Friday July 30, 2010 at 9:22pm
OK, you have the pension CETV and are persuaded it is the appropriate valuation to use. Like my last Blog on CETVs, this article is mainly for lawyers from other firms who do not specialise in family law and who need some basic guidance on this complex area. If you are not a lawyer, this article on pensions and divorce is likely to be more helpful. The next step is to consider what % of the pension rights should go to whom. It is not an easy question! I suppose it might be assumed that the obvio....
Friday July 30, 2010 at 2:54pm
I’m a big fan of the Vicar of Dibley. Shame they’re not making any new ones now. Funny, gentle, inoffensive – bit like the impression I have of its writer and star Dawn French, though I have never met her. Over the years, I have also liked a lot of what Lenny Henry has done – though I think perhaps he peaked too early with Tiswas in the late 1970s. For years, these two modern-day pillars of British comedy were pillars of a modern-day family – married, apparently hap....
Monday July 26, 2010 at 4:20pm
Some people wait for years. For others, they leap into it with both feet after having only known their soon-to-be other half for a short while. I’d never thought there was any prescription for when was the right time to take the plunge, pop the question and walk up the aisle. It seems I was wrong. Psychologist and relationship manager Dr Pam Spurr believes she has identified a “golden window” of opportunity for couples to get married. Miss the window by going too soon, and you ....
Friday July 16, 2010 at 10:05am
We British aren’t very good at negotiating. This is a generalisation but also a generally held belief. Just look at the Money Supermarket ad running on television at the moment with comedian Omid Djalili mocking the English inability to haggle. Many a true word…. Negotiating can save a fortune if you just have the cheek to make an offer. Divorce is not necessarily different. Going to a
divorce solicitor does not necessarily mean going to court. Many couples going through a divorce d....
Monday July 5, 2010 at 5:48pm
Many individuals who have to concede possessions or property to a partner when they split up do so grudgingly. No matter how good spirited most people are, anxious to do the right thing and ensure their former partner and children are provided for, I suspect there is almost always a little clenching of teeth to some degree or other. It might be a share in a house, or car, or part of a pension pot. So spare a thought for Dmitry Rybolovlev. The 43-year-old Russian oligarch is reportedly facing a d....
Friday June 25, 2010 at 7:04am
Woolley & Co is an unusual law firm – for a start we only do family law. Our lawyers work from a home office base and are given full flexibility to work and see clients when and where they want. But that’s not what makes us really different. Our difference is that we genuinely want to change the way couples’ divorce, to remove some of the barriers (like the concept of blame in divorce) and to minimise the disruption to the family. You might think we are idealists or t....
Tuesday June 1, 2010 at 11:15am
Reports bounced around over the last few days use the phrase quickie divorce again. Regular readers will know this is a pet hate of mine. The media and the wider public at large just don’t get it. For the, record, one last time, and with feeling – there is no such thing as a quickie divorce, no matter how famous you are or how much money you have. The so called quickie is simply a divorce that starts straight away and is not contested so the paperwork speeds through. It will still ta....
Saturday May 22, 2010 at 9:00am
There are lots of reasons to get married of course, mostly emotional or even spiritual. I have some vague memories of law school when it used to be a reason to get married to get a significant tax allowance.
But romance has hit the heights again in the Inland Revenue and marriage can save significant amounts of inheritance tax. How romantic is that?! It applies to civil partnerships and married couples. It is worth considering especially if you are of a certain age.
The Direct Gov website....
Friday May 21, 2010 at 5:14pm
Those researchers have been at it again. Finally they claim to have discovered the secret to a happy marriage. And is it down to the man – being miserable. How this works in civil partnerships, I don’t know but for your average married couple, they are less likely to divorce if the man of the house doesn’t enjoy himself too much. You can add in your own jokes here about lives being made a misery and grumpy old men, but the study looked at tens of thousands of couples in Britain....
