Plenty of important arrangements usually need to be made if you are separating from your partner. Finalising what happens if you are splitting up when you own a house can often be among the most challenging. Exactly what will happen if you split up when owning a house will depend…
As a family lawyer, I am rarely involved at the start of a relationship when all is going well and people are considering moving in together. Instead, my involvement normally arises at the point the relationship is breaking down or has broken down. This has given me a lot of…
Unmarried couples who are separating do not have the same rights and options as married couples when it comes to supporting children on separation. One partner may be faced with the prospect of being made homeless if the property they live in is registered solely in the name of their…
We’re happy cohabiting, why bother getting married? Like millions of others our Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and his partner, Carrie Symonds, have chosen to live together rather than get married. In fact, I read that around 3.4 million people in the UK now live together as cohabitees rather than getting…
Archers fans may be reeling with the death of Nic Grundy, but there’s another issue that’s been exercising the minds of family lawyers in recent weeks. How are Pip Archer and Toby Fairbrother going to manage as parents? And how much of their legal responsibility they have yet come to…
Second marriages and prenuptial agreements have been one of the most recent storylines of The Archers. Through the trials and tribulations in the relationship between Lillian and Justin the BBC radio show has cast its light on 21st century family life from the comfort of fictional Ambridge. Prenuptial agreements are…
With a new Government in place, albeit one preoccupied with Brexit and unforeseen tragic events, is now the time to put more emphasis on equality in family law? We have marriage and civil partnerships for same sex couples, but what about the rights of cohabiting couples, and the rights of…
In January of this year, a heterosexual couple lost their court case in which they argued that opposite-sex couples are being subjected to discrimination as, unlike same-sex couples, they do not have the choice to enter into a civil partnership instead of marriage. At present, same sex couples who wish…
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…