The Supreme Court is in the second day of hearing cases brought by Alison Sharland and Varsha Gohil in which the court has to decide whether lying to a court in divorce proceedings about your financial circumstances, should automatically result in any financial settlement reached being reopened. It may come Read more…
As divorce lawyers we always advise our clients with confidence that the final financial settlement that they have incorporated into a Court Order is exactly that i.e. final. We always have to add that there is some small print however that the chances of their Order being anything other than Read more…
Old Mutual Wealth has highlighted a potential, unintended consequence of the recent changes to Pension rules. Around 20 years ago Pension Earmarking was introduced into our divorce laws. This gave the courts the power to order that a divorcee would receive a fixed percentage share of their ex spouse’s pension Read more…
The deputy president of the Supreme Court, Baroness Hale, reiterated her call for divorce law to be reformed in an article in the Times on 9th April 2015. Her comments came 20 years after she first proposed reform of the current law when she was a member of the Law Read more…
Jeremy Clarkson is being reported as having told Piers Morgan that his “difficult divorce” from his wife of 21 years Frances has been one of a number of events in his life that have caused him, in the eyes of this objective onlooker, to spiral out of control. Other events Read more…
On 11th March judgement was handed down in the Supreme Court in a financial case arising out of a divorce which was made final in 1992. Most people, quite understandably, believe that once a divorce is finalised – when Decree Absolute is granted – that is the end of the Read more…
Section 11 of the Children and Families Act 2014 will come into force today, the 22nd October. This section introduces the presumption of parental involvement. It amends the Children Act 1989 by requiring a Court to now presume, unless the contrary is shown, that ‘involvement’ of the parent in the Read more…
Cases in which one parent wants to move away with the children of the family are extremely difficult. In family law terms these are known as relocation cases and usually involve powerful arguments on both sides. For the parent whose children move away it may mean that they do not Read more…
It was reported in the news on 30th September 2014 that 180 divorces obtained by Italian nationals in the English Courts had been declared null and void. A firm based in Italy had been offering Italians a “quickie” divorce in this country to avoid having to wait the three year Read more…
The animal charity Blue Cross has introduced the world’s first ‘Pet Nuptial Agreement’ to deal with how pets are treated on divorce and separation. The law views pets as chattels i.e. possessions, rather than considering their welfare as the primary consideration. There is limited case law on the treatment of Read more…