Tuesday June 30, 2009 at 8:10am
There is pressure from the EU for all member states to have the same divorce laws. There is already a lot of difficulty working out which country can deal with the case which is important here as many people understandably prefer to get a UK divorce. Sensible on the face of it, given the number of marriages between people from 2 different states. But which laws? For example: Sweden: maintenance unusual Germany: capital acquired during marriage is 50/50 (Watch out successful business people or fo....
Monday June 29, 2009 at 8:13am
Divorce costs and legal fees are, understandably, a source of concern to many.Traditionally,
divorce lawyers have always charged by the hour or by some other measurement of time. Should they?I think not. What has time got to do with it? Surely, the measure of how much to charge for something should be the value of that thing to the buyer. If the provider of the thing doers not like what the price would be, they don't have to provide the service, do they?
Now to reality! Clients needing a ....
Sunday June 28, 2009 at 8:42am
Soon just about anybody will be able to offer legal services and most people refer to this as Tesco Law as the supermarket is said to be likely to offer law. And why shouldn't you be able to get your divorce along with your tins of baked beans?
Many lawyers are muttering on about getting advice on LLPs, "we can compete with Tescos what do they know about law?", we will get a new website, "we're getting a marketing chap in" and other such meanderings.
Rubbish.Most law ....
Saturday June 27, 2009 at 8:28am
I’ve been in trouble in Court for having a tie of a colour the Judge did not approve. I’ve also been in trouble for telling Judges they are wrong and for refusing to stop arguing my client’s case. I’ve expected to be in very big trouble for telling a Judge he’d learn from living in the real world but he ended up being impressed and referred to me as “brave man”! I read in The Times that a judge in a criminal trial in London, during defence counsel’....
Friday June 26, 2009 at 4:03pm
I read that the FSA have decided to soon stop any financial adviser being paid by way of commission from insurance companies. Personally, I've always thought commission was fine as long as the client knew how much it was and was properly advised. Perhaps I should say that personally I have a Chartered Financial Planner who charges fees only. Fine by me. But I actually chose him as I rated him and trusted his company, Informed Choice.
Lawyers in general seem to think it is impossible to move awa....
Friday June 26, 2009 at 8:33am
Scot Young, a property tycoon and a "fixer for the super rich" has apparently been threatened with prison during his wife's application for a
divorce settlement. It seems he has claimed that whilst he may have had assets worth about £400 million when they were together he is now penniless and several of the properties have been repossessed. But he has not provided any evidence of where the funds have gone The Times reports. The Court has just given him days to come up with the ev....
Thursday June 25, 2009 at 3:09pm
The media can now attend and report on divorces and on divorce settlement Court cases. I have blogged before about my worries over that. I may have missed an important side effect. It seems that more and more people are so worried about Press disclosure of their personal life and financial details that they are allowing their lawyers to negotiate settlements outside Court and which are then, normally, secret. Earl Spencer seems to be the latest, as reported in The Times. That has to be good, doe....
Thursday June 25, 2009 at 7:39am
Women (it could be "men" but that is so rare even in 2009) who work get less of a divorce settlement than women who do not. It is odd to think, isn't it, seen like this? But it seems to be true.
Take the case of McFarlane as an example. If she had been working she would have got much less, it seems clear. Admittedly, some of the reason she stopped work was seemingly because they both wanted her to, or at least agreed she could, stop.
So, being brutal about it if a divorce might be ....
Wednesday June 24, 2009 at 8:14am
I have talked before about Jordan and Peter Andre supposedly divorcing, it seems. Today I read the monumentally newsworthy story that she has had the tattoo "Peter" crossed out on her arm. I've had enough. The stories about celebrities may sell newspapers but their divorces are of no real relevance to the normal person. And do the celebrities actually, really, care? The cases themselves have huge amounts involved and as we are well aware at Woolley & Co, high net worth divorce....
Tuesday June 23, 2009 at 4:50pm
Adultery is still one of the most often given reasons for a divorce, although it is often surely the case that the marriage had at least partially broken down before that happened? Adultery used to be the main (and close to the only) ground for a divorce in the past. Not much evidence was needed only 60 years or so ago. This might be because Judges and lawyers were too embarrassed to ask that awful question of a lady, "have you had sexual intercourse with a man other than your husband durin....
Thursday June 18, 2009 at 8:05pm
The Times reported yesterday that Mr Justice Coleridge (who dealt with the divorce of Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills) considers that the "cancerous" ruination of marriages is soon going to have an effect “as marked and as destructive as the effects of global warming”. It's tempting to have the view that this is an almost hysterical view from someone who, by the nature of their job, sees divorce every day. But is he right?
I have called before for action t....
Thursday June 18, 2009 at 7:29pm
You might think that a
financial settlement (often called a divorce settlement) would normally be thrown out after, say, 10 years of living apart. But it seems not. In a case where the couple had been married for only 4 years and then separated for 22 years, the wife recently won a divorce settlement of £220,000 She hadn't pursued a divorce before due to her wish to avoid the "anguish" of it but it seems this fear had disappeared by the time he inherited a large sum. It was appar....
