Monday February 22, 2010 at 5:47pm
Now I have never had any aspirations of being a star of the screen – small, large, silver, or otherwise. So when it was suggested that a nice, efficient and modern way (as befits a forward thinking firm) of communicating money-saving tips to clients and potential clients was via videos on our website, I was not too keen. However, I have come to realise that this is an effective way to get across a clear, concise message in today’s fast times. Have a look and let me know if you think ....
Monday February 22, 2010 at 9:38am
"In the west, adultery isn't punished by stoning. Instead, the press will kick you until you beg for forgiveness."
The Guardian report makes an interesting point, with the above headline.
Our media appears to be nothing short of delighted when a "celebrity" transgresses what the media decides is the law of morality that should apply. Take the examples of:
John Terry: it appears there was a clear apologyTiger Woods: a public (why public?) apologyVernon Kay (who is he, by th....
Wednesday February 17, 2010 at 1:30pm
We’ve already covered the falling divorce rates so I won’t plough over old ground completely but I was interested to read Resolution’s response to the news that marriage rates are at their lowest since records began in 1862. The provisional marriage rate for men in 2008 was 21.8 men marrying per 1,000 unmarried men aged 16 and over, compared with 22.4 in 2007 and 31.1 in 1998, according to the Office of National Statistics. The provisional marriage rate for women in 2008 ....
Friday February 5, 2010 at 5:17pm
“The difference between divorce and
legal separation is that a legal separation gives a husband time to hide his money.”
This is a quote from a celebrity. As my views on "celebrity divorces" are clear, I am not going to increase their "celebrity" by naming them! But they might have a point.
Legal separation is simple, you just separate. There is no illegal separation as such. But most people would sensibly have a separation agreement to set out who pays what and....
Friday February 5, 2010 at 9:42am
Over my 25 years plus dealing with divorce, there are many reasons I have heard to get a divorce but only once did I hear tax as one of them! But if you separated in this tax year and are going through a divorce do bear in mind the Capital Gains Tax situation. Of course, the 2009/2010 tax year runs until 5th April 2010, but watch out as any married couples special tax treatments end when the tax year they separated ends. So if you separated in, say, May 2009 you need to sort out your CGT situati....
Thursday February 4, 2010 at 9:39am
"You should agree for a lower fee" is a completely understandable view we often hear from friends of our clients, normally. It is normally true. It is the actual Court hearings that normally cost the very large amounts of money and of course a Court hearing is a very good indicator of a complete failure to agree!
When shouldn't you agree?When you don't want to. Don't be bullied into agreeing because you "should".When fear of cost of divorce makes you. Ensure your divorc....
Tuesday February 2, 2010 at 9:16am
Grandparents rights is a hot topic right now. But normally in relation to grandparents rights to have contact (often called "access") to their grandchildren in the event of a divorce of their parents.
But Baroness Deech has strongly suggested that grandparents maybe should have a right to be financially supported by their children in return for the free childcare they will have given over the years. I do begin to wonder if the Baroness just looks for subjects she can get publicity fro....
Friday January 29, 2010 at 2:59pm
The Independent has published some stats which cover the period of the recession. They include a continued reduction in the rate of divorces. That is not our experience here, but I do feel more and more general law firms are realising they should not be dealing with at least some of the more complex aspects of divorce.
Certainly we are experiencing very high enquiries about how to divorce, are in the process of taking on 2 more
divorce lawyers and still have legal jobs available!
But, the sta....
Tuesday January 26, 2010 at 10:13am
Emotionally, is it worse to divorce in other words split up after a marriage or split up after "just" living together? Brangelina (should this be "Brand Gelina"?) have 6 kids (3 adopted) between them and just cohabited, but will they be less affected simply because they were not married, I wonder. I notice a tendency for me and I think many other people to assume many celebrities will be OK just because they have the odd £100 million in the bank? Is that fair?
Andrew ....
