Local authorities are not always as thorough as they should be when obtaining and evaluating information on which their decisions on child welfare are based, as a recent case shows. It involved a couple who went to court after their…
A recent attempt by the wife of a British expatriate, who had lived for many years in Spain, to persuade the English court to accept jurisdiction over their divorce was frustrated by the Court of Appeal, which decided that the…
A recent case dealt with the issues surrounding the respective rights of a parent and child in unusual circumstances. The natural father of the child wished to join in the proceedings to oppose his son being adopted. The unusual feature…
When a divorced wealthy couple sought to wage ‘litigation war’ against one another, running up legal bills of more than £2.7 million in the process, the family judge was unsympathetic. Accusing the pair of trying to engage in ‘forensic points-scoring’…
A businesswoman whose business fell victim to the recession has persuaded the family court that it would be appropriate for the settlement she had agreed to pay her ex-husband to be varied. The total settlement was £450,000, made up of:…
In a ruling which emphasises the importance of fathers in the lives of young children, the Court of Appeal has upheld a man’s right to have contact with his eight-year-old son. Despite concerns expressed by the boy’s mother that the…
Changes in the system for dealing with child maintenance claims will soon be fully implemented, with cases currently dealt with by the Child Support Agency being transferred to the Child Maintenance Service. As part of this arrangement, a new formula…
One of the most difficult aspects of divorce is often the negotiation of the financial settlement: this can be particularly thorny when there are substantial sums involved. Often, assets are held indirectly, in companies or trusts, which can add to…
A Jewish couple who married in a Jewish ceremony in 2006 and subsequently separated have obtained the approval of the family court to have the marriage dissolved under an agreement mediated by a Rabbi. After examining the procedures which would…
When a divorcee applied to have the financial settlement from her ex-husband amended, she could have little anticipated the problems that would ensue. The woman had divorced her husband in 2005 and the original financial settlement was the subject of…