Sarah-Jane Macdonald’s A Practical Guide to Legal Rights in Scotland covers the key principles, common issues, hidden traps and tax implications to look out for in the legal rights regime. 

The book looks at legal rights from a number of perspectives, whether you are undertaking lifetime planning for a client keen to avoid a claim, acting for a claimant seeking to maximise their entitlement, or acting for executors who need to balance the needs of such claimants with the residuary beneficiaries.

Crossbench peer and former judge, Lord Hope of Craighead, who provided the book’s foreword, said: “This excellent little book provides a guide through these various problems which every practitioner in this field will welcome. It is, as its title indicates, a practical guide.”

He added: “It uses simple language and a clear, concise and logical layout. It goes immediately to each of the issues which it seeks to address. Yet it does not overreach itself. It recognises that easy solutions are not always available … the guidance that is offered here will be of very real assistance, as [practitioners] work through to a sound solution to each problem and seek to avoid any pitfalls that they may encounter along the way.”