Unnamed woman retains lawyers in estate cohabitation claim

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

An unnamed woman retained her solicitors in a High Court estate claim after a judge refused their application to come off record, reported on 27 April 2023.

The woman, described as 78, claimed she had lived in a committed relationship with the deceased for more than 30 years and was entitled to proper provision from his estate as a qualified cohabitant. The claim followed possession proceedings over a property owned by the deceased.

The solicitors raised capacity concerns after 19 trial days. The court found that the presumption of capacity had not been rebutted: cognitive difficulties and poor recall did not establish that she failed to understand the proceedings or their issues.