Family Law Blog

The Supreme Court has now handed down the judgment in the case of Mills v Mills, a case keenly watched by family lawyers as it sets out some further guidance on cases about payment of maintenance from one former spouse to the other. The Story So Far… Mr and Mrs…

As Resolution family lawyers, we are always encouraging our clients to try and be reasonable, to be willing to compromise, and to keep their case in proportion. “Don’t let the lawyers be the ones who get all the money” is a phrase we hear ourselves saying time and time again….

“The inequality in divorce law laid bare”. The recent case of Graham and Maria Mills, decided by the Court of Appeal, has sparked widespread outrage, as Mrs Mills’ maintenance, first set when the couple divorced 15 years ago, was increased by almost a third. The court decided that she should…

The radical changes to the rules regarding the use of pension funds to buy annuity policies – described by some as a “pensions revolution” – were at the forefront of the new Governments’ budget announcements in March 2014. Under these new rules, since April 2015 pensioners are no longer as…

From TV programmes and films to the chat down the pub, mention divorce and ‘going to court’ is so often mentioned. Although many cases don’t end up in court I understand there is still a lot of confusion. It occurred to me that many people might not actually know what…

It would be difficult to have missed the recent significant press coverage about two cases where wives have gone to the Supreme Court to seek to overturn financial orders made in their divorce proceedings. The cases have slightly different facts – Alison Sharland’s divorce was clearly a “big-money case”, where…

Moving on from our recent blog Maintenance – how much do I need? in which we considered how “needs” might be determined when working out spousal maintenance, maybe what we should really ask is – should maintenance be payable at all? As with many areas of family law, there is…

The calculation of maintenance on divorce – whether there should be any at all, and if there should, how much and how long for – has long been a thorny issue of debate in family law. Unfortunately there’s no such thing as a divorce maintenance calculator in the UK, so…

The papers have been full of commentary on the family case heard by the Court of Appeal recently, in which Tracey Wright, the ex wife of a highly paid horse surgeon, was told very firmly that rather than expecting to receive substantial on-going maintenance from her former husband she should…

Readers of the Daily Mail may have been fooled into thinking a recent case changes everything for unmarried couples. That’s not the case, as family lawyer Kate Butler explains. Daily Mail readers may recently have seen the sensational headline “Man ordered to pay £28,500 to his ex-girlfriend after break-up in…

It seems a slight change in the wording of the Children and Families Bill could have quite an impact on some couples going through divorce. That was the feeling that I took away from the Family Justice – Next Steps for Reform: Westminster Legal Policy Forum that I attended last…

When a relationship or marriage breaks down, there is often a huge amount to sort out. Some things may be easy, but you can then get hung up on one tiny detail. Add to that the fact that you and your partner are soon to be ex-partners, so are probably…