The average amount of time a case takes to complete in the court system has risen from an average of 6 months in 2015 to just under a year now. 

If you currently want to have your case heard in the Family Court, you have to first attend a MIAMS meeting.  MIAMS is a mediation information and assessment meeting, to learn about whether mediation would work for your dispute. There are some exemptions, but the vast majority of people have to attend one of these meetings.

Mediation can resolve issues between parents by improving communication.  However, the work that we carry out for our clients often involves more complex issues for example, risk of abduction, cases with a domestic abuse background, risk of harm due to parental alienation or alienating behaviour or a parent seeking permission to relocate with a child. These disputes are usually not suitable for resolution in mediation.

When the court application is submitted, your case goes through a gatekeeping process, to allocate the case to a full time judge, or to magistrates. Magistrates are not legal professionals, but members of the public with no connection to the legal profession.  Magistrates volunteer for at least 13 days a year and are unpaid. The have support from a legal adviser to help them understand the law.  The case is then listed for a first hearing in court.

The proposed changes to this process include

1. A requirement for parents will have to attend a mandatory shared parenting programme before they can make an application to court.  
2. Parents to pay each other’s legal costs if they unreasonably pursue an issue in court or do not make a reasonable attempt at mediation or to accept a reasonable offer in the case.
3. Increase to the court application fee.  It is currently £232.

These are suggested changes to try to limit and deter people from using the Family Courts. However, our experience is that the Family Court has a very important role to play in resolving issues between parents for the benefit of children and the right to access the Family Court must be preserved.  

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1144049/supporting-earlier-resolution-of-private-family-law-arrangements-consultation-web.pdf

The post Mediation, MIAMS and court applications about children – changes on the way? appeared first on Rainscourt Family Law Solicitors.

In December 2020 a case came before the Family Court, involving  a 4 year old and a 6 year old child and their parents.  The adults unable to agree on whether the children should receive the MMR vaccine in accordance with the NHS vaccination schedule. These injections would usually be administered at age 1 and 3.  The mother did not want the children to be vaccinated, and the father did.  The father therefore issued an application for an order about a specific issue, namely whether their children should be vaccinated against MMR.  In advance of the hearing, the issue was widened, to address whether the children should receive all of the vaccines currently included on the NHS vaccination schedule.  Both parents had parental responsibility for the children.  This meant that neither of them could make significant medical decisions about the children without the agreement of the other.  Consequently, in this situation, the court had to make the decision for them.

The court decided that the children would receive vaccination in accordance with the NHS vaccination schedule.  It held that it  

“will be unlikely to conclude that immunisation with the vaccines that are recommended for children by Public Health England and set out in the routine immunisation schedule is not in a child’s best interests absent (a) a credible development in medical science or new peer-reviewed research evidence indicating significant concern for the efficacy and/or safety of one or more of the vaccines that is the subject of the application and/or (b) a well evidenced medical contraindication specific to the child or children who are subject of the application.”

M v H (Private Law Vaccination) [2020] EWFC 93 (15 December 2020)

The court was not prepared to make an order for the children to be vaccinated against Covid.  However, it was made clear that this was due to the lack of information in December 2020 about whether children would be vaccinated and made very clear that it

“does not signal any doubt on the part of this court regarding the probity or efficacy of that vaccine. Rather, it reflects the fact that, given the very early stage reached with respect to the COVID-19 vaccination programme, it remains unclear at present whether and when children will receive the vaccination, which vaccine or vaccines they will receive in circumstances where a number of vaccines are likely to be approved and what the official guidance will be regarding the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine to children. As I make clear at the conclusion of this judgment, having regard to the principles that I reiterate below it is very difficult to foresee a situation in which a vaccination against COVID-19 approved for use in children would not be endorsed by the court as being in a child’s best interests, absent peer-reviewed research evidence indicating significant concern for the efficacy and/or safety of one or more of the COVID-19 vaccines or a well evidenced contraindication specific to that subject child. However, given a degree of uncertainty that remains as to the precise position of children with respect to one or more of the COVID-19 vaccines consequent upon the dispute in this case having arisen at a point very early in the COVID-19 vaccination programme, I am satisfied it would be premature to determine the dispute that has arisen in this case regarding that vaccine.”

M v H (Private Law Vaccination) [2020] EWFC 93 (15 December 2020)

At the conclusion of the judgement, the court made the same point again, stating it is

“very difficult now to foresee a case in which a vaccination approved for use in children, including vaccinations against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, would not be endorsed by the court as being in a child’s best interests, absent a credible development in medical science or peer-reviewed research evidence indicating significant concern for the efficacy and/or safety of the vaccine or a well evidenced medical contraindication specific to the subject child.”

