Persistent failure to pay maintenance payments ordered by the court can lead to substantial penalties, as a father discovered recently. After a history of failing to meet his obligations, the court ordered that a suspended committal order be served on…
Financial problems are one of the most common factors in family relationship breakdown, so divorce cases are not uncommonly carried on against a background of insolvency. A recent case shows the sort of problems that can arise. It involved a…
Sometimes, the courts have to consider the effect on children of allowing the reintroduction of contact with a parent with whom they have had no relationship for some time. In a recent case, this issue came up in the context…
The use of pre-nuptial agreements is still rather controversial. On one hand the idea that one is needed can be associated with a lack of trust and is hardly romantic. On the other hand, there is an argument that agreeing…
A schoolgirl has been allowed to stay in Britain despite the fact that her mother violated international law when she brought the girl and her younger sister back to the UK. In a landmark ruling, the judges at the Court…
A woman has failed in a £680,000 High Court bid for half the proceeds of the sale of a business she helped to run, following the breakdown of a partnership. The claimant valued the business at £1.36 million and claimed…
Hedge fund tycoon Vipin Sareen and his wife Beatrice have been ordered by an Appeal Court judge to stop their costly court actions as neither is going to end up lacking assets. The couple married in 1987 and acknowledged the…
A recent decision of the Court of Appeal, involving the financial settlement in a ‘big money’ divorce, elucidates the criteria which the courts should apply in deciding financial settlements on divorce where there are considerable inherited assets, even when the…
It is sometimes tempting to try to have an agreement reconsidered and the UK sees more than its fair share of family law cases with an international element, where one party to an agreement made abroad seeks to revisit the…
Judges are not perfect and when a judge recently considered a child placement order, there were inadequacies in the judgment. The judge had not stated correctly the test for the criteria to be considered when making a placement order. On…