Finances on divorce
Should privacy or transparency have priority in the family court? The President of the family courts launched a consultation paper last week asking for responses on the role of the media in reporting family cases. As part of his report, he explained, for the benefit of the media, how to interpret family law case numbers,…
If you consider spousal maintenance as a salary for a former spouse, you can appreciate that, just as you can have a zero hours contract or a fixed term contract or many other different types of legal arrangements in place with your employer, so the terms upon which a former spouse receives spousal maintenance will…
Whilst the usual scenario is that each spouse meets their own legal costs, it is possible to seek a financial contribution from your husband or wife towards fees. Part 1: the divorce costs The court may order a Respondent to pay the costs of a Petitioner, but these costs will be limited to the costs…
1. That you might not have sufficient grounds to divorce There is only one ground for divorce – that there has been an irretrievable breakdown in the relationship. This is proven with a fact, and there are five facts available to choose from: unreasonable behaviour; adultery; 2 years of separation with consent; 5 years of…
A recent research paper* has found that from a sample of 369 final financial orders in divorce, only 8 contained an order for “joint lives maintenance”, which is a sum of maintenance to be paid for life from one spouse to the other. This data was obtained from three courts around the country, one in…
Katie Rainscourt, our managing partner, has recently been interviewed by Lexis on the topic of prenuptial agreements, which is reproduced below. This article was first published on Lexis®PSL Family on 13 March 2014. Click here for a free 24h trial of Lexis®PSL: ‘Can_appropriate_reviews_make_pre-nups_stick’ Family analysis: What weight will the courts give to a pre-marital…
Yesterday’s budget announcements by George Osborne has focussed many minds today on their pension pots, and what the new greater flexibility may mean for them. The question of what happens to pensions on divorce though does not appear to be a question that many couples are asking or answering. In 2000 the “pension sharing…
So the dust has started to settle on the newly minted Law Commission report, after last week’s media flurry. There were several themes in the report that particularly caught my eye, but most of all was this concept of “bargaining in the shadow of the law”. The report describes how the work of a family…
For ease of reference, here is the link to Family Court Fees and Family Court Forms: http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/ex050-eng.pdf http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/HMCTS/FormFinder.do
We all know the old adage about death and taxes being the only certainties in life. Following a hearing in the High Court in November*, we are unable to add “receipt of your spousal maintenance” to that list. In 2004, a wife was awarded £750 per month in spousal maintenance on a joint lives basis….