M v H (Private Law Vaccination) [2020] EWFC 93 (15 December 2020)

The court has made clear in this decision that if the covid jab is authorised for general use in children, the likelihood of success of an application by a parent to prevent a child being vaccinated against Covid, where the other parent wishes to proceed with vaccination, are extremely limited. In the case of teenage children, other issues will be relevant, particularly the wishes and feelings of the child involved. 

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/HCJ/2020/93.html

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In reality, obtaining early legal advice is a way of ensuring that your separation can remain amicable, as you will be advised what is important and what is not important from a legal perspective when it comes to a divorce.  Many of the issues which may have felt important to the parties at the breakdown of the relationship have very little bearing on the final financial division of the assets or the arrangements for the children.

It is important not to become too entrenched in the outcome you are seeking until you have received advice about the range of possible outcomes to your family dispute.  There is always a bracket of potential outcomes in any family law dispute.

It is also advisable to be mindful about the effect of any communications you have with your former partner.  By keeping your communications practical and effective, it will avoid the risk of misinterpretation and mistrust.

A breakdown of a relationship is an immensely stressful occasion in someone’s life, and it may be beneficial to seek professional emotional support, to run simultaneously alongside the legal advice you are receiving. 

There is always a balance to be had between maintaining an amicable working relationship with your ex, whilst also ensuring that you receive a financial outcome which is fair and meets your needs, and that any arrangements put in place for the children are in their best interests. The purpose of good legal advice is to ensure that you are making the best long-term decisions for you and your family. If you make the right decisions during the divorce process, this will help you reach a fair and amicable outcome.

The post How can I make my divorce amicable? appeared first on Rainscourt Family Law Solicitors.

The fact on which you issued your divorce petition (unreasonable behaviour/adultery/two years of separation) will affect what your options are if your spouse is ignoring the divorce paperwork.  It is simply not possible to progress a divorce based on two years of separation if your spouse is unwilling to consent to that divorce and agree that it can proceed.  If this occurs, you will need to amend your original petition to unreasonable behaviour.  This will incur further court fees and introduce significant delay, so it is worthwhile definitely confirming that your spouse will agree to take an active role in the divorce process prior to issuing a petition using a two year separation fact.

If you do not believe that your spouse is going to actively respond to the petition, use the unreasonable behaviour fact from the outset.  You can read more about unreasonable behaviour here.

This route enables you to progress the divorce, even if your spouse is unwilling to take any active steps to progress it.  This is achieved by paying for a process server to personally hand the divorce paperwork to your spouse.  The process server will then provide you with the paperwork you need to be able to progress the divorce without the involvement of your spouse at all.  The priority of the court is to ensure that your spouse is aware of the divorce.  Once that is achieved via personal service, they do not need to play any further role at all.

If your spouse does not agree to a divorce, they will need to take an active role in confirming to the court in their acknowledgement of service form that they intend to defend it.  Defended divorces are very rare, as they involve complex court procedures and increase legal costs.  Sometimes people state on their acknowledgement that they will defend the divorce, but then do not file the necessary paperwork within the timescales required by the court. 

The post If My Spouse Won’t Acknowledge or Agree to a Divorce Petition, What Should I Do? appeared first on Rainscourt Family Law Solicitors.

One of the best ways to avoid conflict is to ensure that everyone is clear on what the arrangements for the children are.  When making arrangements for school holidays, it is best to do this early in the year, and to prepare a detailed calendar setting out how the school holidays are to be shared.  School holiday dates for 2022 have already been released, so if you try to agree on the holiday dates now, there is plenty of time to resolve any issues which cannot be agreed.   

One way of avoiding conflict is to agree on mirror arrangements, where the plans are alternated in “even” and “odd” years, so for example, if the Christmas period is spent with one parent in 2021, it will be spent with the other parent in 2022.

Now that an increasing amount of arrangements are made online, there is no need for one parent to be the sole contact point for the school.  Both parents can usually be registered for communications from school.  Download the necessary apps, such as Parent Pay, so that each parent has full knowledge of the school plans for the children, without needing to rely on one parent to communicate information.  Ensure that you each have your own relationship with the children’s school and avoid using the other parent as the source of information.

When communicating about the children, it is best to stick to one method of communication, such as a specific email address or a WhatsApp group for child arrangements that you have both set up to exchange key information.  Avoid exchanging multiple unnecessary messages on social media.  Think about whether you communicate in a useful and necessary manner, or whether your communications are negative and unnecessary.  

If you find that you are receiving unwanted multiple messages, consider blocking the communication for a period of time.

You can read more about Child Arrangements Orders here.

The post How to Communicate With a Difficult Ex About Children appeared first on Rainscourt Family Law Solicitors.

