Although pre-nuptial agreements are persuasive rather than binding in the British courts, a recent ruling of the High Court on a French ‘pre-nup’ illustrates clearly the current approach of the courts. It involved a very wealthy French couple...
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...
When a marriage or civil partnership breaks up and there is a significant risk that one party may move assets (normally cash in bank accounts) ‘out of sight’, it is sometimes possible to obtain a ‘freezing order’ to prevent the sums...
The cardinal rule in proceedings involving children is that the welfare of the child comes first. In some cases, the interests of individual children in a family are sufficiently different for them to be considered separately. In a case involving a...
A husband has lost his appeal against an order made in July 2010 for ancillary relief (the legal term for financial provision for an ex-spouse) that put family assets of £10 million, including £7 million held in two trusts, into the pool of...
A father who sought to have a hearing regarding his contact with his children adjourned so that new evidence could be obtained found his argument rejected by the Court of Appeal recently. The family court had issued an interim order that the father, who had...
A woman who paid more than 90 per cent of the cost of a £3 million property purchased for her daughter, in whose name the title is held, has failed in her attempt to have the ownership of the property changed to reflect her contribution. It would seem...
A recent divorce case has confirmed the general position that when wealth is inherited, it is not normally subject to the ‘equal shares’ rule that applies to assets built up during a marriage. The case involved a couple who married in the UK...
A recent case shows how unwilling the court will be to change an adoption order once it has been made. The case concerned a child who was removed from his mother’s care because she was unable to look after him due to drug dependency. This was...
A divorced man has won the right to retain £1 million of his pre-marital assets before a 50/50 division of the remainder of the couple’s joint assets is made. The assets were valued at around £9.5 million, after provision had been made...
The Court of Appeal has overturned the decision of a lower court to allow a father, against whom allegations of violence towards the mother of his child had been made, to vary the terms of contact arrangements made earlier so that he could continue to see...
When a person goes bust, what is the position regarding a debt they owe to the Child Support Agency (CSA) with regard to arrears of maintenance payments? This question arose recently when a man applied for a creditors’ voluntary arrangement (CVA). At...
The English courts are well known worldwide as being amongst the most ‘generous’ to divorcing spouses in terms of financial settlements: they start with the premise that assets built up during the marriage should be split equally unless there is...
When settlements in divorce cases are being determined, the contributions made to the marriage by each party will often be relevant. However, a recent decision of the Court of Appeal illustrates that the future earning capacity of the husband or wife at...
The Court of Protection has ruled that Hillingdon Council acted unlawfully in detaining a 21-year-old autistic man, Steven Neary, for almost a year against his wishes. Steven’s father, Mark Neary, wanted to care for his son at home and waged a long...
In deciding immigration cases, the rights of any children who are British citizens and who would be affected by the decision must be taken into consideration. This was the Supreme Court's ruling in the case of a Tanzanian woman who had made three failed...
When a couple who are retired or approaching retirement get divorced, one of the major issues to be settled is the division of pension entitlements. In this situation, the first step is to obtain a valuation of the pension rights. Where large sums are...
It is sometimes tempting to try to have an agreement reconsidered and the UK sees more than its fair share of family law cases with an international element, where one party to an agreement made abroad seeks to revisit the issues because of the comparatively...
The Court of Appeal has recently handed down a judgment in a ‘big money’ divorce case which shows the approach the courts are likely to take towards financial settlements on divorce when one of the spouses has substantial inherited assets. The...
Judges are not perfect and when a judge recently considered a child placement order, there were inadequacies in the judgment. The judge had not stated correctly the test for the criteria to be considered when making a placement order. On the basis of the...
Financial problems are one of the most common factors in family relationship breakdown, so divorce cases are not uncommonly carried on against a background of insolvency. A recent case shows the sort of problems that can arise. It involved a couple who...
The Court of Appeal has ordered a divorced husband to pay an additional £481,000 in ancillary relief to his former wife, five years after the original divorce was settled, because he hid information about a profitable share deal. In April 2005, the...
When an agreement is made on separation or divorce for school fees to be paid by a parent, should the payment of the fees be taken into account by the Child Support Agency (CSA) when calculating that person’s child support liability? It might seem...
When the relationship of a same-sex couple who have children breaks up, there can be a problem regarding the meaning of the word ‘parent’, because at least one of the couple will not be the biological parent of the children. In a recent case, a...
Two recent decisions in child contact cases illustrate that the courts recognise the importance, where possible, of children having a relationship with both of their parents. The Children and Adoption Act 2006 , which came into force in December 2008,...
When a marriage breaks up, the matrimonial home is often the subject of considerable dispute and it is common for an order to be made for it to be sold and the proceeds divided between the divorcing couple. Recently, a case was heard in which a wife...
