Monday February 22, 2010 at 5:47pm
Now I have never had any aspirations of being a star of the screen – small, large, silver, or otherwise. So when it was suggested that a nice, efficient and modern way (as befits a forward thinking firm) of communicating money-saving tips to clients and potential clients was via videos on our website, I was not too keen. However, I have come to realise that this is an effective way to get across a clear, concise message in today’s fast times. Have a look and let me know if you think ....
Wednesday February 17, 2010 at 1:30pm
We’ve already covered the falling divorce rates so I won’t plough over old ground completely but I was interested to read Resolution’s response to the news that marriage rates are at their lowest since records began in 1862. The provisional marriage rate for men in 2008 was 21.8 men marrying per 1,000 unmarried men aged 16 and over, compared with 22.4 in 2007 and 31.1 in 1998, according to the Office of National Statistics. The provisional marriage rate for women in 2008 ....
Friday February 12, 2010 at 9:38am
In a previous Blog I have suggested that the government might just as well do away with marriage and have done with it! This was based on the gradual removal of the benefits of marriage as they used to be such as tax incentives and the indications that people living together would be given the same legal rights.
But maybe politicians won't have to do anything at all? It seems that we are just less and less likely to marry anyway. Indeed recent reports show that we are less likely now to marry t....
Wednesday February 10, 2010 at 1:20pm
Sixty-three per cent of people are in favour of making video wills, according to research from a group of charities which wants to encourage more open discussion about what happens to a person’s assets after they have passed away. Wills are still a hush-hush subject. Many people still don’t put pen to paper and it causes endless problems, sometimes even causing family break-ups, so anything which can encourage people to sort out their legacy is something I would welcome. We encourage....
Friday January 29, 2010 at 2:59pm
The Independent has published some stats which cover the period of the recession. They include a continued reduction in the rate of divorces. That is not our experience here, but I do feel more and more general law firms are realising they should not be dealing with at least some of the more complex aspects of divorce.
Certainly we are experiencing very high enquiries about how to divorce, are in the process of taking on 2 more
divorce lawyers and still have legal jobs available!
But, the sta....
Thursday January 28, 2010 at 10:28am
The Forced Marriage Act was passed by this government. Did they mean it or not? The principal aim of the Act is to prevent forced marriages from taking place and stop attempts to force a party into marriage. If the marriage has already taken place there are additional powers to protect the victim and enable the party to move away from the relationship. There seems little point in making a law on the one hand and on the other taking away much of the main parts of support to those who might wish t....
Tuesday January 26, 2010 at 2:13pm
The website www.maritalaffair.co.uk is the subject of a campaign by church organisations and indeed by a growing Facebook group who are seeking to shut it down or stop it advertising, at least on billboards.
Regular readers of this Blog will know that I am a strong supporter of the insitution of marriage, although I do accept that relationships sometimes end. So, what do I make of this?
First, let's remember that an affair is a nice, maybe exciting, word for "sexual interc....
Tuesday January 26, 2010 at 10:13am
Emotionally, is it worse to divorce in other words split up after a marriage or split up after "just" living together? Brangelina (should this be "Brand Gelina"?) have 6 kids (3 adopted) between them and just cohabited, but will they be less affected simply because they were not married, I wonder. I notice a tendency for me and I think many other people to assume many celebrities will be OK just because they have the odd £100 million in the bank? Is that fair?
Andrew ....
Monday January 25, 2010 at 4:47pm
Readers of this Blog know my irreverent attitude to celebrity divorce! But I had to comment on the reports (said to be false by the way) that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were splitting up. My comment is really on two things; the references to a prenuptial agreement being drawn up for the split and also the complexities of sorting out their finances if they are splitting. A prenuptial agreement is used before a marriage. I stress "before" and "marriage"! They are not married.....
Monday January 18, 2010 at 6:09pm
Families are becoming a hot political topic, not before time, but I still find it difficult to raise too much enthusiasm. Like so many times, the most recent rhetoric from both the Tories and Labour paints great big banner headlines but reveals little of the detail. According to reports, Labour will this week pledge support for families and parents going through separation and relationship breakdown. Very noble, but what will they actually do and how will this help? David Cameron, for his part, ....
Wednesday January 13, 2010 at 7:48am
New research has shown that more than two-thirds of consumers don’t know what solicitors do. The YouGov survey also showed only 13% of respondents would buy legal services from a supermarket but, encouragingly for us, more than three-quarters of those who have used a solicitor were either satisfied or very satisfied with the service they received. The same research though showed less than half said they would be fairly confident of judging the quality of help they received. Intriguing find....
Friday December 18, 2009 at 7:58am
As UK divorce lawyers we see all ends of the spectrum when it comes to how couples divorce –whether they go through the process easily and in agreement; whether they experience emotional pain and distress or whether they put the gloves on with a determination to battle and fight every step of the way. From our years of experience of handling divorce cases it seems the couples who manage to stay friends after divorce are those who: • Don’t argue over the little things – the....
