Statistics show that 33 per cent of the 244,710 marriages that took place in 1995 had ended in divorce 15 years later. This compares with 22 per cent of marriages that took place in 1970. The workload of the Family…

How do you prove that you are married when a valid marriage certificate is not available? This question may not often arise, but it does sometimes happen that a marriage certificate cannot be produced, which can be particularly problematic when…

A court ruling that a spouse’s lottery winnings were not ‘matrimonial property’ so were not subject to the usual rule of equal division between the spouses when the marriage broke up received much publicity recently. The normal rule on divorce…

When a man decided to leave his partner and take their child (aged four) to his native Pakistan, he may not have known that he was committing a criminal offence, but he became well aware of the fact on his…

Bankruptcy and the Family Home Even after the changes made by the Enterprise Act 2002, bankruptcy is still a difficult experience for most bankrupts. This is especially true where the family home is the main asset of the bankrupt’s estate…

Animals and Divorce – New Ruling May Set Cat Among the Pigeons Financial settlements on divorce normally involve making financial provision for any children but, in a recent case, the ex-wife of a wealthy man successfully argued that her love…

Pre-Nups – Not Quite There Yet A recent case involving a Katrin Radmacher, a German heiress was widely reported in the national press as changing the way pre-nuptial agreements would be treated in the future. However, the ruling was not…

The Court of Appeal has reversed an earlier decision of the High Court that the ex-wife of a wealthy man could use documents downloaded from his computer without his permission to substantiate her claim for ancillary relief (the financial settlement…

In a speech to the annual volunteers’ conference of shared parenting charity Families Need Fathers, Sir Nicholas Wall, President of the Family Division, has criticised separating parents who wage legal war on their children, using them as ‘the battlefield and…