Thursday May 28, 2009 at 5:09pm
London, indeed England in general, has often been said to be the place where wives in particular want to get a
divorce settlement if they possibly can. By the way, many people say "get their divorce" or "divorce settlement" but they really mean the
financial settlement I think. Divorce is the ending of the marriage legally and financial settlement is separate, legally. But enough of the legalese! The view has long been that the English Courts are the most generous in the worl....
Wednesday May 27, 2009 at 8:29am
I was a little nervous about typing the "f" word even with lots of * in it! But if it is good enough for a Lord Justice in the higher Courts then I guess it must be good enough for me, too!He was of course quoting the poet Philip Larkin who said in his poem This Be the Verse:
They f*** you up, your Mum and Dad They don't mean to, but they do. They fi....
Friday May 22, 2009 at 9:29am
Anecdotal, but frequent, evidence from our
family lawyers suggests that the credit crunch and recession seem to be causing more couples to fight out their divorce and financial settlement in Court. This is the opposite of what might first be thought. Surely, one would think, when finances are at their lowest we would all try to avoid anything which would increase legal costs even more than we normally would? Certainly we are continuing to advise our clients to try mediation, to let us help negot....
Friday May 22, 2009 at 8:16am
When I trained in law and qualified in the early 1980s, I was determined to help people, especially those who--to my mind--needed the most help often those with the least funds to be able to afford that help. Legal aid (i.e. government help) stepped in. It was of special use, I always felt, when say a woman had never worked after marriage and had married a business man who had done well. He ran the finances about which she knew nothing. She relied upon him and they both expected "his" ....
Thursday May 21, 2009 at 5:51am
Maybe I am too protective of our past clients? But I do worry about a recently divorced person going into a second time around relationship.
Getting a divorce is tough. Going into an unwise new relationship must be devastating to emotions but also finances. Actually getting married again is often off the agenda as a matter of principle for some. Of course some divorced people simply live together (cohabit) and that is fine if the legal implications are understood. • If they both contribute ....
Wednesday May 20, 2009 at 1:20pm
Making front page news since an announcement that they are separating are Katie Price and Peter Andre. Having lived their relationship in the public eye will they now go through divorce in public too? The newspapers have already highlighted the complicated legal issues which will have to be considered as a consequence of the split. Decisions will have to be made concerning a financial settlement, with newspapers estimating their joint fortune to be in the region of £50million. It is report....
Tuesday May 19, 2009 at 8:29am
The credit crunch has of course affected many things but it has certainly hit pension funds very hard indeed. This worries a lot of people when looking at their retirement but it also has a very significant effect upon divorce
financial settlements. For example a wife, married for 30 years, may reasonably have been expecting to share in her husband’s pension. The relationship breaks down and she pursues a divorce. But it turns out his pension is now worth a lot less than she thought perhap....
Monday May 18, 2009 at 4:50pm
I have blogged before about Grandparents Rights. Did you know there aren't any?Well, not automatically anyway. Only with permission of the parents or the Court. What a disgrace.As you'll read in my previous Blog, about 42% of grandparents lose contact with their grandhcildren after the parents split up. 42%!This removes from the children a major potential source of support and unconditional love at a time when surely they need it most. The Government should do what it can to stem this loss by ru....
Friday May 15, 2009 at 8:33am
I read that a large group of solicitors were outside the High Court in London on Tuesday handing out tins of baked beans from supermarket trolleys! It seems it was a protest against what has become known as Tesco Law. I am aware that most of my profession is very worried by Tescos being able to offer legal services soon, along with the AA, Co-Op and others. Cynics might say they are worried about their jobs and their incomes but the campaigners say they fear the standards of legal advice will dr....
Thursday May 14, 2009 at 6:25am
Getting divorced is very, very difficult. Getting married is very, very easy. Is this the right way around? We have pressed in the past for no fault divorce but I'd like to look at the other side of the equation. Maybe now is the time to require all couples wanting to marry, to go through a course equipping them for that marriage? In my view, that course should include counselling on issues such as: • what they each expect • children? • who gives up work when there are children? &....
Wednesday May 13, 2009 at 8:31am
There are about 14 million grandparents in the UK and, would you believe, about 42% of them lose contact with their grandchildren after the parents split up, especially after a divorce when the parties have become bitter towards each other.
This is a quite horrific figure, given how much unconditional love and stability can often be gained by children going through a split. And how a then single parent might cope without the help of at least 1 of the sets of grandparents as well as the other pa....
Tuesday May 12, 2009 at 4:01pm
A German couple has just been refused permission by the Courts to have a long hyphenated surname. So what? Well, ask the footballer Shaun Wright Phillips for example. He added the name of the ex footballer (Ian) Wright to his surname when he became his stepfather which seems perfectly reasonable to me. The rights of step parents are still developing and are surely well behind the society we all live in. And many women these days do not wish to give up their name especially if they have created s....
Monday May 11, 2009 at 7:58pm
The Government recently allowed journalists into family law Courts for the first time, in the routine sense. A lot of our clients are worried and there has been a lot of misinformation in the Press.Any journalist will be checked to ensure they are just that and also have to be accredited to be allowed in. All our lawyers know these rules but I hear that family lawyers in many firms do not, indeed we hear many Courts do not either. Do make sure your lawyer knows them!
These are the main things t....
Friday May 8, 2009 at 2:24pm
What's being billed as the country's largest event of it's kind The Divorce Show will take place at the NEC in September. The organisers say that with 140,000 divorces each year and the whole process of divorce and relationship brekdown often taking five years there is a massive demand for information and advice from divorcing couples.As specialist family lawyers we are exploring opportunities to be involved with the Show as we see it as a great opportunity to reach a national audience wit....
Thursday May 7, 2009 at 2:15pm
It never ceases to amaze me how interesting the media find divorce and family law issues.Just last week tabloids and broadsheets alike were awash with stories that the wife of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is filing for divorce.When was the last time Italian politics made the papers? Apparantly it's more important for us to know about the private lives of public figures than it is to know about their policies. I don't think so.Divorce and relationship breakdown is a privat....
Wednesday May 6, 2009 at 2:08pm
Unlike many other law firms our team continues to grow. Just last month we were joined by three new
family solicitors - Petra Salt, Kelly Glenn and Judith Buckland. All bring with them years of experience handling divorce and family law.
And we are still recruiting - all over England for divorce and family solicitors. So if you are reading this blog and know a great
family lawyer get them to contact us.
Andrew WoolleyWoolley & CoFamily law specialists....