I was asked recently to comment on a financial divorce settlement that a client had agreed with her husband. I advised her that it was just possible that the deal was acceptable from her point of view but that I doubted it. My main point was that I could not properly advise my client because there had
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Posted 2 July 2012 under News
Talk about serendipity. On Friday evening I was watching ‘Later with Jools Holland’ on TV – a programme I hadn’t watched for years – when on came the Carolina Chocolate Drops with ‘I’m no man’s momma now’. I’d wondered if anybody had ever written a really good song expressing their feelings after a divorce,
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Posted 30 April 2012 under News
My thanks to Marilyn Stowe for an interesting article on what happens on divorce when it’s the wife who’s the breadwinner.
Posted 23 April 2012 under News
From 1 August 2012 child contact orders will be automatically enforceable internationally as though the order had been made as a domestic order in the court which is asked to enforce. For further details, follow this link (the relevant bit is at section 2.2 ‘The 1996 Hague Convention’).
Posted 16 April 2012 under News
The Court of Appeal heard an unusual appeal last month. A wife asked the court to overturn the decree nisi granted in the local county court to her husband based on allegations of unreasonable behaviour on her part. The wife’s legal argument was that 1) her husband had to satisfy the court that her behaviour was such
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Posted 2 April 2012 under News
It seems that the Legal Ombudsman prefers ‘customer’ to ‘client’. In an article in the Guardian last week he argues that ‘client’ is redolent of the patron/client relationship in Ancient Rome. I think he is wrong. First, the setup in Rome in the first century BC is unlikely to be at the forefront of most people’s thinking
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Posted 12 March 2012 under News
The Home Secretary is believed to be about to announce which four areas have been chosen to trial ‘Clare’s Law’, under which a woman will be able to ask the police if a new boyfriend or partner has a record of violence against women.
Posted 5 March 2012 under News
District Judge Paul Mildred in an article in Solicitors’ Journal reports the following from a recent ‘acknowledgment of service’ form: Question: Do you consent to a decree? Answer: Hell yes.
Posted 20 February 2012 under News
A client and his wife reconciled over Christmas and we’ve just got the decree nisi rescinded. I hope I never become so hard-bitten that I don’t rejoice when this happens…..
Posted 12 February 2012 under News
According to an item in the Daily Telegraph at the weekend, the Government is thinking of requiring a child’s father to sign the birth certificate. Apparently there are 50,000 babies born each year whose father is not named on the certificate. No details yet, for example what rights or responsibilities may or may not go
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Posted 19 December 2011 under News