Thursday May 2, 2013 at 9:00am
It seems to me that romantic notions are the bane of the pre-nuptial agreement. Think on this: you don’t want to, or plan to, crash your car, and yet you have car insurance (yes, I know it is the law but stick with me). You don’t want your plumbing to explode and flood the house, but you have insurance to ensure it can be sorted easily if the worst happens. And the last thing you want is for the cat to get injured, but you may well pay a small fee each month so that vet bills are tak....
Thursday August 9, 2012 at 9:00am
It seems like the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes divorce publicity blaze burned very brightly and then was suddenly gone. Just over a week after the divorce papers were filed, the couple reportedly reached and signed a settlement. The disappointed media have sloped off looking for the next celebrity relationship to explode.
So is that the entire process done? Are they now divorced and ready to start their new lives free from the acrimony common to divorce cases? Do they really get a “quicki....
Thursday May 31, 2012 at 9:00am
Marriage brings with it certain legal rights and responsibilities, not least of which is joining a couple’s assets. When a couple are simply living together (and there is no living together agreement), assets they buy and share jointly can be difficult to sort out if they split up. Tying the knot formally treats assets jointly and both have a claim to them in the event of a divorce. To the less romantic out there, it could be seen that it formalises a relationship, but that i....
Monday July 18, 2011 at 10:00am
Katie Price appears to have made it very clear that she will not marry again. This revelation came on the same day as other reports which suggested she would wed Argentine lover Leandro Penna “at some point”. Not so clear then. I am less worried about clarity on her love life and future intentions though as I am with her not wanting to get married again “because it is too expensive”. I take it she is not just referring to the cost of extravagant receptions grand enough to....
Monday June 27, 2011 at 10:00am
News reached me that a woman, said to be living on state benefits whilst seeking her share of her husband’s alleged £400 million fortune, has criticised the divorce system in the UK. Well, you would wouldn’t you?
Michelle Young, 47, who incidentally has hired the former head of Scotland Yard’s Royal Protection Squad to oversee her security after threats were allegedly made against her, wants her share of the fortune apparently amassed by her husband Scot, a fixer for ol....
Thursday May 12, 2011 at 10:00am
With nearly 90 per cent of couples now choosing to live together before marriage – or instead of marriage altogether – the question of how they can safeguard their assets in the event of a break-up is more relevant than ever. Knowledge of prenuptial agreements is spreading. This is where a document can be drawn up after both parties have received informed legal advice, setting out how they will divide assets and settle other issues if they divorce further down the line. However, livi....
Tuesday April 26, 2011 at 10:00am
Fever has gripped the nation, nay the world. This is not in a bad way, à la swine fever or bird flu, but more a gush of patriotism as the Royal Wedding finally arrives. It seems like it has been coming forever but it was only last November when it was announced. At the time I covered the potential for a diamond-encrusted prenuptial agreement in my previous blog about the Royal Wedding. It’s good that the nation has something positive to celebrate. Whether you are a Royalist or not, ....
Tuesday March 15, 2011 at 10:00am
I read about a survey last week which suggests that an increasing number of parents are reluctant to leave money to their married children in case they get divorced and the other party gets their hands on a chunk of it. The research shows 35 per cent of parents had concerns and did not want to leave assets to their children for fear some of it might be siphoned off by an estranged partner in any settlement. This was brought fully into focus for me when one in four parents said they had doubts wh....
Tuesday January 11, 2011 at 10:00am
I won't keep you many minutes. I am very much in demand now as a seer and wise man. There may even be a TV special with Derren Brown in the future. Can’t see it (clearly) though. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but no sooner had I written my blog last week about the New Year predictions/resolutions/wish list than one of the items appeared to come true. Within hours of me suggesting that a great thing to happen in 2011 would be for prenuptial agreements to get long-overdue legal ba....
Tuesday November 23, 2010 at 9:29am
No matter how hard you might have tried over the last seven days, you will not have been able to avoid hearing that a certain high profile couple are getting married. After ten years together, with speculation of a royal wedding spanning nine-and-a-half years of that at least, Prince William and Kate Middleton announced their engagement. The simple announcement from Clarence House prompted wall-to-wall coverage on every news channel and magazine programme, newspaper and radio bulletin for severa....
Friday October 22, 2010 at 4:16pm
A landmark ruling this week gave pre-nuptial agreements a vote of confidence. While the agreements, drawn up by couples before marriage to set out how their assets will be divided if they should divorce, are not strictly enforceable in law, they are taken seriously by courts when a settlement is being discussed.
Their validity was thrown into doubt when French banker Nicolas Granatinio went to the High Court to overturn a pre-nuptial agreement he had signed with heiress Katrin Radmacher ....
Thursday September 16, 2010 at 9:41am
For years and years when we have talked about marriage and couples and bringing up the children, the assumption – to a large extent correctly – has been that it is the woman sacrificing her time to stay at home with the kids. This is not a personal comment on gender roles, but merely a statement of fact. Statistically, more women stay at home with the children than men, even in the modern day when it is common for women to go back to work fairly swiftly in many cases. Could the tide ....
Friday August 27, 2010 at 6:44am
I blogged last year about an ongoing divorce case involving two brothers who had used what they considered to be damning financial documents from their brother-in-law’s computer to help in their sister’s divorce case. They claimed the documents, held on a computer, showed the estranged husband was not giving full financial disclosure and had “hidden” assets.At that time, the case was ongoing. It has now moved on and the ruling is in. And the landmark decision from t....
