Tara McInnes

I specialise in the very niche area of contested wills and estate disputes.  I have practised in this area for twenty years and am currently a partner at a small, boutique firm in Oxfordshire where all we do is private client work.  This enables us to focus on the areas of law we are good at and over the years I have built up considerable specialist knowledge within this field.  Prior to working as a partner for The Burnside Partnership I managed the Southern Disputed Wills and Trusts team at Shoosmiths LLP in Reading.

I am a full member of ACTAPS (the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists).

I deal with a whole variety of contentious trusts, wills and estate disputes including claims against an estate under the Inheritance Act, disputed wills on various grounds including lack of mental capacity, lack of knowledge and approval and undue influence as well as professional negligence claims against solicitors in drafting wills, rectification claims and disputed court of protection matters.

I have acted in a number of reported cases, the most notable of which are:-

Acting for the trustees in the high-profile case of Brooke v Purton & ORS (2014) EWHC 547 (Ch), which was the first case to be decided since Marley v Rawlings (2013), involving the rectification of wills;

Acting for the claimant in the equally high profile and widely reported case of Elliott –v- Simmonds (2016) EWHC 962 (Ch), which resulted in a change to the decision on costs in passive defence claims.

More recently, I acted for the Claimant in Rochford v Rochford [2021] Lexis Citation 95 involving an adult child claim under the Inheritance Act.  The Claimant was an adult, only child who only received the sum of £25,000 from her late father's estate.  I acted for her and successfully achieved an award of £110,000 plus her legal costs from the defendant on the indemnity basis (higher rate) and interest.

I regularly provide training and seminars/webinars as well as contributions to many magazines including; the Times, The Law Society Gazette, Lexology and The Trusts and Estates Law & Taxation Journal.

I thoroughly enjoy what I do and will fight hard for my clients.  I do not dabble and spend all my time dealing with contentious probate matters, this means that I have built up substantial experience in this area of law as well as a formidable reputation.