From 30th November 2020 to 4th December marks Good Divorce Week. This is an annual campaign initiative by Resolution, a national organisation of family justice professionals who aim to work with families and individuals to resolve issues in a constructive way. Resolution has over 6,500 professional members including the Machins Family Law Team. The initiative’s
A husband has successfully challenged a divorce settlement arrived at through arbitration and has been allowed to have the issues reconsidered in court. The wife had applied for financial relief following the marriage breakdown. After an unsuccessful financial dispute resolution hearing, the case was listed for trial. However, no district judge was available, so the
A grandmother who failed to get permission to have her grandson live with her can now apply again because she’s moved to a bigger house. The case involved a two-year-old who was referred to in court as J. He had three siblings. The local authority became involved with the family before his birth due to
The Court of Appeal has ruled that a child should be returned to her father in France rather than remain with her mother in England. It said that even though she had only lived in the country for a few weeks, it had become her habitual place of residence. The case involved a family that
The Court of Appeal has ruled that a decision to remove three children from the care of their grandparents was mistaken and could cause them emotional harm. The children, aged six, four and three, had lived with their grandparents and maternal aunt since January 2019 after a somewhat chaotic lifestyle in their parents’ care. In
A mother has won her appeal against a court order that she should return her two children to Germany to live with their father. The decision means the children can continue to live with her in England. The children and parents had all lived in Germany since the children were born. The parents separated in
A “vindictive” husband who caused an “”unnecessary haemorrhage of money”” by pursuing unnecessary legal action has had his divorce settlement slashed by the courts. The case involved a couple who had married in 2005 and separated in highly acrimonious circumstances in 2016. They had two children, aged 13 and 19. During their relationship they had
A pharmacy worker has been awarded £15,000 after a tribunal found she had been subjected to age discrimination. Sue Walsh began working for St Chad’s chemist in Oldham in April 2017 when she was 60 years old. Immediately her lack of hearing and memory loss came to the notice of her co-workers who were aged
The Court of Appeal has ruled that the principles allowing parents to have contact with their children who are in care continued to apply during Covid-19, even though it could create practical difficulties for local authorities. The issue arose after a mother appealed against a decision that face-to-face contact with her three young children should
A court has imposed a penalty of more than £800,000 on a husband who behaved unreasonably during divorce proceedings. The judge said the move should act as a warning to all couples that the law would not tolerate dishonest tactics. The case involved a couple in their fifties. They had been married for 25 years