Thursday June 18, 2009 at 7:52am
Any solicitor is allowed to advise on and deal with a divorce! It does not matter that they may never have done so before and have no good knowledge of the subject, except passing the relevant paper when they were at College of Law!
It is time to ban solicitors, indeed all lawyers and that includes Judges, from dealing with divorce unless they have special training.I think the needs are:
specialist work in the field of family law
special training in mediation
training in cli....
Wednesday June 17, 2009 at 8:35am
There does seem, anecdotally, to be an increase in Indian divorce in England. Bollywood divorce is relevant, did you know, to English divorce law? Traditionally, divorce was socially taboo in Indian society but the increasing prevalence of it in Bollywood is perhaps having an effect upon attitudes. Many stars are divorcing, not yet as often as in Hollywood thankfully.
Getting a divorce in India is an often very slow and acrimonious procedure. It may surprise many English divorcees that English C....
Tuesday June 16, 2009 at 9:19am
Glorious Grandchildren is, I think, a very good new resource for grandparents interested in all aspects of their grandchildren. Sadly, it is not always a glorious subject, especially when the parents set out to get a divorce. Issues of access, now called contact, often arise and "he / she won't let me see my grandchildren" is too often heard. Need to know more? This is a useful article which explores the issue of grandparents rights.
Andrew WoolleyFamily lawyer....
Friday June 12, 2009 at 8:07am
As the headlines continue, following the announcement that Pete and Katie are getting a divorce, what the press are failing to note is how similar the issues that they face are to all those many thousands of ordinary people experiencing divorce or relationship breakdown. Of paramount importance in all situations of divorce and relationship breakdown is the welfare of the children. Katie and Pete have two children together, Junior, three and Princess, one. Pete is also step-father to Kate’s....
Thursday June 11, 2009 at 12:01pm
Four in ten grandparents lose contact with their grandchildren after the parents split up, new research has found.
Divorce solicitors are well used to being asked about grandparents rights.Of 211 grandparents questioned on behalf of Families Need Fathers and the Grandparents' Association, 55 per cent said that, prior to the parents separating, they were directly involved in their grandchildren's care. However, two-thirds said that they were prevented from caring for their grandchildren fol....
Wednesday June 10, 2009 at 8:36am
When dealing with the division of assets on divorce or separation, most people think of the houses, the car, the china and silverware. These are all tackled routinely and, whether simple or more complex, can often be dealt with in a logical manner. However, there are other items which are treated as
matrimonial assets by UK courts but can provoke a much more emotional debate. Increasingly, pets are also the subject of heated exchanges and long debates over who they live with.
Family lawyers are ....
Tuesday June 9, 2009 at 8:29am
The behaviour of one of the people in the relationship has, now, long been seen as irrelevant (in law) when looking at the financial divorce settlement. Seen as irrelevant by the law only that is!I say this as most people might think that when, say, a wife has behaved very badly then this should lower her financial settlement. Why should one spouse support the appallingly badly behaved other as much as one who behaved well?It has long been hard for us specialist divorce solicitors to explain why....
Monday June 8, 2009 at 9:09am
Divorce advice has many traps for the unwary.A national newspaper last week highlighted the advantages of site WikiDivorce in assuring those with questions about the
legal separation process have a forum in which to ask questions. (With This Website I three divorce - The Times, June 4 ) While I do agree that sites like these and the many others can be useful as a starting point for investigations into the process, it is dangerous to suggest that they are a reliable source of information to be ac....
Saturday June 6, 2009 at 1:23pm
Gillian Hudson must be a very disappointed lady, today. She thought she had got married to Robert Leigh in January 2004. She then went through the sadness of a separation and sought a divorce. But in the High Court it was decided that in fact they never had been legally married. It seems for some reason they had agreed with the priest to leave out some of the necessary aspects such as "any just impediment" and to miss out the declaration that they be lawfully married. It seems that was....
Friday June 5, 2009 at 4:39pm
As a specialist
divorce solicitor I am often appalled by how badly prepared a lot of us are for marriage; how much divorce there is and how much it can cost to sort out a divorce and financial settlement especially if the wrong attitude or approach is taken! Will you join me in a campaign to try to change this? I have pursued the issue of no fault divorce elsewhere and will continue to do so, but this is a separate issue. All couples wanting to marry should be required to enter into a seri....
Friday June 5, 2009 at 9:37am
The Validity of Talaq Divorce in the UK Family lawyers are sometimes called upon to comment on the validity of an Islamic marriage known as the Nikkah or an Islamic divorce known as Talaq. Sometimes it becomes necessary to obtain declarations of marital status, for example, where the courts declare that a marriage or divorce should or should not be legally recognised in England and Wales. Any overseas divorce obtained after 4th April 1988 is only recognised in the UK if it is valid in ....
Thursday June 4, 2009 at 10:18am
I have Blogged before about the Divorce Show. What's being billed as the country's largest event of it's kind The Divorce Show will take place at the NEC in September. The organisers say that with 140,000 divorces each year and the whole process of divorce and relationship breakdown often taking five years there is a massive demand for information and advice from divorcing couples.Have a look at the Divorce Show website here.As a divorce solicitor who is heavily involved in the Show, I ....