When a man decided to leave his partner and take their child (aged four) to his native Pakistan, he may not have known that he was committing a criminal offence, but he became well aware of the fact on his…

Bankruptcy and the Family Home Even after the changes made by the Enterprise Act 2002, bankruptcy is still a difficult experience for most bankrupts. This is especially true where the family home is the main asset of the bankrupt’s estate…

Animals and Divorce – New Ruling May Set Cat Among the Pigeons Financial settlements on divorce normally involve making financial provision for any children but, in a recent case, the ex-wife of a wealthy man successfully argued that her love…

Pre-Nups – Not Quite There Yet A recent case involving a Katrin Radmacher, a German heiress was widely reported in the national press as changing the way pre-nuptial agreements would be treated in the future. However, the ruling was not…

The Court of Appeal has reversed an earlier decision of the High Court that the ex-wife of a wealthy man could use documents downloaded from his computer without his permission to substantiate her claim for ancillary relief (the financial settlement…

In a speech to the annual volunteers’ conference of shared parenting charity Families Need Fathers, Sir Nicholas Wall, President of the Family Division, has criticised separating parents who wage legal war on their children, using them as ‘the battlefield and…

A senior family lawyer recently criticised the way the law is being interpreted by the Court of Protection when deciding how the estate of someone who lacks capacity should be apportioned. Under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, which came into…

The ex-wife of a multi-millionaire sought leave to appeal against the amount awarded to her in the couple's divorce settlement on the basis that it did not reflect the true growth of her husband’s wealth during their marriage. Earlier this…

The Supreme Court has handed down its decision today in the Radmacher case – the everyday story of a massively rich German heiress who fell in love and married and then fell out of love and divorced her husband. Ms…

Divorces among the over-60s are by no means infrequent and, whilst the potential for acrimony arising from issues concerning young children is absent, they often do produce a great deal of dispute regarding the division of the family assets. There…