Meet your solicitor
Justin Patten — the Solicitor Behind Human Law
More than 20 years’ experience in dispute resolution and private-client law. Author of practical legal guides and The Out-of-Court Executor.
I help executors and administrators understand what is holding an estate up, assess the evidence and identify a proportionate next step. When you book a Stage 01 review, your consultation and review are with me.
Why I Created This Service
Over more than 20 years as a solicitor, including a decade focused on probate disputes and elderly law, I have seen estates stall because facts are incomplete, communication has broken down or the appropriate procedural step is unclear.
My starting point is to separate those issues and establish what the records show. Depending on the circumstances, progress may come through information exchange, Registry procedure, negotiation or ADR. Where proceedings are needed, the next step may be a referral to an appropriate litigation practitioner.
What Working With Me Involves
Understand the blockage
Establish the Grant position, the principal disagreement and the documents needed to assess it.
Make the next step clear
Stage 01 includes a 30-minute consultation, up to 20 selected core pages and a concise two-page Action Plan.
Keep scope and fees defined
Further work is agreed one stage at a time. Its scope and fixed fee are confirmed before it begins.
Technology may help organise documents and chronologies. Legal conclusions and recommendations remain solicitor-led. Read the fees and qualifying credit terms.
Practical Guidance in Print
I am the author of A Practical Guide to Elderly Law and A Practical Guide to Elderly Fraud, published by Law Brief Publishing.
Available now on Amazon
The Out-of-Court Executor
A concise diagnostic handbook for executors, administrators and the professionals advising them, built around Justin’s Six Pillars framework. Covers Registry procedures, estate accounts, costs of delay and proportionate next steps.
Buy on Amazon → About the book →Independent Media Coverage
Coverage of Human Law’s approach to stalled probate administrations and Justin’s practical legal writing.
Solicitor transforms firm into “probate unblocking” service
Legal Futures reports on Justin Patten’s development of Human Law as a specialist fixed-fee service for stalled probate matters, including its diagnostic approach and non-competing support for referring firms.
Firm’s new statutory probate model aims to resolve deadlock without litigation
Today’s Wills & Probate examines Human Law’s structured approach to caveat standstills and administration deadlock, its use of defined procedural stages, and its fixed-fee entry point.
Bishop’s Stortford Independent • October 2026
Probate handbook and Human Law’s approach
The newspaper covered The Out-of-Court Executor and Human Law’s approach to stalled probate administrations. The feature explains how technology assists document organisation while legal assessment and recommendations remain solicitor-led.
Read the newspaper coverage →Published Articles
Solicitors Journal • 21 September 2026
Why legal AI should start with diagnosis, not drafting
My article examines how carefully governed technology can help organise evidence and identify gaps, while legal judgment and responsibility remain with the solicitor.
Read my article in Solicitors Journal →Start With Your Estate
If you need advice on your particular documents, request a Stage 01 review. Suitability and conflict checks come before engagement, payment and document provision.
Instructing on behalf of a practice? See the separate professional review route.
Human Law undertakes defined Probate Registry work alongside advice, correspondence and negotiation. The scope of each Registry instruction is agreed separately; wider contested litigation is outside the service. Read the practice boundaries. If a deadline or immediate risk is involved, seek prompt appropriate advice.