Friday March 19, 2010 at 3:32pm
There is a temptation for us lawyers to judge other lawyers based mainly upon their technical legal ability. “She’s a good lawyer” (or not) is often heard. What do we know? Yes, us lawyers can judge if another lawyer has excellent legal knowledge as we are qualified to know. But what is the real test of a good lawyer? What effects do we have when dealing with a divorce or other family law issue? Should it not be our clients who have the say in whether we are a good lawyer or no....
Wednesday February 3, 2010 at 1:12pm
I read in the legal press recently that
Family solicitors have reported a rise in the number of prenuptial agreements being drawn up using the collaborative law process. Prenuptial agreements have already risen in popularity since the Radmacher Court of Appeal case concluded last year that properly drafted prenuptial agreements should be upheld in family disputes unless there was a good reason not to do so. Until recent years the general consensus had been that prenuptial agreements were only fo....
Friday January 22, 2010 at 9:50am
The Telegraph reports that there may well soon be a £100million
divorce settlement. I don't know if the wife involved is sad or relieved about the actual breakup but, ignoring emotions for a moment, many ordinary people might think "not bad for 6 years of marriage".
There are, though, some interesting issues in the case. They signed a prenuptial agreement before marriage which would have restricted the settlement. She does not propose to keep to it. It will be interesting to see....
Tuesday December 15, 2009 at 2:36am
David Cameron has long made it clear that the party's policies should support marriage by tax advantages; perhaps like those that existed for many years?
I understand that this is backed by surveys suggesting children do better when raised within a marriage and a Conservative belief in the institution. I tend to agree that marriage should be supported in many ways, certainly in trying to avoid divorce.
Could the money be better used in providing counselling to couples in trouble? I think so.
....
Thursday August 20, 2009 at 6:37am
Michael Winner, a friend of John Cleese, is reported to have said that if anybody marries Cleese's recent ex-wife they had "better have a prenuptial agreement".
(Actually, with her divorce settlement it is she who needs a really good prenuptial agreement!)
I expect this is based on the reports that she has obtained a massive
financial settlement from him which obliges him to pay millions up front to her plus keep working sufficiently to pay her £600,000 per year until he is 72.....
Wednesday August 19, 2009 at 9:03am
Many of our clients, who come to us to get a divorce, often question what the attraction was for them towards their spouse in the first place.
But I read (in the Telegraph no less!) that Amy Wolfe of Pennsylvania intends to marry a fairground ride manufactured by the Weber company. She will change her name to Weber after the ceremony. Apparently she was "instantly attracted to him sexually and mentally". She sleeps with "his" spare nuts and bolts to help her feel closer.
I ....
Monday July 13, 2009 at 4:33pm
The BBC web news site shows that the Tories seem to be trying to (well, if they get elected that is!) do something at last about the rate of divorce in the UK. It reports that they will require couples to have a 3 month "cooling off period" before they get a divorce, so that they can reflect and also consider reconciliation. They will also, apparently, "strongly encourage" couples to attend a marriage class before marrying.
Do I, as a divorce solicitor,....
Friday July 3, 2009 at 3:29pm
What has a prenuptial agreement got to do with Paul McCartney?
Well, I bet he wished he had one when he got into his major divorce settlement case with Heather Mills. She didn't end up doing all that well but he had a very unpleasant time of things. In the last few days a case, discussed here says we are at the point when the Courts will always follow a prenup unless there is a good reason not to do so.
The Press has been looking at this in different ways.
....
Friday July 3, 2009 at 2:32pm
Senior judges rewrote the divorce laws yesterday to give resounding backing to prenuptial agreements. The Court of Appeal ruled that the assets of Katrin Radmacher – a paper industry heiress said to be worth £100 million – should be protected from her French ex-husband because of the prenuptial contract they signed before they married. The judgement should hearten people who have tried to safeguard their assets with written agreements. Previously Judges had regarded prenuptial ....