Today, The Centre for Social Justice thinktank published a press release, stating that one million children in the UK grow up in a “man desert” with no contact with their father or a male role model or a male teacher. The report includes league tables for the most number of single parent households, and reveals…
Social media certainly has the capacity to get people into legal difficulties. The High Court found last week that a tweet posted by Sally Bercow was libellous, and as a result, she is going to be paying out damages for those 140 costly characters posted on the Twitter website. In the family law world last…
A recent case has highlighted the dangers of divorce for the self employed. If you are a PAYE employee, your annual salary is set out in your P60 and payslips. If you are self-employed, your income is likely to be more complex, and probably, more uncertain. Financial uncertainties can cause problems when trying to resolve…
I heard an excellent interview on Monday night on the radio during the recent debate in the House of Commons about the Marriage (Same Sex) Couples Bill. The excited presenter was crossing between the House of Commons, to find out about the results of the voting, and the patient family lawyer in the studio,who was…
When parents separate, decisions have to be made about where their children are going to live. The court’s view is that the parents are best left to make these arrangements for themselves, as long as there are no Social Services concerns. Whilst both parties have the opportunity to set out in the divorce…
An FDR is a Financial Dispute Resolution hearing, a meeting held at court for the purposes of negotiation and discussion. It is the second of three court appointments in a financial remedy claim on divorce, in which the couple in dispute must use their best endeavours to reach agreement. FDR are of course also the…
Last month I was invited to talk to a national law firm’s Wealth Preservation team about pre-nups. To talk about pre-nups, you conversely need to start by talking about what happens if there is no pre-nup. What is the default position? The Law Commission started looking at “Marital Property Agreements” in 2009, and decided they…
I was asked to explain yesterday why divorcing couples insist on engaging solicitors. Would it not be easier if people sorted these things out for themselves? I had time to think this over whilst I was doing a triathlon yesterday. Triathlons give you the chance to compete in three sports in one event – the…
I heard this week on Radio 4’s Today programme that Dothraki is an actual language. For those of you who have not yet been caught up in the phenomenon that is Game of Thrones, this is the language spoken by one of the tribes, which I had assumed was made up as the actors went…
I have noticed that there is often a difference between clients and their lawyers as to what they think is going to be the most important document in that divorce. A client’s goal is usually to secure the “Decree Absolute”, the paperwork which comes at the final stage of divorce. There is no reason why any…