A wealthy man has had an order served on him by the court which prevents him from selling his house until he settles child maintenance arrears of more than £78,000. The man had failed to pay any maintenance for more than 12 years, It was thought that...
In a recent case , a pre-nuptial agreement made between a woman and her former husband was held to be binding by the Supreme Court. The couple had agreed, before they married in 1998, that should the marriage fail neither would benefit financially. Katrin...
A husband who proposed a ‘clean break’ divorce settlement (where there is a one-off lump-sum payment and no subsequent maintenance payments are due) had his request rejected by the court recently . The divorcing couple had two children, both in...
A man’s attempt to obtain a half-share of his ex-partner’s property after they split up failed recently when he could not persuade the Court of Appeal that his decision to have his name removed from the deeds, taken more than 20 years earlier,...
For an application to be made for ancillary relief (a financial settlement on divorce), there has to have been a valid marriage in the first place. On that simple point a woman’s application to file for divorce and claim ancillary relief was recently...
When a couple divorce and financial arrangements have to be sorted out, there are occasions when the court may decide that assets not owned by the divorcing couple should be taken into account. In a recent case , a couple with three children divorced after...
Divorce is seldom and easy business, but the problems are compounded when there is a family business involved. The division of the spoils has traditionally been the subject of a great deal of argument, but recent cases have at least clarified the thinking of...
A property tycoon whose fortunes have plummeted since he and his wife divorced has been granted permission by the court to have the amount of the lump sum ordered to be paid to his ex-wife reconsidered. John Livock, 60, at one point had a fortune of...
In a recent case , the executors of a woman's estate have been ruled to be liable for Inheritance Tax (IHT) on the value of her pension fund, after she failed to take her pension when she was terminally ill. The woman was diagnosed with cancer five months...
The principle that British persons divorced abroad can look to the courts in England and Wales to ensure that their ‘reasonable needs’ are met in the divorce settlement has been firmly established following a recent case involving a divorced...
It is often thought that, when couples live together, they have similar rights to those who are married or in a civil partnership. However, this is far from the truth, as a barrister found out recently when she lost her case in the High Court . The...
A will made two months before the death of an elderly woman has been set aside by the High Court after it heard evidence that by 2006, when the new will was made, she was ‘seriously losing her grip’. The new will left the woman’s entire...
When a wife agrees to allow the family home to be used as security for her husband’s debts, the legal situation is normally clear and the creditor can rely on her consent in order to take possession. However, a recent case , in which a wife...
The argument put forward by a farmer that he should retain the family farm after his divorce, because it had been in his family for generations and his wife was aware that it was the family tradition for it to be handed down from generation to generation,...
The penalties for failure to pay child maintenance, which can be severe, are not affected by the statute of limitations that normally applies to debts. A father who had failed to pay maintenance for several years recently found himself subject to a...
Divorce is rarely a simple process: the financial negotiations can be time-consuming and difficult, particularly if business interests form a substantial part of a couple's wealth. There are certain problems which are particularly relevant to...
A recent case illustrates that cohabiting with someone else after a divorce may affect any maintenance payments received. In the case, a man who had been ordered to pay his wife £125,000 a year in maintenance succeeded in persuading the...
A ‘super-rich’ husband will be regretting that he shared a computer system with his wife’s brothers after she was able to access the system and extract data from it. The husband challenged her right to the data but the court agreed that she...
Millions of Britons could see their credit ratings compromised without knowing it, simply because of the actions of an ex-spouse, says online credit report service Credit Expert. According to the recent report, more than half of those surveyed did not know...
It can sometimes be difficult not to pre-judge events, but it is important not to do so in court. In a recent case, the court overturned a judge’s dismissal of an application for contact from a father. The father had appealed against the judge’s...
It is a cardinal rule in court proceedings in the UK that both parties to a disagreement must have a fair chance to state their side of the argument. This is particularly important in family cases, which are often complex and invariably emotionally charged. ...
Family break-up is always complicated and when there is a property involved, things can get very complex indeed. In principle, when a couple are cohabiting (not married or in a civil partnership) the property belongs as of right to whoever is shown on the...
The Supreme Court has recently ruled to give the grandmother of a child custody over him despite the opposition of the boy’s father, who applied to have custody himself. In the view of the Court, acting in the child’s best interests means that...
When dividing family assets on separation or divorce, judges sometimes make some surprising decisions. Where these are erroneous or unfair, they can be overturned. In a recent case, a judge ruled that in order to achieve a ‘clean break’ between...
Since the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 came into force on 25 November 2008, a Forced Marriage Protection Order (FMPO) has been issued in 86 cases. This compares with a predicted total for the first year of 50. FMPOs were introduced to help...
