“A man who wed his Canadian bride in Las Vegas while still married to a woman in
England has been jailed for 20 weeks.”
BBC News, 29th April 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Las Vegas wedding bigamist Garry Floodgate jailed – BBC News
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The changing Face(book) of family law – New Law Journal
“Research carried out by Divorce-Online in 2012 highlights the huge significance that social media now has to family law. The study found that one in three divorce petitions in the UK list Facebook as a contributing factor, with flirtatious e-mails and messages sent on the site being one of the most commonly cited examples of unreasonable behaviour. Office romances and affairs that took months or even years to develop in the real world can now happen almost instantaneously on Facebook and Twitter. People can connect and become ‘friends’ even if they have only met once or twice, and social media sites provide an easy forum for couples to inadvertently arouse the suspicions of their partners.”
New Law Journal, 12th April 2013
Source: www.newlawjournal.co.uk
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How to cut the costs of getting divorced – The Guardian
“Legal aid for the 120,000 couples who divorce in a typical year all but disappears in England and Wales this week, except in cases where domestic violence can be proved. While many are predicting a big increase in DIY divorces, costing as little as £37, the changes have also prompted the arrival of a raft of new fixed-fee legal deals that keep lawyers’ bills below £500.”
The Guardian, 6th April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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No legal aid? How to represent yourself in court – BBC News
“The legal profession expects that changes to the legal aid system in England and Wales will lead to a rise in the number of people who have to represent themselves in court.”
BBC News, 6th April 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
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Jailed property man hid his assets in offshore network during divorce – The Guardian
“Ex-wife is suing Scot Young for share of £400m fortune that he claims he lost within three months.”
The Guardian, 4th April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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Unhappy couples rushing to divorce lawyers ahead of legal aid cuts – Daily Telegraph
“Unhappy couples have been rushing to file for divorce before legal funding is cut next week, law firms claim.”
Daily Telegraph, 30th March 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
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‘Unbundling’ the new craze as lawyer-backed family mediation service launches – Legal Futures
“A lawyer-backed service that supports divorcing couples during mediation, charging fixed fees to halve the cost, is being billed as a possible lifeline for family legal aid lawyers after 1 April.”
Legal Futures, 18th March 2013
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
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How mediation takes the sting out of divorce – The Guardian
“From next month, divorce may get a little less confrontational – and cheaper. Changes to legal aid mean couples who split won’t be funded through the courts, but that could be a good thing, argues mediator Victoria Scott.”
The Guardian, 9th March 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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Finance and Divorce Update – Family Law Week
“Anna Heenan, solicitor and David Salter, Joint Head of Family Law at Mills & Reeve LLP analyse February’s financial remedies and divorce news and cases.”
Family Law Week, 5th March 2013
Source: www.familylawweek.com
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Divorce costs warning issued to lawyers – The Guardian
“Some solicitors are failing to advise divorcees to settle courtroom battles before costs rise out of control because of the ‘emotional rawness’ of those involved, according to the legal ombudsman.”
The Guardian, 28th February 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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Ombudsman warns of mis-selling risk around family law services – Legal Futures
“Innovation in family law services is working for consumers but could in time lead to mis-selling and hidden costs as complex financing and legal services structures emerge, the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) has warned.”
Legal Futures, 28th February 2013
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
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Figures show divorce hot spots – Ministry of Justice
Separating couples are being urged to use mediation instead of ending up in courtroom battles after a list of England and Wales divorce hot spots was revealed.
Ministry of Justice, 20th February 2013
Source: www.justice.gov.uk
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Divorcing couples often hide assets, survey suggests – BBC News
“Many people going through divorce could be hiding their wealth from their partners, a survey suggests.”
BBC News, 22nd February 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
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Divorcees to plunder partners’ pensions – Daily Telegraph
“Divorcees who separated in the past 12 years could have to hand over more of their pension income to their former spouse. Pension funds are often the main asset of a marriage and are frequently more valuable than the home, but according to a report from Divorce LifeLine in as many as half of the 1.5 million divorce settlements in the UK since December 2000, the divorce pensions may have been undervalued.”
Daily Telegraph, 12th February 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
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Private Criminal Prosecutions in Financial Remedies Cases – Family Law Week
“Andrzej Bojarski, Kate Tompkins and Cameron Crowe, barristers at 36 Bedford Row, combine their expertise in unravelling complex financial arrangements on divorce and prosecuting serious crimes to consider whether the criminal courts might offer opportunities for a spouse in an exceptional case when all conventional options in the family courts have been exhausted.”
Family Law Week, 6th February 2013
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
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Gay marriage: some legal inequalities will remain – The Guardian
“The aim of the marriage (same-sex couples) bill is to ensure that all couples enjoy equal marriage rights. Some elements of legal asymmetry remain, however, under the legislation.”
The Guardian, 5th February 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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Religious courts and Sharia divorce – Halsbury’s Law Exchange
“If you glanced at the front page of The Times for 1 February, with its headline ‘High Court opens way to Sharia divorces’, you could have been forgiven for thinking that the court had made some important pronouncement on the role of Sharia (Islamic law) in divorce proceedings. The story’s first paragraph would also have led you naturally to that conclusion. ‘The prospect of divorce cases being settled by Sharia and religious courts’, it says, ‘has been opened up by landmark legal decision.’ So it would have come as a bit of a jolt to read the start of the next paragraph: ‘A Jewish couple have had their divorce settlement under Beth Din, rabbinical law, approved by the High Court.’ As this indicates, the case (AI v MT [2013] EWHC 100 (Fam)) says nothing whatsoever about Sharia.”
Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 4th February 2013
Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk
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Hamilton v Hamilton – WLR Daily
Hamilton v Hamilton [2013] EWCA Civ 13; [2013] WLR (D) 26
“An order in ancillary relief proceedings for the payment of a series of lump sums over time was not necessarily an order for a lump sum by instalments, within section 23(3)(c) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, and therefore variable under section 31 of the 1973 Act.”
WLR Daily, 24th January 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
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