1 Fighting for the people left behind.
Slater Heelis have hit the headlines this week as their client Vicky Derrick took her campaign before the Justice Select Committee in an attempt to change the law if favour of the partners and families of people who go missing.
Working with lobbying groups including the Missing People charity, Slater Heelis is campaigning for the law to be clearer, for solicitors to be better trained in this area and for missing person cases to be resolved earlier. Anne Coffey, MP for Stockport and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Runaway and Missing Children and Adults is also behind the campaign.
Vicky Derrick from Partington, last heard from husband Vincent when he called her from a work’s night out in Manchester on 29th August 2003. Seven years later, Vicky came to Slater Heelis to ask for help as, without a death certificate for her husband, she was unable to manage his estate which included not being able to claim her husband’s life insurance policy or to move home as the family home remained in joint names.
Kirsten Bennett, a Solicitor at Slater Heelis, is working with the Missing People charity to help campaign for a change in the law and explains: “As the law currently stands there is a Common Law Presumption of Death, which says that when a person dies proof of their death is set out in a death certificate which enables the family to deal with their affairs and estate. In the case of a person who goes missing, obviously there is no corpse to prove death, and so no death certificate will be issued. At the moment families have to wait seven years before the courts will grant a Presumption of Death order and in that time they are unable to use bank accounts or insurance policies in the missing person’s name or to sell a house if it is a joint mortgage and really are left in limbo.
“It’s a hugely unfair system that has a devastating effect on the families who have to navigate their way around a complex legal and financial minefield as well as mourning the loss of a loved one.”
Slater Heelis is working with the Missing People charity to campaign for a change in the law by putting in place a single piece of legislation that would deal with the situation where a person goes missing, such as a Guardianship Order, which would be similar to a Power of Attorney to enable a relative of the missing person to deal with their day to day finances.
Slater Heelis offers specialist advice in not only obtaining a Presumption of Death Certificate but also dealing with a missing person’s estate in the months and years following a loved one’s disappearance.
For help and advice please contact Kirsten Bennett on 0161-969-3131 or email Kirsten.bennett@slaterheelis.co.uk.
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