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 November 26, 2009 at 7:50pm
This week saw the domestic violence charity Refuge launch the “Four Ways to Speak Out Campaign” to encourage sufferers of domestic violence to speak out and escape the domestic violence situation they find themselves in. Anyone can support the campaign in association with Avon cosmetics by doing one of the following:- 1) Sign a petition requesting the Government end the postcode lottery as 1 in 3 local authorities do not provide any domestic violence services 2) Buy an Avon empowerme....
Monday November 23, 2009 at 7:37pm
Maybe the Law Commission should just abolish all rights obtained during a marriage and have done with it? Why stop there? Let's just abolish marriage.
My reaction is to the gradual but increasing reduction of the difference between rights due to marriage and rights due to living together. The inexorable move is towards there being no difference at all. It started with the removal of tax relief, I think.
If it is shown that those ruling society don't respect the institution of marria....
Monday November 23, 2009 at 7:10pm
Divorce and counselling is a subject best left to the experts.
But, is nothing sacred? The field of divorce has increasingly been used by all political parties to attempt to show how "family friendly" or "child friendly" or even "marriage friendly" they are. Now it seems the government is suggesting that it can better arrange counselling for couples in crisis than Relate who have been doing it for years!
The Times reports that the government will soon advise GPs t....
Thursday October 29, 2009 at 9:41pm
I spent a day at a training session for all of our divorce lawyers this week, designed by experts in their fields, to help us all better understand and support our clients. This was especially connected with the emotional issues of divorce and relationship breakdown.
Actually, quite a few of our specialist divorce lawyers have suffered a divorce themselves. We are not immune, you know!
The course led me to wonder if divorce law firms should employ counsellors to offer the more comple....
Friday October 23, 2009 at 10:29am
Myth: If my partner behaves badly or “messes around”, this will affect the outcome of our divorce.
Reality: Let's get the wording safely understood, first! A "divorce", in law, means just the ending of the marriage legally and does not include any issues of money, house, or
financial settlement. The bad behaviour might be part of the
grounds for divorce mentioned, by way of "unreasonable behaviour". But in terms of the finances, it is very unlikely that the beha....
Friday October 9, 2009 at 9:04am
Family law has suddenly, it seems, attracted the attention of all the political parties!
I will not bore you with their proposals for change (frankly, they don't add up to much except a lot of words) but these are some of mine:
require couples to have a course of information and counselling before marriage (e.g. "how to argue"!)
make prenuptial agreements clearly enforceable
make the automatic rule on divorce to be 50/50 unless there is a prenuptial saying otherwise
no f....
Thursday September 17, 2009 at 12:42pm
The Government is considering forcing divorcing couples to go to mediation before being able to start divorce proceedings. Looking at that quickly, you'd think that was a very sensible suggestion. All of us would think a mediated settlement was better than one obtained from a Court. (By "better" I do not mean a higher figure but one less destructive to relationships and often much cheaper) The Times reprots that Baroness Deech, is opposed." You can't mediate with a person or coupl....
Wednesday September 16, 2009 at 10:03am
Massive divorce
financial settlements are humiliating to women, according to Baroness Deech reported in The Times! Well, are they really? If so I know a lot of women who have got over the humiliation very well. I am sure it is not the financial settlement that is humiliating, if anything it is the social engineering that even these days leaves the average woman much less better off than the average man. I am with her when she asks for the financial settlement upon divorce laws to be changed and ....
Friday September 11, 2009 at 5:23pm
There are so very many myths surrounding divorce, separation and also living together. You know the sort of thing:
"I'm not entitled to anything from his business" (true or false--click the link to find out!)
"I don't need to get married as I have the same rights as a common law wife"
"I can divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences"
There can be some humour here in some beliefs but actually these myths can cause people a lot of unneces....
Wednesday September 9, 2009 at 2:28pm
Stop sleeping together seems to be the advice from Dr Stanley who set up one of the first sleep study laboratories and is based at the University of Surrey!
He told the British Science Festival that sleeping together seemd to worsen a night of sleep and that if one partner awakes there is a 50% chance the other will, too. Sleep, he says, is a crucial part of staying healthy and often ignored.
Well, he knows about this much better than I do! But we do often have clients seeking a divorce on the....
Saturday September 5, 2009 at 7:27am
A new study just out shows that women are about 3 times more likely than men to be arrested for domestic violence. See this in the context that men are much more likely to be physically abusive, although women are more likely to use a weapon.
Perhaps of more concern is that children were present in 55% of cases involving some form of violence or similar abuse. The effect upon them probably cannot be measured and issues of child contact and residence loom large.
Our divorce lawyers are of....
Monday August 24, 2009 at 8:58am
It is a long held view, certainly by men in general I think, that women are not as good as men at business and therefore at law.