Friday July 30, 2010 at 9:22pm
OK, you have the pension CETV and are persuaded it is the appropriate valuation to use. Like my last Blog on CETVs, this article is mainly for lawyers from other firms who do not specialise in family law and who need some basic guidance on this complex area. If you are not a lawyer, this article on pensions and divorce is likely to be more helpful. The next step is to consider what % of the pension rights should go to whom. It is not an easy question!I suppose it might be assumed that the obviou....
Monday July 26, 2010 at 4:20pm
Some people wait for years. For others, they leap into it with both feet after having only known their soon-to-be other half for a short while. I’d never thought there was any prescription for when was the right time to take the plunge, pop the question and walk up the aisle. It seems I was wrong. Psychologist and relationship manager Dr Pam Spurr believes she has identified a “golden window” of opportunity for couples to get married. Miss the window by going too soon, and you ....
Friday July 16, 2010 at 10:05am
We British aren’t very good at negotiating. This is a generalisation but also a generally held belief. Just look at the Money Supermarket ad running on television at the moment with comedian Omid Djalili mocking the English inability to haggle. Many a true word…. Negotiating can save a fortune if you just have the cheek to make an offer. Divorce is not necessarily different. Going to a divorce solicitor does not necessarily mean going to court. Many couples going through a divorce d....
Monday July 5, 2010 at 5:48pm
Many individuals who have to concede possessions or property to a partner when they split up do so grudgingly. No matter how good spirited most people are, anxious to do the right thing and ensure their former partner and children are provided for, I suspect there is almost always a little clenching of teeth to some degree or other. It might be a share in a house, or car, or part of a pension pot. So spare a thought for Dmitry Rybolovlev. The 43-year-old Russian oligarch is reportedly facing a d....
Friday June 25, 2010 at 7:04am
Woolley & Co is an unusual law firm – for a start we only do family law. Our lawyers work from a home office base and are given full flexibility to work and see clients when and where they want. But that’s not what makes us really different. Our difference is that we genuinely want to change the way couples’ divorce, to remove some of the barriers (like the concept of blame in divorce) and to minimise the disruption to the family. You might think we are idealists or t....
Tuesday June 1, 2010 at 11:15am
Reports bounced around over the last few days use the phrase quickie divorce again. Regular readers will know this is a pet hate of mine. The media and the wider public at large just don’t get it. For the, record, one last time, and with feeling – there is no such thing as a quickie divorce, no matter how famous you are or how much money you have. The so called quickie is simply a divorce that starts straight away and is not contested so the paperwork speeds through. It will still ta....
Saturday May 22, 2010 at 9:00am
There are lots of reasons to get married of course, mostly emotional or even spiritual. I have some vague memories of law school when it used to be a reason to get married to get a significant tax allowance.
But romance has hit the heights again in the Inland Revenue and marriage can save significant amounts of inheritance tax. How romantic is that?! It applies to civil partnerships and married couples. It is worth considering especially if you are of a certain age.
The Direct Gov website....
Friday May 21, 2010 at 5:14pm
Those researchers have been at it again. Finally they claim to have discovered the secret to a happy marriage. And is it down to the man – being miserable. How this works in civil partnerships, I don’t know but for your average married couple, they are less likely to divorce if the man of the house doesn’t enjoy himself too much. You can add in your own jokes here about lives being made a misery and grumpy old men, but the study looked at tens of thousands of couples in Britain....
Friday March 19, 2010 at 3:32pm
There is a temptation for us lawyers to judge other lawyers based mainly upon their technical legal ability. “She’s a good lawyer” (or not) is often heard. What do we know? Yes, us lawyers can judge if another lawyer has excellent legal knowledge as we are qualified to know. But what is the real test of a good lawyer? What effects do we have when dealing with a divorce or other family law issue? Should it not be our clients who have the say in whether we are a good lawyer or no....
Wednesday February 3, 2010 at 1:12pm
I read in the legal press recently that Family solicitors have reported a rise in the number of prenuptial agreements being drawn up using the collaborative law process. Prenuptial agreements have already risen in popularity since the Radmacher Court of Appeal case concluded last year that properly drafted prenuptial agreements should be upheld in family disputes unless there was a good reason not to do so. Until recent years the general consensus had been that prenuptial agreements were only fo....
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....
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.
....
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.....
Wednesday August 19, 2009 at 9:03am
Many of our clients, who come to us to get a divorce, often question what the attraction was for them towards their spouse in the first place.
But I read (in the Telegraph no less!) that Amy Wolfe of Pennsylvania intends to marry a fairground ride manufactured by the Weber company. She will change her name to Weber after the ceremony. Apparently she was "instantly attracted to him sexually and mentally". She sleeps with "his" spare nuts and bolts to help her feel closer.
I ....
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,....
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 July 3, 2009 at 2:32pm
Senior judges rewrote the divorce laws yesterday to give resounding backing to prenuptial agreements. The Court of Appeal ruled that the assets of Katrin Radmacher – a paper industry heiress said to be worth £100 million – should be protected from her French ex-husband because of the prenuptial contract they signed before they married. The judgement should hearten people who have tried to safeguard their assets with written agreements. Previously Judges had regarded prenuptial ....