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The Divorce, Dissolution, and Separation Act 2020 brings the biggest shakeup to the UK’s divorce laws in over 50 years. After years of campaigning for the implementation of no fault divorce, the act officially received Royal Assent in June 2020. Since then couples seeking a divorce, and family law practitioners have waited patiently for news
Two people who had separated after being in a relationship could still qualify as a “couple” for the purpose of applying to adopt a child. That was the decision of the Family Court in a case involving a same-sex couple who had never married or become civil partners. The court had to decide whether to
The Land Registry has introduced a new online service to provide estimated completion dates on property sales. It will enable our solicitors to keep clients better informed on when their sale or purchase is likely to go through. Estimated Completion Date is the latest enhancement to the View My Applications portal operated by the Land
A divorcing wife has failed in her attempt to get her husband’s bankruptcy order annulled. She suspected that he had deliberately got himself into debt to avoid his financial obligations to her, but the court said there was no evidence to support such a claim. The issue arose after the wife had petitioned for divorce
The High Court has clarified how shares in a man’s estate should be distributed when charities specified in his will no longer existed. The will gave several legacies before leaving the residue of the deceased’s estate to ‘the British Racing Drivers Club Benevolent Fund’ and ‘the Cancer Research Fund’. However, there was no institution or
A father has failed in his attempt to be awarded full custody of his son in a case made complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The father was a US citizen; the boy’s mother was British. The couple began a relationship in 2014 when the mother was working in the US. Their son was born in
Two teenage brothers have been granted a share of their father’s estate even though they were estranged from him and had been excluded from his will. The two boys, referred to only as J and H in court, who were aged 16 and 15 respectively at the date of their father’s death in 2018. Their
The government is planning to give leaseholders more control over their homes by developing a new collective ownership system known as commonhold. The commonhold model is used widely around the world and provides a structure for homeowners to collectively own the building their flat is in, with a greater say on their building’s management, shared
A husband has failed in his attempt to use the impact of the Covid pandemic as a reason to have his divorce settlement set aside. The husband and his wife had reached a settlement on 12 March 2020, shortly before the UK ‘s first national lockdown. He was managing director of the family company, which
A carer who was called a ‘slut’ by colleagues after they saw photos of her modelling underwear has been awarded £3,000 compensation for harassment. Ms C L Wallace worked for the Acomb Court Care Home in Hexham in October 2019 until January 2020. She also did a little modelling and on one occasion posted photos