Under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, a husband or wife can seek a divorce from their spouse if they can show that there has been an “irretrievable breakdown” of their marriage. This “irretrievable breakdown” has to be proven on one of five facts, either: 1. Adultery;2. Unreasonable behaviour;3. Desertion;4. Separation of two years with consent;
A hospital consultant who refused to pay any maintenance or child support has been ordered to hand over his entire fortune to his ex-wife. The case involved consultant anaesthetist Essam Aly and his ex-wife Enas. The couple married in 2002 and had a son and a daughter. They divorced in 2011. Mr Aly then moved
A mother has been told that she can only have indirect contact with her children and cannot apply to change that decision for another four years. The Court of Appeal said the children had been subjected to too much conflict between their parents and needed to be protected from further, unnecessary stress. The case involved
A beauty queen has been awarded a £3.3m settlement in a divorce case described as “bruising and unedifying” by a leading judge in the High Court. The case involved Russian beauty queen Ekaterina Parfenova and her former husband Richard Fields, an American lawyer. The couple met in 2001 and have two children. They have lived
It is not uncommon for fathers seeking contact with their children to fear that the family court system is biased against them. According to a new study, however, there is no evidence of any bias. The research, by the universities of Warwick and Reading, found that on the contrary, contact applications by fathers were “overwhelmingly
A wife has had her divorce settlement increased because her husband inherited money after the original sum was agreed. The couple had been married for nine years and had two children. Their main asset was their home, which was worth £190,000. They were both on low incomes and received tax credits. Following the separation, the
An “aggressive” father has been granted sole parental responsibility for his son, even though the court had concerns about his parenting skills and his hostile attitude towards social workers. The court heard that the 12-year-old son had been cared for by his father until 2012 when he was left alone at home and a fire
What is a civil partnership? In 2004, the Civil Partnership Act came into force allowing same-sex couples to obtain the same rights and responsibilities as married couples, both during their relationship and upon any subsequent separation. Many of these rights and responsibilities relate to property ownership, taxation exemptions and children issues as prior to this time,
The need for cohabiting partners to draw up agreements stating how their property and assets should be shared in the event of a break-up was highlighted in a recent case before the Court of Appeal. It involved a couple who had been in a relationship for many years and had lived together since 2002. When
Cohabitants are couples who live together as if man and wife but outside the confines of a marriage, for example, as boyfriend and girlfriend. In England and Wales, many couples are choosing to live this way and it is a relationship arrangement that is continuing to increase in popularity. Contrary to popular opinion, cohabitants are