The forfeiture rule

Readers will doubtless recollect the forfeiture rule from their student days, though hopefully they will not have encountered it in practice very often. The forfeiture rule is the old common law rule which says that a person who has unlawfully killed another may not benefit from that death – for example, under the Will of the victim. The full vigour of the common law rule can, however, be mitigated by the court, under the Forfeiture Act 1982, except where the claimant has been convicted of murder. An application, under the 1982 Act has been considered by the court in Henderson v Wilcox and others [2015] EWHC 3469 (Ch).