Divorce and Dissolution
In November 2011 the Family Justice Review was published. This was the work of an independent panel, headed up by David Norgrove, who had been asked by the government to consider the changes which should be made to make the family justice system in this country more effective. The government accepted the majority of findings,…
I have written before about the tendency of the family law system to divide areas of life into discrete boxes. If you have engaged a solicitor to help with divorce, financial and children issues, you may well find that this part of your life has been divided into three different files, one dealing with each…
The French Senate passed an amendment last week providing that on relationship breakdown there is now a presumption that there will be shared care of the children from that relationship. If a judge makes an order other than shared residence then he or she will need to justify that decision with sound reasoning. The amendment,…
I was interested to read recently that the wonderful scientists of Oxford University have located a molecule in the human body which acts as a brake, delaying adjustment to new time zones. It is called SIK1. As a result of this breakthrough, it is believed that we are now only several years away from a…
It is entirely understandable that people seek an answer to the question “what are my rights?” when entering a divorce process. Rights in this context are about entitlement, and what that individual is entitled to. So what are you entitled to when you divorce? If I answer this question by focussing on financial entitlement, money…
I have attached below the figures produced by the UK Office of National Statistics, which is the recognised UK national statistical institute. The UK divorce rate statistics included in this table deal with divorces for the calender year 2011. The 2012 figures will not be produced until the end of this calender year (2013). The…
To enable anyone to answer the question “Can I keep the house or will I be forced to sell after divorce?” for you, you will need to be able to give them a broad idea about what your total “asset pot” is. Otherwise, it is similar to asking a midwife whether your newborn will go…
Unreasonable behaviour is one of the facts that you can use to obtain a divorce. The unreasonable behaviour of a husband is the most popular reason chosen by a wife when preparing her divorce petition (in 54% of cases in England and Wales in 2011). Husbands appear less reluctant to rely on the unreasonable behaviour…
This is a question which is at the forefront of people’s minds when they seek advice. How long does the process take? I will answer this with the help of one (celebrity) case which may conclude in a total of three months, and another (extraordinary) case which took sixteen years to finish. The key to…
Family solicitors use previous cases to name things. So we have Calderbank letters from Calderbank v Calderbank, Rose orders from Rose v Rose and Mesher orders from Mesher v Mesher and Hall. I appreciate that this is not too helpful for the individual who is self-represented, or I suppose for the individual involved, whose name…
