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“Just do the paperwork, can you?”

Yet another request from a prospective client last week to draw up a separation agreement.  She said she and her husband had agreed on everything and they just needed a solicitor to draft a separation agreement. I explained that I could not advise both of them – there was an intrinsic conflict of interest. It turned out
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Mediation – will the Ministry of Justice please get its facts right

Oh dear.  Nearly every mention of mediation in the media makes the same mistake, and now the Ministry of Justice is making it too. Announcing today an extra £10 million of Legal Aid to support mediation, the Ministry says: “In recent years a greater number of people have been successfully using mediation – where they
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Is it too easy to get divorced?

This is a subjective question, of course, and the only way you can answer it is to ask people what they think.  A poll conducted recently by ICM for law firm Pannone has some interesting results.  2,000 people, some of them divorced and some not, were asked questions about divorce.  Even among divorced people taking
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A formula for divorce finances?

We may be a step closer to divorce finances being decided by reference to a formula.  The formula would take into account factors such as the length of the marriage and the number of children.   Read about it in this article in today’s Evening Standard

People over 50 with no pension provision

28% of women over the age of 50 have no pension provision apart from the state retirement pension.  The equivalent figure for men over 50 is 15%.   79% of married women say they did not discuss pension provision with their husband before they married. These statistics and others can be found in the Eighth Annual Scottish Widows
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Wives through the ages in English Law

Try this summary of marriage and divorce in English law by Supreme Court Justice Lord Wilson.  A fascinating read if you’re interested in legal history.

If it rains a lot, more women get beaten up – really?

A Twitter feed caught my eye yesterday: “Bad weather now blamed for rise in domestic violence”. The source was a respectable one, Family Law News, an offshoot of the excellent Family Lore Focus website.  I wondered what the ultimate source of the news was – I guessed a research project by a university social sciences
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The myth of common law marriage – again!

In an article yesterday in the Daily Telegraph it is claimed that in the High Court a woman is making a “unique bid to secure a common law divorce payout”.  That description seems misguided in strictly legal terms, but the story that gives rise to the article is a classic example of how risky it is to
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Contested financial divorce hearings are rare

In 2011 (the latest year for which figures are available), 70% of all financial divorce orders were made by consent without either party having made a financial application asking the court to make the decision.   In 24% of cases one of the parties had made a financial application asking the court to make the decision but
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Clare’s Law pilot begins

In certain areas of the country it will be possible for a trial period to ask the police to supply information about a partner’s history of domestic violence.  Read about it here.

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