For the regular readers of our blog, you may recall I questioned in January (Family relationships in The Archers) whether the relationship between Rob and Helen in Radio 4’s The Archers was showing the hallmarks of domestic abuse, and specifically, of coercive control. The alarm bells in my head were,…
The cost of divorce is often in the news, with scare stories of divorce costing tens of thousands of pounds and having a knock on effect on personal finances many years into the future. So it’s understandable that if you talk to a family law solicitor you want to understand…
Divorce does not bring an end to any financial claims between a married couple – as has been amply demonstrated in the recently reported case of Vince v Wyatt. As family lawyers we speak almost daily to clients who believe that “divorce proceedings” means bringing an end to a marriage,…
Divorce disputes where Facebook posts form part of the evidence seem to be on the rise. Yet more reason to be very careful about what you post on social media, and when. Facebook lesson for divorce judge I was once involved in a family law hearing where a very senior…
It’s a fantastic victory for equality that gay couples now have the right to choose whether to enter a civil partnership or a marriage. And that’s absolutely how it should be. Shame the same can’t be said for heterosexual couples. Couples can live together as cohabitees, although the law offers…
This blog was written prior to the change in divorce law on 6 April 2022, which introduced no fault divorce. The divorce process has come a long way since Henry VIII but it has been in a fairly familiar shape since the 1960s. Does it need change now though to…
Adultery, alienated children and coercive, possibly even abusive, relationships are all under the spotlight in the long running BBC radio show The Archers. But how do soap opera story lines reflect real life family and relationship dramas? I admit it, I was (until now) a covert Archers addict. Like all…
A new Channel 4 TV show entitled Married at First Sight will see volunteers who have never met before getting married in front of the TV cameras. This is not a completely new idea as something similar was undertaken by the Birmingham radio station BRMB in 1999. In this case,…
An interesting debate has been hotting up over the last few weeks on the topic of fee-charging McKenzie friends in cases like divorce. It came after watchdog the Legal Services Consumer Panel published a report which calls for McKenzie Friends to be recognised as increasing access to justice and a “legitimate…