Family, Children & Divorce

At present the divorce process in England and Wales is lengthy, costly and unnecessarily bureaucratic. This article focuses in particular on the need for a no fault divorce. There is currently only one ground for divorce – that the marriage has broken down ‘irretrievably’. This can only be demonstrated by proving one of the facts

A wife has lost her appeal against a divorce settlement in which she received a smaller share of the matrimonial assets than her husband. The case involved a couple who had been married for 14 years and had a 10-year-old daughter. Shortly after the birth, the wife developed mental health problems and was diagnosed with

The family law group Resolution has urged the government to increase legal protection for cohabiting couples. New figures released by the Office for National Statistics reveal that unmarried couples living together are now the fastest growing family grouping in the UK. There are 3.1 million opposite sex cohabiting couple families. It means they now make

A husband has won his appeal against a divorce settlement that would have not have been possible to put into practice. The case involved a couple who were both 58 and were divorcing after 13 years of marriage. The wife worked in a primary school and the husband owned a small company. At the hearing

In October 2015, the cases of Sharland v Sharland and Gohil v Gohil were heard by the Supreme Court. In both cases, the Applicant wives’ were seeking the Courts permission to reopen financial proceedings between them, and their ex-husband’s, even though the proceedings had been concluded some years earlier. Their reasons for doing this were

A husband who behaved in a “blatantly dishonest” way while giving evidence in court has failed to reduce his wife’s divorce settlement. The court heard that the couple had married in February 2006 and separated in December 2011. They had three children aged between four and nine. During their marriage they had enjoyed a wealthy

There has been a steep rise in the number of grandparents taking legal action to secure a role in the lives of their grandchildren. Some try to acquire parental responsibility in cases where the parents are unable to cope or unwilling to take responsibility for their children. Other grandparents simply want to have contact with

A father has been told he must stop recording videos of his daughter being handed over to her mother because it was abusive and did not provide any useful evidence in family court proceedings. A non-molestation order was made against him. The case involved a couple who had separated when their daughter, now aged six,

The number of unmarried couples in the UK has more than doubled in the last 20 years, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics. Many cohabitants believe that they have the same legal protection as married couples but, unfortunately for them, this is not the case. They have few automatic legal rights,