Monday January 25, 2010 at 4:47pm
Readers of this Blog know my irreverent attitude to celebrity divorce! But I had to comment on the reports (said to be false by the way) that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were splitting up. My comment is really on two things; the references to a prenuptial agreement being drawn up for the split and also the complexities of sorting out their finances if they are splitting. A prenuptial agreement is used before a marriage. I stress "before" and "marriage"! They are not married.....
Friday January 22, 2010 at 9:50am
The Telegraph reports that there may well soon be a £100million
divorce settlement. I don't know if the wife involved is sad or relieved about the actual breakup but, ignoring emotions for a moment, many ordinary people might think "not bad for 6 years of marriage".
There are, though, some interesting issues in the case. They signed a prenuptial agreement before marriage which would have restricted the settlement. She does not propose to keep to it. It will be interesting to see....
Monday January 18, 2010 at 6:09pm
Families are becoming a hot political topic, not before time, but I still find it difficult to raise too much enthusiasm. Like so many times, the most recent rhetoric from both the Tories and Labour paints great big banner headlines but reveals little of the detail. According to reports, Labour will this week pledge support for families and parents going through separation and relationship breakdown. Very noble, but what will they actually do and how will this help? David Cameron, for his part, ....
Wednesday January 13, 2010 at 7:48am
New research has shown that more than two-thirds of consumers don’t know what solicitors do. The YouGov survey also showed only 13% of respondents would buy legal services from a supermarket but, encouragingly for us, more than three-quarters of those who have used a solicitor were either satisfied or very satisfied with the service they received. The same research though showed less than half said they would be fairly confident of judging the quality of help they received. Intriguing find....
Monday December 21, 2009 at 3:27pm
Divorce lawyers in the UK are well used to being asked how to get a divorce without losing everything. There are two main aspects to this; how to save legal fees and also the best way to divorce. How to save on legal costs and lawyers fees • Try hard to agree what you can yourselves (but make sure you understand your rights first) • Get emotional support from friends or better still a counsellor but not your
divorce solicitor • Remember your aim; hopefully it is not to “get&....
Friday December 18, 2009 at 7:58am
As UK divorce lawyers we see all ends of the spectrum when it comes to how couples divorce –whether they go through the process easily and in agreement; whether they experience emotional pain and distress or whether they put the gloves on with a determination to battle and fight every step of the way. From our years of experience of handling divorce cases it seems the couples who manage to stay friends after divorce are those who: • Don’t argue over the little things – the....
Tuesday December 15, 2009 at 2:36am
David Cameron has long made it clear that the party's policies should support marriage by tax advantages; perhaps like those that existed for many years?
I understand that this is backed by surveys suggesting children do better when raised within a marriage and a Conservative belief in the institution. I tend to agree that marriage should be supported in many ways, certainly in trying to avoid divorce.
Could the money be better used in providing counselling to couples in trouble? I think so.
....
Tuesday November 24, 2009 at 9:50pm
We are often asked about expat or international divorce and the issue of womens'
divorce rights in places such as Dubai often come up, normally with wild assumptions being made.
In fact Dubai, the UAE, are very far sighted when it comes to divorce rights. Of course UAE law is applied to Muslims. Non Muslims are dealt with by the use of the laws of their home country. So, an ethnic English person would reasonably expect to obtain the same settlement as they would in England.
This can come as a ....
Monday November 23, 2009 at 7:37pm
Maybe the Law Commission should just abolish all rights obtained during a marriage and have done with it? Why stop there? Let's just abolish marriage.
My reaction is to the gradual but increasing reduction of the difference between rights due to marriage and rights due to living together. The inexorable move is towards there being no difference at all. It started with the removal of tax relief, I think.
If it is shown that those ruling society don't respect the institution of marria....
Monday November 23, 2009 at 7:10pm
Divorce and counselling is a subject best left to the experts.
But, is nothing sacred? The field of divorce has increasingly been used by all political parties to attempt to show how "family friendly" or "child friendly" or even "marriage friendly" they are. Now it seems the government is suggesting that it can better arrange counselling for couples in crisis than Relate who have been doing it for years!
