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Statistics reported on Saturday in the Daily Telegraph show that the number of divorces granted in England & Wales last year was 11% lower than the previous year. The one age group to buck the trend was the over 60s, where there was a 4%increase in the number of divorces – ‘silver separations’ the Telegraph calls
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The Supreme Court’s judgement in the case of Kernott v Jones was published last week and clarifies the law on the question of who is entitled to how much of the value of the jointly-owned home in cases where the couple aren’t married. But the Government should modernise the law on cohabitants’ rights. It had the opportunity to do
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Until now not a single divorce case involving a lottery win has come before the High Court. This is surprising considering that the National Lottery started as long ago as 1994. The judge awarded the husband £82,000 out of the wife’s £500,000 win. The husband would have received nothing if he had not needed it for his
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Which public body administers the child support system? The Child Support Agency (CSA), surely? Yes and no. The CSA’s functions have been managed for some time now by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC), although the CSA system is still basically the same as previously. The Government has now invited comment on a new
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A father who had failed to pay maintenance for his daughter for 16 years recently had £108,000 taken from his bank account under a procedure available to the Child Support Agency once the court has been satisfied that the money is due. The father’s name has not been released. His reaction to the procedure can
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There were 30,400 decrees absolute granted for the dissolution of marriage in the fourth quarter of 2010, an increase of one per cent compared to the fourth quarter of 2009. This increase is the first for several years but obviously it is too soon to say that the year-on-year downward trend has gone into reverse.
…the debate continues! The Government’s decision not to give any financial rights to the weaker party when a cohabiting couple separate (see ‘No change in cohabiting law‘ post) has obviously caused concern in some quarters. I see that the matter was debated on Woman’s Hour on Radio 4 on Friday 23 September. I hope that
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At present there is very little financial protection for the weaker party when a couple separate after living together without marrying. There is some help available under the Children Act if there are children, and in certain situations the ordinary law of property can be used, but such cases are rare. Take for example two
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A House of Commons committee has recommended that child maintenance payments be collected by deducting them at source from wages or salary, or by direct payment from a bank account. The reason? At present every £1 of child maintenance collected costs 50 pence to collect.
In 2001 a wife returned to her home in Shanghai after a month-long visit to her family in another part of China. She noticed that the family’s pet mynah bird was more talkative than usual every time the phone rang. Then she noticed that the bird kept saying “I love you”, “divorce” and “be patient”.
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