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Legal costs of divorce – an exceptional case

Mr and Mrs Young’s divorce in the High Court in London has been an expensive exercise.  The parties’ legal costs have amounted to £6.4 million so far.  That’s not the amount of the assets they are arguing over – it’s the amount they (mainly Mrs Young) have spent on litigating their divorce. Mrs Young was
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Mediation – Here we go again

The Today programme Monday 21 October 2013 and yet another discussion based on the premise that if you have a dispute about children and you don’t go to mediation you have to go to court. It’s the old chestnut: mediation good (civilised, responsible, cheap, keeps you out of the clutches of the greedy lawyers); going
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Financial Disclosure

I know, I know! I’ve said it over and over again – bring out the repetometer – but if you’re getting divorced you should always get full financial disclosure before negotiating a financial settlement. If you’ve got no money and I tell you I’ve got two £5 notes and I offer you one of them,
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Divorce Statistics

Divorce Statistics in England and Wales – 2011.  This is most the recent bulletin from the Office for National Statistics – it’s not hot off the press – it was published in December 2012 – but it makes for interesting browsing.

Financial consent orders – the role of the court

When a couple get divorced and agree on their financial arrangements, they usually submit a draft financial order to the court for the district judge to make by consent. The draft order has to be accompanied by a ‘statement of information for a consent order’ setting out a summary of the parties financial situations (capital,
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Court Fees

New court fees are being introduced on 1 July.  We never get much notice. At present you pay £340 to start divorce proceedings and £45 when you apply for decree absolute at the end of the process – a total of £385. The new fee is £410, all of which is payable at the outset.
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Legal costs orders

Since 1 April 2013 the court has been able to order a spouse to make a payment towards the other spouse’s legal costs when they are litigating the financial arrangements of their divorce.  This was possible before, as part of a temporary maintenance order, but now a ‘legal costs order’ is a type of order
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First fixture – Second fixture hearings

The court lists the final hearing of a divorce financial application for two dates. The earlier of the two dates is a ‘second fixture’.  The hearing only goes ahead if the ‘first fixture’ hearing listed for that day has dropped out of the list (perhaps because the case has settled, or the parties have agreed
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Cohabitation

The Government wants to amend the definition of marriage so that it no longer means the union of a man and a woman.  That may or may not be a good idea, but I can’t help thinking that a more urgent priority would have been to extend some sort of financial protection to cohabitants when
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Second marriages more likely to survive?

According to a report by the Marriage Foundation, second marriages are less likely than first marriages to end in divorce. See what you think of the evidence.

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