The Times reports that the government will soon advise GPs t....
Monday November 16, 2009 at 10:13am
Us
family lawyers are being asked more and more to advice on fertility law, surrogacy or donor conception arrangements.
Of course this area of law doesn't end there and there can be complex situations where, for example, a single woman and her best friend, male or female, want to co-parent. It is a legally dangerous area of law for those involved and can often have legal implications which greatly surprise people as one Andy Bathie will tell you. He donated sperm to a lesbi....
Thursday October 29, 2009 at 9:41pm
I spent a day at a training session for all of our divorce lawyers this week, designed by experts in their fields, to help us all better understand and support our clients. This was especially connected with the emotional issues of divorce and relationship breakdown.
Actually, quite a few of our specialist divorce lawyers have suffered a divorce themselves. We are not immune, you know!
The course led me to wonder if divorce law firms should employ counsellors to offer the more comple....
Friday October 23, 2009 at 10:29am
Myth: If my partner behaves badly or “messes around”, this will affect the outcome of our divorce.
Reality: Let's get the wording safely understood, first! A "divorce", in law, means just the ending of the marriage legally and does not include any issues of money, house, or
financial settlement. The bad behaviour might be part of the
grounds for divorce mentioned, by way of "unreasonable behaviour". But in terms of the finances, it is very unlikely that the beha....
Wednesday October 14, 2009 at 2:54pm
Continuing our efforts to dispell common myths and misunderstandings about divorce and family law here's one that's relevant to all business owners and their spouses.
MYTH: If we divorce I won't be entilted to anything from my partner's business. REALITY: You quite probably are entitled to something. It may be to a share of the income it produces, but much depends upon the nature of the business. You may have helped him to set up.
You may have made a significant contribution to its success. T....
Friday October 9, 2009 at 9:04am
Family law has suddenly, it seems, attracted the attention of all the political parties!
I will not bore you with their proposals for change (frankly, they don't add up to much except a lot of words) but these are some of mine:
require couples to have a course of information and counselling before marriage (e.g. "how to argue"!)
make prenuptial agreements clearly enforceable
make the automatic rule on divorce to be 50/50 unless there is a prenuptial saying otherwise
no f....
Wednesday October 7, 2009 at 11:27am
Perhaps one of the most complicated aspects of many
divorce settlements is the treatment of the pensions accrured by one of both parties. With the pension pot often forming the second largest capital asset in most marriages there can be significant sums at stake.
Our new book - Exploring the Myths about Divorce and Separation - tackles a number of the most common myths including the things like the proportion of a pension that each party is entitled to. It's a myth for example that ....
Thursday September 17, 2009 at 12:42pm
The Government is considering forcing divorcing couples to go to mediation before being able to start divorce proceedings. Looking at that quickly, you'd think that was a very sensible suggestion. All of us would think a mediated settlement was better than one obtained from a Court. (By "better" I do not mean a higher figure but one less destructive to relationships and often much cheaper) The Times reprots that Baroness Deech, is opposed." You can't mediate with a person or coupl....
Wednesday September 16, 2009 at 10:03am
Massive divorce
financial settlements are humiliating to women, according to Baroness Deech reported in The Times! Well, are they really? If so I know a lot of women who have got over the humiliation very well. I am sure it is not the financial settlement that is humiliating, if anything it is the social engineering that even these days leaves the average woman much less better off than the average man. I am with her when she asks for the financial settlement upon divorce laws to be changed and ....
Friday September 11, 2009 at 5:23pm
There are so very many myths surrounding divorce, separation and also living together. You know the sort of thing:
"I'm not entitled to anything from his business" (true or false--click the link to find out!)
"I don't need to get married as I have the same rights as a common law wife"
"I can divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences"
There can be some humour here in some beliefs but actually these myths can cause people a lot of unneces....
