Friday’s big announcement that the government is to overhaul our divorce laws was music to the ears of family solicitors like me. Finally, we have taken a giant leap towards removing blame from the legal process and we might eventually see couples separating more quickly and with less acrimony. The Read more…
If ever there was a case for no fault divorce, poor Mrs Owens’ is it. It was announced yesterday that, despite taking her appeal to the Supreme Court, Tini Owens must remain married to her husband of 40 years because a “joyless” marriage is not adequate grounds for divorce if Read more…
Yesterday, The Supreme Court of England and Wales decided that it was inconsistent with The European Convention on Human Rights for heterosexual couples not to be given the same opportunity as same-sex couples to enter into a civil partnership. Civil partnerships were introduced in this country to address the discrimination Read more…
The current divorce law provides that, unless the parties have been separated for two years or more, one party has to blame the other and rely on the ‘fact’ of either behaviour or adultery as the reason for the marriage breakdown. The solicitors’ family law association Resolution has been campaigning Read more…
If left out of a will, can an adult child of a deceased parent make a claim should circumstances permit? Earlier this year, The Supreme Court gave its final decision on the infamous case of Illott v Mitson. This judgment was described as a landmark decision, providing clarity from the Read more…
Recent headlines do not look good for ex-husbands. This month another Court of Appeal decision has ordered that maintenance payments for a wife should be increased 15 years after the divorce. In the case of Graham and Maria Mills, a financial settlement was ordered at the time of the divorce Read more…
On 29 July 2015, the Supreme Court gave a judgement that will undoubtedly prescribe future business rates levels for companies occupying more than one floor in a building. Where different parts of an office building are occupied by the same occupier, the ordinary practice of the valuer is to enter Read more…
Fathers who are not married to their child’s Mother, and whose name does not appear on their child’s birth certificates are at risk of having lesser rights in the event that the child’s mother leaves the country without their knowledge and consent. These Fathers are already disadvantaged as they do Read more…
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…
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…