Family Law

The Court of Appeal (CoA) yesterday reaffirmed the Court’s more modern approach to spousal maintenance,  championing “clean breaks” between divorcing couples and limiting claims for ongoing spousal maintenance (reports of the story are accessible both here and here). In Waggott v Waggott [2018] EWCA Civ 727, the CoA overturned a previous ruling that would have […]

Sir James Munby, the President of the Family Division has recently delivered a speech at the University of Edinburgh Law School castigating the speed of progress of reform in family law. Particular focus was given by Sir James regarding cohabitant’s rights, no-fault divorce, financial relief after divorce, access to and reporting of family cases and […]

An ex-wife awarded a £90 million settlement in 2014 upon divorcing her property tycoon husband is seeking to argue that she should receive another £25 million – despite having signed a pre-nuptial agreement.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5363469/Wife-signed-pre-nup-says-90m-payout-unfair.htm A pre-nuptial agreement is a contract that seeks to regulate the financial arrangements between two parties to an intended marriage/civil partnership […]

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 […]

Choosing baby names: a legal battle in the making? Adolf, Elvis, Madonna. Upon hearing these names most of us will immediately think of the public figures behind them. But why do we automatically draw (good or bad) connotations from names?  Aren’t they just names? Or is there more to them? Names are our identity and […]

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 […]

Yet another special contribution case has hit the headlines, with the news yesterday that a Russian billionaire has been ordered to pay £453million to his ex-wife, or roughly 41.5% of the total matrimonial assets. The wife had claimed that the husband was worth over £1billion. The judgement has not yet been published, the specific facts […]

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 […]

The judgement in the case of Owens v Owens has been handed down, which has decided that the original judge who refused the wife the right to be granted a divorce, was not wrong in coming to his decision. The appeal of the wife against that decision has today been dismissed by the Court of […]

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 […]