Friday September 4, 2009 at 1:11pm
The Times was not alone in suggesting that divorce Courts in the south of England seem to favour wives more than Courts in the north of the country.
By "favour" I think they mean give bigger awards when dealing with a financial settlement after a divorce, which is often referred to as a divorce settlement.
Do they favour wives in the south? Let's have a look at the views.
Many men would say that divorce Courts favour wives in every part of the country! But I do not think they do. ....
Monday August 24, 2009 at 8:58am
It is a long held view, certainly by men in general I think, that women are not as good as men at business and therefore at law.
Why? I have no idea. Maybe obviously I wouldn't know as most of our lawyers are women. This is a list of our divorce lawyers at present and you will see what I mean. (I have to say that one more male
divorce lawyer is joining us very soon, but then so is one more female divorce lawyer!)
Many firms of solicitors employ a lot of female
divorce solicitors but very....
Thursday August 20, 2009 at 6:37am
Michael Winner, a friend of John Cleese, is reported to have said that if anybody marries Cleese's recent ex-wife they had "better have a prenuptial agreement".
(Actually, with her divorce settlement it is she who needs a really good prenuptial agreement!)
I expect this is based on the reports that she has obtained a massive financial settlement from him which obliges him to pay millions up front to her plus keep working sufficiently to pay her £600,000 per year until he is 72.....
Monday August 3, 2009 at 10:50pm
I am re-reading Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. It has a lot of sense in it but one thing I'd missed before caught my eye. He says that he views "love" as a verb. Do it, just do it. Then the feeling will follow. He thinks this is especially useful in a relationship where one party says "I have just fallen out of love".
Do feelings follow the actions?
Andrew WoolleyDivorce Solicitor
....
Friday July 31, 2009 at 2:42pm
Divorce settlements (known as “ancillary relief”) are complicated in themselves but the area of pensions and divorce even more so. This will normally need careful advice from an IFA pensions expert working closely with a divorce solicitor. But, put simply, apart from ignoring the issue there are 3 alternatives available to the divorce Court. The first is known as ‘off-setting’. This means that the court looks at the transfer value of the pensions and decides that the pers....
Friday July 31, 2009 at 6:54am
You are in the middle of a difficult financial divorce settlement. Your spouse is being either very slow or very unreasonable and it seems that he/she may well be hiding some financial info. When in the former home you do one of these things: ...have "just a quick look" at their emails on their PC ...grab a letter from their lawyers addressed to them Or maybe you just receive a bank or accountant letter at your address meant for them. It sheds light on the situation. It is hard to fail....
Thursday July 30, 2009 at 6:43am
During a divorce case, there will normally be at least a discussion about the financial divorce settlement figures. (The system calls this "ancillary relief"). Within this a Form E is completed and one issue within it is to complete a list of what needs to be spent on a monthly basis or what a person actually needs and would like to pay out if they could get the maintenance from the other to do so.
As in all areas of divorce law, it is important to be realistic. Claiming maintenance f....
Tuesday July 28, 2009 at 4:53pm
A study by Chicago University finds that “divorced or widowed people have 20 per cent more chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer than married people, and also suffer more mobility problems such as having trouble climbing stairs and walking”. Apparently it is much worse if the person does not remarry. It seems that we start off with an allowance of health and can lose chunks of it due to certain events, divorce being a particularly impactful one. This sh....
Friday July 24, 2009 at 7:33am
We reported in our Newsletter for Professionals that a study by Grant Thonton suggests that money worries in the recession will help cut the divorce rate.Really?I don't think so. It will stop some people from starting a divorce just at the moment if they, as some do believe me, carefully calculate the best moment to pursue a financial and divorce settlement from their spouse. That is not normally when the economy is poor, their pension is down and the value of their assets reduced. But money wor....
Saturday July 18, 2009 at 7:42am
OK, I don't expect you to agree. Nor do I, actually. But the Justice Committee of the House of Commons report was looking at the rates paid to lawyers who handle publicly funded (used to be called "legal aid") family law work where the fees are way too low to, in general, attract the specialist divorce solicitors. I suppose this is the legal version of the loss of NHS dentists.