How you should deal with these allegations will depend on the nature of the allegations that have been raised.  If there is an allegation of historic domestic abuse, the court may want to investigate this further, by asking the parent raising those allegations to write a detailed list of each allegation.  A court hearing will then take place to make a decision as to what version of events will be used by the court.  These are called fact finding hearings.   Once the facts have then been established, the court is able to make decisions about child arrangements.

If allegations have been raised about incidents involving the police, you can obtain your police records to provide evidence about what happened during any alleged incident.  Thames Valley Police have a specific department for dealing with disclosure of evidence for use in the Family Court.   The Family Court may make an order for disclosure during the process, but you can obtain information about yourself without a court order.

If allegations have been raised with social services, you are likely to be contacted by police officers or social services.  Seek legal advice, and keep clear notes about who is contacting you, and what is being said, so that you can provide these notes to your legal representative.

If you have any concerns that you may be at risk of false allegations, act protectively.  Think about the following

• Take a family member with you to handovers, or arrange handovers in a public place;
• Limit communications with your former partner to factual and practical child related matters only, communicate clearly and factually;
• Stick to written communications – limit telephone calls to emergencies;
• Do not take part in any arguments, even if they are in writing;
• Do not use social media as a platform to raise issues with your former partner (you can read more about the use of social media and family law here);
• Keep good notes.

The post How to deal with false allegations in family court appeared first on Rainscourt Family Law Solicitors.

The current system provides that a petitioner relies on one of five facts, and must wait for two years if they want to divorce on a no fault basis.  If they wish to proceed more quickly, then the petitioner needs to rely on either adultery committed by their spouse or the unreasonable behaviour of their spouse.  This is a fault based system.

Research conducted in 2017 by Professor Liz Trinder of Exeter University, Finding Fault? Divorce Law and Practice in England and Wales, found the following:

• Divorce petitions are often not accurate descriptions of why a marriage broke down and the courts make no judgement about whether allegations are true.

• Uncertainty about what constitutes unreasonable behaviour undermines the principle for the rule of law to be ‘intelligible, clear and predictable’.

• The use of fault may trigger, or exacerbate, parental conflict, which has a negative impact on children.

• Divorce law in England and Wales is out of step with Scotland, most other countries in Europe, and North America.

• Fault does not protect marriage or deter divorce.

The intention is that the current requirement to include a fact, such as adultery or unreasonable behaviour, will be eliminated, and the divorce will proceed solely on the grounds that there has been irretrievable breakdown in the marriage. 

Within the divorce petition, one spouse is the Petitioner ie the person applying for the divorce, and the other is the Respondent, responding to the divorce.  There is an intention that the application will move away from this partisan approach, and there will be the option instead to make a joint application.  The grounds of irretrievable breakdown will not be supported by allegations of adultery or unreasonable behaviour, but will operate by way of notification.

The proposals also suggest that there should be a minimum timeframe of six months, from the petition stage to the end of the decree absolute.   There is currently no minimum timeframe in place, save for a requirement that six weeks passes between the date of Decree Nisi and Decree Absolute. 

The decision to move the processing of divorces from local court centres to a limited number of centralised processing facilities led to an increase in the time it takes to obtain a divorce.  The average time from divorce petition to decree nisi is now approximately 31 weeks (over 7 months). This is an increase of 29% (7 weeks) compared to the previous year. The average time from divorce petition to decree absolute was 56 weeks (over 1 year). This is an increase of 14% (7 weeks) compared to the previous year.  Read more in our recent blog: https://www.rainscourt.com/how-long-divorce-petition-2019/. The introduction of a six month timeframe is therefore unlikely to affect the timescales of the process.

The post No Fault Divorce in England appeared first on Rainscourt Family Law Solicitors.

According to an article from the BBC this week, “UK house prices saw the biggest monthly fall for nearly eight years during April … as demand for homes weakened.” Halifax, the mortgage lender, said prices fell by 3.1% between March and April, the biggest decline since September 2010.

Katie Rainscourt, our Managing Partner, has the following advice for parties who are struggling to sell their properties:

“Your first task is to check your final Order for Sale.  Do you have joint conduct of sale? If so, that means that you should be as involved in the sale as your spouse, even if you are not currently living in the property.  Make an urgent appointment to meet with your estate agent to find out their opinions on why the house is not selling.

If your agent tells you that the house price needs to be reduced, then given your consent to that, and ask for your former spouse to consent to the reduction as well.

If your agent tell you that the house is not presented appropriately, then ask for specific advice as to what should be done to improve the saleability.

You should be kept in the loop by your agent as to any interest or offers that they receive on the property.

If you receive an offer which you want to accept, and your spouse is refusing to accept, your case and Order for Sale may need to be urgently referred back to court.  A judge does have the power to sign sale documents on behalf of your spouse if that is what is needed to get your house sold.”