Why? I have no idea. Maybe obviously I wouldn't know as most of our lawyers are women. This is a list of our divorce lawyers at present and you will see what I mean. (I have to say that one more male
divorce lawyer is joining us very soon, but then so is one more female divorce lawyer!)
Many firms of solicitors employ a lot of female
divorce solicitors but very....
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 August 3, 2009 at 10:50pm
I am re-reading Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. It has a lot of sense in it but one thing I'd missed before caught my eye. He says that he views "love" as a verb. Do it, just do it. Then the feeling will follow. He thinks this is especially useful in a relationship where one party says "I have just fallen out of love".
Do feelings follow the actions?
Andrew WoolleyDivorce Solicitor
....
Friday July 31, 2009 at 6:54am
You are in the middle of a difficult financial divorce settlement. Your spouse is being either very slow or very unreasonable and it seems that he/she may well be hiding some financial info. When in the former home you do one of these things: ...have "just a quick look" at their emails on their PC ...grab a letter from their lawyers addressed to them Or maybe you just receive a bank or accountant letter at your address meant for them. It sheds light on the situation. It is hard to fail....
Tuesday July 21, 2009 at 12:47pm
As discussed in The Economist, until the economy became the big subject we heard a lot from politicians about “Broken Britain”, the reduction in marriage and the increase in divorce. Indeed recently, a Conservative think-tank has been suggesting counselling pre-marriage, a 3 month “cooling off” period before a divorce can be started and tax assistance if you get married (some of us are old enough to recall when this was normal!) So, what are the facts? Marriage is certain....
Friday July 17, 2009 at 7:38am
I read on a Web Forum that "Divorce lawyers in England feed on a diet of champagne and lobsters and can even afford mistresses". Admittedly, it was the Sun Online forum!I feel I need to rapidly confirm that I do not "enjoy" any of those things!
But I think I get the point. How can we keep the divorce costs as low as sensibly possible? These are some top tips:
Cost of divorce
Understanding the cost of divorce
Tips for controlling the costs of your divorce
It pay....
Sunday July 12, 2009 at 8:54am
Due perhaps to the recession and downturn in the housing and jobs markets, many couples who split up now have to continue living "together", that is apart but in the same house. It doesn't take a divorce lawyer to explain how difficult that can be.
Many of our lawyers are members of Resolution, a grouping of lawyers which promotes minimising conflict in family disputes and encouraging solutions that meet the needs of the whole family. This is a link to their Factsheet on avoiding....
Saturday July 11, 2009 at 8:39am
Divorce causes many unpleasant effects, to say the least. Ask anybody how easy it is to adjust emotionally after a divorce and financially after a divorce settlement.But a study reported in the British Medical Journal suggests that divorce (and still being alone some years later in later life) can increase the risk of Alzheimers quite significantly. So, watch out as you get older!
Now, I am sure there was something else I was going to say........
But another study strongly suggests that ....
Friday July 10, 2009 at 8:26am
There is no such thing as no fault divorce in this country. To get a divorce you have to set out at least 1 of 5 grounds of divorce and then in some of them go into a little detail about, for example, the behaviour of the other person.But, is there no fault divorce by the backdoor? By the way I don't think anybody really thinks there isn't any "fault" when there is a divorce just that the phrase suggests there should be no need to rake it all up.
Time for the system to be honest. I th....
Wednesday July 8, 2009 at 7:07am
When you attend a wedding, can you help yourself from wondering if this couple will make it? Maybe it is my sad legacy from being a
divorce solicitor for over 25 years! But do you, too, smile when all the time you are thinking "No chance with her / him". Well I will try to redress the balance with what follows. There are, Time Magazine reports, various things that can improve your chances. A snapshot: Age No real surprise but over 25 is best. Note no difference really betwee....
Tuesday July 7, 2009 at 8:14am
Conveyancers, many of them solicitors, are just not doing their jobs well enough it seems to me. I have lost count of the amount of times clients tell me that when they bought their house there was no discussion at all about how to own it and in what shares.If married, it dosn't matter much normally because the Courts usually ignore whose name the house is in especially after a few years marriage, when sorting out a divorce settlement.
But for unmarried couples it can be very serious indeed. Ta....
Monday July 6, 2009 at 7:54am
Personally, I'd only want to predict if I would divorce, if the answer were to be "no"! But from my 25 years as a divorce lawyer I do know that many people would indeed like to predict this, especially those going into a second or third (or more) marriage.
Well, there is a high rate of divorce anyway. There is argument about how to calculate it but let's say it is about 40%. Not a good start! Experts then say these are some of the major risk factors:
Neuroticism (Kelly & Conley, ....
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 ....
Friday March 13, 2009 at 8:35am
Unusually - I should point out - I am going to be accused of being unfashionable and not being my normal, liberal, self! But the Private Members Bill in the House of Lords to give cohabiting couples (people who are living together, not married) similar rights to those who are married seems to me to be yet another attack on British marriage, an institution already with an appalling record especially when seen against most of the rest of the world.It started when married couples tax allowance was ....