Now, we don't deal with legal aid cases and never have, mainly because our expertise is in answering q....
Friday July 17, 2009 at 2:43pm
Anybody going through a divorce surely wants it to be as "good" as possible? Obviously we tend to hear about "bad" divorces but that suggests there must be "good" ones! I suspect a "good" divorce must refer more to feelings than financial settlements, divorce costs, who got what and so on. But maybe where someone gets what they want as a divorce settlement, they'd tend to describe that as a "good" divorce? I am sure there is more to it than that.....
Friday July 17, 2009 at 7:38am
I read on a Web Forum that "Divorce lawyers in England feed on a diet of champagne and lobsters and can even afford mistresses". Admittedly, it was the Sun Online forum!I feel I need to rapidly confirm that I do not "enjoy" any of those things!
But I think I get the point. How can we keep the divorce costs as low as sensibly possible? These are some top tips:
Cost of divorce
Understanding the cost of divorce
Tips for controlling the costs of your divorce
It pay....
Thursday July 16, 2009 at 7:57am
"I'm an excellent housekeeper. Every time I get divorced, I keep the house".
I should stress that this is a quote from Zsa Zsa Gabor! But, who does normally keep the house?
Sorry, but I'm going to have to say that it depends. It depends upon all the facts, history of the financial side of the marriage, children and needs as does all aspects of a divorce settlement. But if you have main care of the children, a career path clearly affected by that, you've been married some years and yo....
Monday July 13, 2009 at 4:33pm
The BBC web news site shows that the Tories seem to be trying to (well, if they get elected that is!) do something at last about the rate of divorce in the UK. It reports that they will require couples to have a 3 month "cooling off period" before they get a divorce, so that they can reflect and also consider reconciliation. They will also, apparently, "strongly encourage" couples to attend a marriage class before marrying.
Do I, as a divorce solicitor,....
Monday July 13, 2009 at 8:37am
Nikkah is a Muslim marriage and talaq is a Muslim or Islamic divorce. Why are they relevant to UK based divorce lawyers?Divorce Solicitors in England, especially those like us who deal with a lot of expat and international divorce, are increasingly asked if a divorce abroad or indeed a marriage abroad are "legal" in the UK.The relevance of a marriage abroad being legal here is, perhaps obviously, a very important issue if one of the people involved wants to remarry here.....
Sunday July 12, 2009 at 8:54am
Due perhaps to the recession and downturn in the housing and jobs markets, many couples who split up now have to continue living "together", that is apart but in the same house. It doesn't take a divorce lawyer to explain how difficult that can be.
Many of our lawyers are members of Resolution, a grouping of lawyers which promotes minimising conflict in family disputes and encouraging solutions that meet the needs of the whole family. This is a link to their Factsheet on avoiding....
Tuesday July 7, 2009 at 8:14am
Conveyancers, many of them solicitors, are just not doing their jobs well enough it seems to me. I have lost count of the amount of times clients tell me that when they bought their house there was no discussion at all about how to own it and in what shares.If married, it dosn't matter much normally because the Courts usually ignore whose name the house is in especially after a few years marriage, when sorting out a divorce settlement.
But for unmarried couples it can be very serious indeed. Ta....
Friday July 3, 2009 at 3:29pm
What has a prenuptial agreement got to do with Paul McCartney?
Well, I bet he wished he had one when he got into his major divorce settlement case with Heather Mills. She didn't end up doing all that well but he had a very unpleasant time of things. In the last few days a case, discussed here says we are at the point when the Courts will always follow a prenup unless there is a good reason not to do so.
The Press has been looking at this in different ways.
....
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 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 ....
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....
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....
Friday May 22, 2009 at 9:29am
Anecdotal, but frequent, evidence from our family lawyers suggests that the credit crunch and recession seem to be causing more couples to fight out their divorce and financial settlement in Court. This is the opposite of what might first be thought. Surely, one would think, when finances are at their lowest we would all try to avoid anything which would increase legal costs even more than we normally would? Certainly we are continuing to advise our clients to try mediation, to let us help negot....
