Re My Post Dated 06/12.

[miltees]

Suggestion came from a newly qualified barrister.

[factor-fiction]

This will make more sense to people on here if you repost it on the original thread

[Peter Pedant]

It is this one:
Can The Legal Wording Of A Will Delay Probate
The solicitor who drew up my father in laws will has described the estate as the trust fund and goes on to refer to the trustees holding the trust fund for my children. The trustees are the children....
21:04 Fri 06th Dec 2013

Um dunno what to say to that one...
when the lawyers disagree the fees become astronomical

I have to admit I declined the suggestion to set up a trust under my own will... for the newly qualified barristers reasons. However here we have a will that everyone understands and there is no dispute about....so I would be inclined to let it stand and only change it when it comes time to re-write if ever.

Basically he is saying trusts have had their day when it comes to vehicles to avoid IHT and I would agree with that.

[FredPuli43]

What is the answer to this old barrister's questions , to the original post?

[Peter Pedant]

Hi Fred - firing on all cylinders

I thought it the new barrister were Chancery - he could be listened to
and if he were criminal, one could pass.

One of my colleagues was George Carman's pupil and he was always good to talk to.

[FredPuli43]

We don't what reasons this "newly qualified" barrister gave ,nor what "newly qualified" means; they could be just called to the Bar, or a pupil, or a squatter (someone who has finished pupillage but who hasn't found a seat in chambers) or someone just in chambers (though this is hardly 'newly qualified') Sounds like the first of these.

What reasons did they give ? Did they think that the trust fund wasn't the estate?

[tonywiltshire]

The fact that the Barrister is newly qualified does not reduce the quality of the advice given; they will have excellent knowledge of the law and should be taken note of. There are many “junior” Barristers still wearing wool or Polyester, rather than Silk, who are really experienced and knowledgeable “junior” senior Barristers.

[woofgang]

like Rumpole?

[tonywiltshire]

Woofgang, I have met a number of Barristers who have some of the qualities of Horace Rumpole; they should be listened to and learnt from.

[FredPuli43]

Tony, that would make sense if probate or the construction of wills was a necessary part of the Bar final examinations. It is not. Indeed, it might not be one of the six optional subjects but, as yet, I haven't discovered what they are.It is not at all likely that such a skill is taught in the Law Degree, being a practical skill and subject rather than a purely legal one.

The question asked is on that very topic, and there is no reason to believe that a 'newly qualified' barrister knows about it.

But I'll bear your comment in mind when I am asked £5,000 for an hour's conference with a QC, as I have been, or senior junior. A newly quailified man, say of a year's call, would be much cheaper and will know just as much, won't he or she? :)

[Nibble]

This is the original thread from miltees http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Law/Civil/Question1296999.html

[FredPuli43]

Rumpole, who could have been modelled on my pupil master, the similarities were so great, but is said to be modelled on James Burge, won his cases because of his experience of how the law worked in practice, rather than in theory, and his long understanding of human nature, including that of the judges. No beginner has that, though he's safe enough learning his trade in the County Courts or at the Magistrates' Court and doing fairly non-contentious applications

[woofgang]

I really like the Rumpole books, and the TV series. I have no knowledge at all of the law but they seemed to have, for me at least, a great sense of truth in them as well as the humour.

[tonywiltshire]

Fred: Thanks for your comments the point I was trying to make rather badly was that anyone who has read law and gone on to law school or taken pupillage and passed the various tests and then decided to make the practice of law their career is worthy of having their views heard and be taken seriously. Clearly the opinion of a Silk with some 15 years’ experience will be more expensive and probably be of a higher standard than that of someone who has just qualified but this does not mean the opinion of someone who is newly qualified should be disregarded, after all everyone has to start somewhere.
My understanding was that Sir John Mortimer, who I believe was also a QC, based his character, Horace Rumpole, on an amalgamate of people rather than one person, but as JM is not available to be asked we shall probably never know.