If you've been an executor waiting on a grant of probate that seems to have vanished into a black hole, there's finally a formal route to do something about it. HM Courts and Tribunals Service confirmed this week that it has introduced a dedicated escalation pathway for probate applications that have been stuck for more than 12 weeks, or for cases that have already been queried and need further investigation. It's a small administrative change, but for anyone stuck mid-probate with a house sale on hold or bills piling up, it could matter a great deal.

If you're separating and were counting on free mediation to sort out arrangements for your children or your finances, a new report should give you pause. The Justice Select Committee's "Access to Justice: Legal Aid" report, published this month, found that legal aid capacity for family mediation has become "significantly constrained" — and backed urgent calls to fix it. The reason is stark: the number of mediators still offering legal aid has fallen by 50% since 2018, largely because the rates paid to them have been frozen for 25 years and no longer cover the cost of the work.

For separating couples who assumed mediation would be the affordable, low-conflict route through their split, that's a serious problem. Here's what's actually going on, and what your options are if you can't find a legal aid mediator near you.

Nationwide announced on 3 August that it's cutting mortgage rates by up to 0.19 percentage points across its two, three and five-year fixed deals, bringing its lowest rate down to 4.52%. It's welcome news for buyers and those remortgaging — but the timing tells its own story. Just weeks earlier, lenders had been pushing rates the other way, after swap rates spiked when tensions in the Middle East flared up in July. The average two-year fixed mortgage rate had climbed to 5.62%, up from 4.83% in March, according to Moneyfacts. Now Nationwide is pivoting back down as swap rates ease off their peak.

If you're trying to buy a home in the middle of all this, you could be forgiven for feeling like you're chasing a moving target. Here's what the volatility actually means for your purchase, and how to stop rate swings from derailing your move.

The government's "A Fairer End to Relationships" consultation closes on 14 August — this Thursday — and buried within its wider proposals on cohabitation and divorce finance is a change that could matter to anyone planning a wedding: a proposal to make "qualifying nuptial agreements" legally binding for the first time in England and Wales. Right now, a prenup can be taken into account by a court, but a judge can override it if they think it's unfair. Under the proposed reform, an agreement that meets certain safeguards would be enforced as a matter of course. If you're engaged, recently married, or simply think you might want that kind of protection one day, this is a genuinely new development worth understanding — not just another consultation update.