The family lawyers group, Resolution, is calling on the government to introduce a no-fault divorce system as soon as possible. It says the momentum gathering for change should not be delayed because ministers may be preoccupied by major issues like Brexit. The move follows the high-profile case involving Tina Owens and her husband Hugh. Mrs
A mother has been told by the High Court that she cannot take her two-year-old daughter to live with her in Canada. The case involved a couple who began their relationship in England in 2013. The father was British and the mother had dual British/Canadian nationality. They never married and it appeared that they had
The Court of Appeal has ruled that divorce settlements don’t have to try to enable each partner to maintain the same living standards they enjoyed during marriage. Mr Justice Moylan said he did not agree that “need should be met at a level similar or comparable to the standard of living during the marriage”. He
A husband has been ordered to pay his former wife £341 more each month because she had made bad financial decisions and lost the £232,000 lump sum she was awarded when the couple divorced in 2002. Graham and Maria Mills had married in 1988 and had one child. Mr Mills agreed to pay her £1,100
A mother has been told she can only have contact with her son six times a year instead of the 12 times that she wanted. The case centred on the care of an eight-year-old boy. His parents had separated after the mother alleged that she had suffered domestic abuse by the father and his family.
A husband has won his appeal against financial remedy orders involving payments to his former wife after the court proceedings were held to be unfair. The case involved a husband and wife who had been financially supported by the husband’s extended family. After their divorce they became estranged from the family. The husband moved to
A woman has established her legal right to have contact with her niece who lives abroad with her father. The court heard that the girl’s mother, who was English, had met the father while visiting Corfu. She moved there to live with him and they were married. The girl was born in 2007. The marriage
A judge was justified in committing a husband to prison for six weeks for breaching the child maintenance requirements set out in a divorce settlement. That was the decision of the Court of Appeal in the case of a couple who had divorced in 2013. The consent order provided for the couple’s properties in Monaco
A husband who failed to disclose all his assets when negotiating a divorce settlement has been ordered to pay his wife an extra £1.6m. The couple were both teachers when they married in 1984. The husband began a business in 1988. He owned 99 of the 100 shares and his wife had the other one.
There is often confusion between the rights and responsibilities afforded to married couples as opposed to unmarried couples, with many unmarried couples still believing in the myth of the “common law spouse” and the misapprehension that they have the same rights as a spouse. One of the differences between married and unmarried couples is in