One of Britain’s leading family law judges is calling for changes in the divorce process that would take most cases out of the courts altogether. Sir James Munby is the President of the Family Division of the High Court. He wants uncontested divorce cases without any claims over money or children to be settled in
A mother has been given a second chance to try to leave the UK despite a judge’s concerns that she was only doing so to take her children away from their father. The case involved a German couple who had lived in England for more than 12 years. They had two children aged four and
A businessman has been sentenced to four months in prison after failing to disclose financial information during his divorce proceedings. The high profile case involved former model Alisa Thiry and her second husband, Didier Thiry, a Belgian businessman and property developer. Their divorce involved complex discussions about how the couple’s considerable wealth should be divided.
A father has been denied direct contact with his daughters because they repeatedly stressed that they didn’t want to see him after he separated from their mother. The sisters were born in 2003 and 2006. They both moved out of the family home with their mother when their parents separated in 2008. Then the sisters
There have been very substantial changes to the law that affects families since the Children and Families Act 2014 and the Child Arrangement Programme came into force in April. The main changes are that 1. It is now compulsory to attend a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MAIMs) before being able to make an application
A man has been told to pay his ex-wife a lump sum so that he can stop making annual payments once he has retired. The case involved a couple who had been married for 22 years before getting divorced in 2005. Both were qualified accountants, but the wife left work to raise their children. When
The father was fromScotlandand the mother fromItaly. The daughter had spent her life living inEnglanduntil 2010 when the couple divorced. The father agreed to let his former partner take their daughter to live inItaly, on the basis that he still had parental responsibility and was allowed regular contact. In 2013, the mother returned toEnglandand put
A woman has been ordered to pay her ex-husband £1.2m, even though the couple had a pre-nuptial agreement that her wealth would be protected in the event of a separation. The case involved the daughter of one of Britain’s wealthiest men. She received an annual allowance of £81,000 from her father and lived in a
Ministers say children will be better protected and family disputes will be less stressful following changes to legislation relating to divorce and separation. The main changes are that separating couples will be obliged to attend mediation sessions to try to reach agreements regarding childcare and finances, before they can take their disputes to court. If
A court has ordered that a six-year-old boy should live with his father because the mother had constantly ignored contact orders over several years. The two parents separated before the boy was born and the mother became the primary carer following the birth. The father tried to establish contact with his son but the mother