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
The Chancellor, George Osborne, announced in the autumn statement that buy-to-let investors and second home buyers will pay an additional 3% of the purchase price of properties in respect of Stamp Duty Land Tax from 1st April 2016. This means on a £250,000 property they will pay £10,000 of SDLT, rather than £2,500. The tax
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
A woman has been appointed as her mother’s deputy in a power of attorney arrangement despite living more than 3,000 miles away in the United States. The judge held that the arrangement could work perfectly well because of the advances in modern technology including online banking. The case involved a woman who had been admitted
Relatives of a wealthy physicist have failed in their bid to inherit hundreds of thousands pounds from his estate. The physicist had several bank accounts, including one on the Isle of Man containing £250,000, and one in Jersey containing £500,000. He made a will leaving some assets to his family but then specifying that the
A householder has lost ownership of a strip of land outside his home after a neighbour started using it and then claimed it as hers under the principle of adverse possession. The case involved a grass verge that was close to the neighbour’s property. The neighbour started using in 1999 and maintained it as if
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
With an ageing population and more people living in less traditional family set ups it is becoming increasingly common for people to challenge wills and make claims on the estates of their deceased relatives. Challenging a will and making a claim on an estate are two quite different legal matters. The former is made on
A sub-contractor has won its appeal that workers who were temporarily laid off while employed on a building project should still qualify to be transferred to a new firm under TUPE regulations. The sub-contractor had been engaged by a construction company to work on a large contract. It assigned a number of workers to carry
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