News has hit the headlines recently of another high-profile celebrity divorce, that being TV presenter of Ant-n-Dec-fame Ant McPartlin who has separated from his wife Lisa Armstrong. Ant McPartlin and Lisa Armstrong have been in a relationship for over twenty years, since 1994. They were married in 2006 and so they have had a very […]

Recovering unpaid money One of the ways the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) can recover money from a parent who has fallen into arrears with child maintenance payments is by taking money from their bank or building society account. However, money can only be recovered from an account held in that parent’s sole name, so joint […]

Judgement has been handed down today in the Supreme Court which rules that a married gay man has been discriminated against by a pension scheme, and that his husband is entitled on his death to a spouse’s pension. The appellant in the case, Mr Walker, had been in a civil partnership since January 2006 which […]

Divorce is something that should be given serious thought, so we were surprised to hear of what’s been happening in the small Chinese village of Jiangbei recently. In the village, a mass of couples are filing for divorce in the hope of striking it rich. This comes after the news that the area is being […]

Is Ryan Giggs a genius? Anybody who isn’t a Manchester United fan would probably say ‘No’. Paul McCartney was described as an ‘icon’ in his famous divorce from Heather Mills but how do you compare one of the most influential men in music history with a footballer? The general question of genius is of course […]

A heterosexual couple who have been battling to have a civil partnership instead of a marriage have lost their Court of Appeal case. Although the Court found that there was a potential breach of their human rights, they were prepared to allow the government more time to decide the future of civil partnerships and it […]

Where should post-marriage financial dependency end? In a world with a greater emphasis on independence, is the law holding back on allowing divorced couples the freedom to move on and become less reliant on their former partner? This issue was raised in a recent Court of Appeal case where a former spouse was Ordered to […]

In the UK same-sex couples now have the option to enter into either a civil partnership or marriage. This is in contrast to heterosexual couples, who can currently only enter into a marriage. Many people see this as unfair.  For some heterosexual couples a civil partnership would offer a formal, legal tie, but without the […]

The Law Commission has published new proposals which aim to make the enforcement of family financial orders “more effective, accessible and fair” and implement tough sanctions for those who refuse to pay their former spouse’s divorce settlement. The Commission states that many divorcees are ignoring the orders, with as many as 4,200 enforcement cases each […]

Recently it has been suggested that British Courts should be able to issue Islamic divorces through a specialised unit with the aim of protecting the rights of Muslim Women. Elham Manea, a Professor at Zurich University, is due to make recommendations to the home affairs select committee, proposing compulsory civil marriages alongside religious ceremonies and […]

Whilst the country is still in shock from the EU referendum result, we take a look at how Brexit might impact on family law in England and Wales. Family law Family law is not unique in the sense that a move away from the EU will involve a certain amount of ‘detangling’ from EU legislation, […]

Following the surge in publicity after the leak of information from the law firm Mossack Fonseca (aka the Panama Papers), David Cameron and his government are feeling pressure to be more transparent with their personal tax and financial affairs. It should come as no surprise, however, that the hiding of assets in off shore tax […]