two such cases in the last year.. https://www.shentons.co.uk/shentons-news- challenging-cases.…

Patrick Hunter of our Wills and Probate team, answers a difficult question:
My child has a disability, what could I do about that situation in the event of my death?
One potential issue arises if your child receives state benefits for their disability; as these may be lost if you leave money or assets to them at the time of your death. An option is to consider a trust for the vulnerable person as part of your Will, to ensure that the money you wish to leave them does not impact upon the benefits that they may receive now or in the future. Such trusts can also be set up in the lifetime of a parent (or grandparent) and can then be used as a ‘repository’ into which to place monies during their life without affecting the support they receive from the state.

DIVORCE WITHOUT BLAME?
After a number of false starts in 2019, the government has introduced a new bill on divorce.
This bill, if passed, will allow for no-fault divorce. The current law requires divorcing couples to apportion blame but the new legislation will relinquish the so-called “blame game” in favour of a more balanced approach, with the potential to even allow joint divorce applications.
... Tamsin Stevenson from our family department said “Divorce with blame has always contradicted the general principles of resolution; to avoid hostility, if the bill is passed it will be much easier for the family to move on in a positive way.”
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Crime Team Co-ordinator Harriet Parker answers one of those questions you’ve always wanted to ask:
HOW CAN YOU REPRESENT SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS GUILTY?
"Much like doctors, solicitors have ethics to follow and if someone tells us that they are guilty, but they wish to plead not guilty, we have a duty not to mislead the Court and generally we have to withdraw from acting. However, in my experience, most clients do accept their guilt at an early stage and my job is then to represe...nt them through the criminal justice process from the police station to the Court. Sometimes a client simply does not know if they're guilty or not because the law is so complex, so it is our job to go through this with them." https://www.shentons.co.uk/criminal-law.h tml
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Happy New Year! A change in the law in late 2019 has resulted in heterosexual couples being able to enter into civil partnerships as an alternative to marriage. Although the legal benefits of the two types of union are equal, some couples prefer the more modern type of union, free from the religious and patriarchal connotations of marriage.

Our lovely team have been participating in a Reverse Advent Calendar this December! This means that on each day of December, a member of our team has put an item into a box for either Trinity Winchester or the Winchester Churches Nightshelter
We ended up with three boxes for each charity and we dropped them off this morning. In a season where we all indulge so much, it was great to give back to those less fortunate

We are asking our clients to kindly bear with us this morning as we are having some issues with our emails. Please call if it is urgent.

We were getting into the festive spirit on Friday by wearing our Christmas Jumpers and donating to Save the Children UK! If you want to donate to this important cause click here: https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/donate