Splitting from your partner will inevitably result in distress among family members and you, as parents, due to the need to make crucial decisions regarding the care of your children. Unfortunately, when parents separate, children are the ones who suffer the most, since they may go through bewilderment and emotional anguish. To help the kids […]
What is Cohabitation?
Cohabitation is the legal term for sharing a residence and aspects of your life with someone you are not married to. Naturally, it differs from living with your flatmates because couples who cohabit are only that—a couple usually in a romantic or sexual relationship who live together. Sometimes couples could be cohabiting even though they […]
What to think about when trying to agree a financial settlement
One of the trickiest parts of getting a divorce, once the initial decision has been made to separate, is what will happen to the assets that you’ve built up during the marriage. It’s not always a simple as splitting everything equally; what is fair in a financial settlement? And what needs to be considered? Here’s […]
Prenuptial Agreements: Everything You Need To Know
It can be expensive to host a wedding. The value starts to increase with engagement, rings, flowers, clothing, locations, honeymoons, and more. Prenuptial agreements, which were traditionally seen negatively, are now commonly associated with marriage. It is now accepted because of the significant changes in couples’ attitudes toward money and assets in the modern era. […]
What rights do cohabiting couples have on breakdown of the relationship? Law Commission proposals for reform around cohabitation still not implemented.
The number of people who choose to live together or ‘cohabit’ rather than marry or enter into a civil partnership has increased by a staggering 144 per cent between 1996 and 2021. There have been moves for legal reform around cohabitation for some years, with some people wrongly assuming that cohabiting couples enjoy the same […]
Pension sharing order overturned following death of one of the parties
A pension sharing order was recently overturned after one of the parties died – despite the executors of her estate opposing an application to set it aside. The couple, who married in 1979 and separated in 2017, had come to an amicable agreement about the husband’s pension from Shell, which was split more or less […]
Are convictions made in a foreign court admissible in UK children’s proceedings?
Until recently, convictions made in a foreign court couldn’t be used in evidence in a case that was being heard in the UK, but a recent decision made by the Court of Appeal has decided that in cases designed to protect children and which involve an analysis of welfare, rules that previously excluded them should […]
5 essential legal tasks to carry out during a divorce
Going through separation and divorce is always a difficult time, but there are some things you can do which might make the process smoother. Here are the five essential tasks you need to carry out when you decide on a divorce. The new no-fault divorce procedure removes the need to prove that the marriage has […]
Mediation Voucher Scheme extended to support more families
A new government mediation voucher scheme has been extended to help separating parents resolve disputes without taking them through the courts and is set to help many more families deal with the difficult issues that separation and divorce can create. Earlier in 2021, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) launched the mediation voucher scheme, which offers […]
Bereavement Support Payments to be extended to cohabiting parents
The bereavement of a long-term partner or spouse is difficult enough, without worrying about finances on top of everything else. Until very recently, unless you were married, or in a civil partnership, a surviving partner was unable to claim any extra financial support following a bereavement. New plans for bereavement support Under new plans […]