Roof Lines Xscape Milton Keynes by StooMathiesen

You can contact us for confidential family law advice. We offer free, no obligation, telephone consultations.

If you would like to book an initial phone consultation at no cost, please contact us today.

Copyright 2013-2026 Rainscourt Law LLP. All rights reserved.

The post If you have an Order for Sale and your house is not selling, what should you do? appeared first on Rainscourt Family Law Solicitors.

1. A “quickie divorce” does not exist

This is a term which has no meaning in family law. All divorces go through the same court process. The only variable is the “fact” that you use to support your petition, either adultery, unreasonable behaviour, 2 years separation with consent, desertion or 5 years separation by consent.

2. You either need to wait two years to secure a divorce, or blame your spouse for their behaviour or adultery in order to secure a divorce

There is a fault based divorce system in the courts of England and Wales. It is not possible to divorce on the basis that you both simply want a divorce, unless you wait for two years.

3. You will not get a better financial outcome if your spouse has had an affair, even if you have proof

The law does consider “conduct” as part of the financial process, but this type of behaviour will not be relevant.

4. Most financial settlements are not “50/50”

Unless there is more money than is needed, the court’s priority is to make sure everyone’s financial needs are met. It is rare for two spouses to have the same income and the same childcare responsibilities, which means that their financial needs are unlikely to be the same.

5. A deal reached in mediation is not binding

You are required to convert any deal you reach in mediation into formal legal wording, and submit the deal to the Family Court for consideration.

6. Only a judge of the Family Court has the power to convert your financial deal into a binding court order

If you do not submit your financial deal into court for consideration by the judge, it remains a private arrangement and you may not be able to rely on it at a future date. It also will not prevent either of you from applying to court in the future for more money.

7. A financial deal is not binding until the court “seals” or stamps a court order

Once you have a stamped court order, there is a binding court order in place.

8. You and your spouse can bring financial claims against each other after divorce, until a judge severs those claims in a stamped court order

If you divorce, but do not deal with your financial claims properly, either of you are free to make a financial claim against the other in the future.

9. Spousal maintenance gives your spouse the right to ask you to meet their financial needs in the future, potentially for the rest of their life

You must understand the implications of agreeing to a spousal maintenance order before you sign up to it. Spousal maintenance is variable, both in amount and in duration.

10. There is no formula for calculating spousal maintenance

To calculate spousal maintenance you need to work out what you or your spouse’s income needs are and what their income is. You may then need to meet the difference.

If you enjoyed this blog about divorce myths, you might also like to read 10 new surprising and unexpected facts about divorce in the UK

GOC Milton Keynes 004: “What Lies Beneath” by Peter O’Connor

You can contact us for confidential family law advice. We offer free, no obligation, telephone consultations.

If you would like to book an initial phone consultation at no cost, please contact us today.

Copyright 2013-2026 Rainscourt Law LLP. All rights reserved.

The post 10 common misconceptions and myths about divorce debunked appeared first on Rainscourt Family Law Solicitors.

The court looks at all the circumstances in the case when deciding how to share out the assets.   These circumstances are set out in section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act.  The court will consider the fact that you paid the deposit but the judge may decide that it is not at all relevant in their decision as to how the assets should be divided.

The fact that you paid the deposit will be irrelevant if that money is needed to meet housing needs.  In a divorce involving a family home and modest savings and pensions, the case is usually a “needs case” which means that all the money will be used to meet needs, and there is no surplus to consider. There is a different approach if the case involves more money than is required to meet financial needs.

The goal of the court in a needs case is to work out how to buy a home for each party using a deposit and a mortgage.  If one party has a higher mortgage capacity, they will require less deposit.  If one party has a lower mortgage capacity as they earn less or have health considerations, caring responsibilities or are older, they will require more deposit from the sale proceeds of the family home.  The question of who put the money into the family home to begin with will only come into consideration if your situation falls outside of the “needs” bracket.

The answer is summarised in this quotation from a case called White v White [2001] 1 AC 596,

‘Plainly, when present, this factor is one of the circumstances of the case. It represents a contribution made to the welfare of the family by one of the parties to the marriage. The judge should take it into account. He should decide how important it is in the particular case. The nature and value of the property, and the time when and circumstances in which the property was acquired, are among the relevant matters to be considered. However, in the ordinary course, this factor can be expected to carry little weight, if any, in a case where the claimant’s financial needs cannot be met without recourse to this property

Milton Keynes milestone by Sarah Joy

You can contact us for confidential family law advice. We offer free, no obligation, telephone consultations.

If you would like to book an initial phone consultation at no cost, please contact us today.

Copyright 2013-2026 Rainscourt Law LLP. All rights reserved.

The post Is my spouse entitled to half our house if I paid the deposit? appeared first on Rainscourt Family Law Solicitors.