Tuesday May 19, 2009 at 8:29am
The credit crunch has of course affected many things but it has certainly hit pension funds very hard indeed. This worries a lot of people when looking at their retirement but it also has a very significant effect upon divorce financial settlements. For example a wife, married for 30 years, may reasonably have been expecting to share in her husband’s pension. The relationship breaks down and she pursues a divorce. But it turns out his pension is now worth a lot less than she thought perhap....
Thursday April 2, 2009 at 3:39pm
I have posted a Blog before referring to the Myerson case where the credit crunch apparently caused a--roughly--£8million change in the amount the husband expected to get after paying out his ex wife. The Court has just decided that this is not enough of a change to justify altering the original Court Order. It seems that the main basis of this decision was that it was always the case he would keep his shares in his company and he still will, albeit it seems to be worth £millions les....
Tuesday March 24, 2009 at 1:00pm
I’ve produced a Blog or two before about the effect of the recession on divorce settlements - Money worries increase the divorce rate and Credit crunch causing divorce problems.In them I concentrated on either the divorce itself or the financial settlement which normally is a reference to the distribution of the investments, housing values and pensions of the couple. But of course there is also maintenance. In some cases that can be a huge monthly sum and in the case of John Cleese, i....
Thursday March 19, 2009 at 10:08am
Statistics show that more people separate during times of financial strain. I have posted before on the subject - Money Worries increase Divorce Rate A typical Woolley & Co client is in the higher middle income bracket and perhaps the couple have put everything into a pension and their house. Maybe they have over-stretched a little to buy the house. At the moment their capital asset values are tumbling and they are struggling, especially with the added fear of redundancy. Peop....
Wednesday March 18, 2009 at 9:08am
It is incredible how often people believe that it is easy to fool a divorce Judge! Bear in mind that many of them have been a divorce solicitor for at least 25 years before they become Judges. We really have seen it all before by then.Honesty and openness is the best approach. It certainly saves legal costs. These are common misconceptions of what can be done to reduce financial settlement claims:"I will put the house in my friends' name""She doesn't know about this bank account&q....
Thursday March 12, 2009 at 1:30pm
Yes, I am referring to a financial settlement of £1Billion not just £1million!Many of us will be amazed just how many financial settlements on divorce are £1million and above. We deal with many of these now. But I read that the motor racing mogul Bernie Ecclestone was divorced the other day and I read today in the Daily Mail that he is worth over £2billion.When you see a photo of his wife with him, it is very tempting to make a guess about the background reasoning to the ....
Monday March 9, 2009 at 9:37am
There are no hard and fast rules regarding your financial rights on the breakdown of a relationship.When negotiating a financial settlement at the end of a marriage there are various factors that need to be taken into account. I am not sure it helps to go through them all as they are very "legal" wording. But basically, a 50/50 share of assets is a very rough rule of thumb, in as much as Judges need to explain why, if they want to move away from that.Understandably, a lot of peopl....
Sunday March 8, 2009 at 9:17am
Saying "I want a divorce" is hard enough emotionally but do take care to find a lawyer who operates carefully and is a specialist.
During or after the divorce proceedings, you might be completely unable to agree about divorce finances and the matrimonial home, and would like to apply to the court for such things as maintenance, your fair share of the matrimonial assets such as the house and issues surrounding divorce and pensions.. These days, the courts expect and encourage ever....
Thursday March 5, 2009 at 5:15pm
Child support or child maintenance is financial support that helps towards a child’s everyday living costs. Payment is made by the absent parent to the parent, caregiver or guardian, with whom the children live – the parent with residence. In family law, child support is not arranged as part of a divorce as such but the Court will want to be assured that arrangements regarding contact and residence have been agreed by the parents. The Courts no longer have powers to order the payment....