The Government has introduced new proposals to takle domestic violence in the 2017 Queen’s Speech. Theresa May’s government is planning to introduce the “Draft Domestic Violence and Abuse” legislation which “will provide a statutory definition of this hideous crime, ensure robust protective orders are available and that victims get the justice they deserve”. Click here to read…
The UK Ministry of Justice has implemented an increase in court fees which will take effect next Monday, 21 March 2016. This increase will apply to all the court fees which are commonly used in family law cases: The fee to divorce (or end a civil partnership) will increase from £410 to £550. Contested applications in…
1. More women are now entering into civil partnerships than men. In the most recent year for which we have figures (2013) 53% of civil partnerships were female. In Wales, that figure was 65%. 2. The total number of civil partnerships per year is falling. 2013 saw the lowest number of civil partnerships since their…
The Milton Keynes Family Drug and Alcohol Court opened in July 2014 and was the first of its kind outside London. It has been judged so successful, that the Government has announced funding for a further eight similar courts across the nation. The Milton Keynes Family Drug and Alcohol Court is held at Aylesbury Magistrates Court and…
The Supreme Court has today given judgment on the case of Wyatt v Vince, involving a wife and husband divorced 22 years ago. In the intervening years, the Husband has made many millions of pounds in his green energy wind farm business. The Wife now seeks a payment of £1.9 million from him. The Court…
Should privacy or transparency have priority in the family court? The President of the family courts launched a consultation paper last week asking for responses on the role of the media in reporting family cases. As part of his report, he explained, for the benefit of the media, how to interpret family law case numbers,…
As Eurovision concludes for another year, and with European Parliamentary elections due to take place across Europe over the next three days, you may be interested to know that you have the opportunity to vote in a third European poll over the next couple of months. The European Commission wants to know about your views…
Katie Rainscourt, our managing partner, has recently been interviewed by Lexis on the topic of prenuptial agreements, which is reproduced below. This article was first published on Lexis®PSL Family on 13 March 2014. Click here for a free 24h trial of Lexis®PSL: ‘Can_appropriate_reviews_make_pre-nups_stick’ Family analysis: What weight will the courts give to a pre-marital…
The Children and Families Bill received Royal Assent yesterday morning, on Thursday 13 March 2014, and is now law. I have previously written in this blog about the impact of this Act on family law in England and Wales, and explored the introduction of the new child arrangement order on Children Act cases in this…
So the dust has started to settle on the newly minted Law Commission report, after last week’s media flurry. There were several themes in the report that particularly caught my eye, but most of all was this concept of “bargaining in the shadow of the law”. The report describes how the work of a family…