Family law blog

Tate family law blog

Jewish wedding with pig on the menu!

Jessie Engleman and her fiancé will get married later this year in a traditional ceremony; they will sign a ketuba, a traditional Jewish marriage contract, and will then celebrate their betrothal by serving their guests pig roast. Source

There appears to be something of a contradiction there, but the point is that Jessie and her fiancé are not Jewish, they are merely attracted to the idea of the ketuba along with other traditional Jewish marriage rituals. It seems that a growing number of non Jews, mainly in America, want to have their marriage under a chuppah, a canopy and also want to seal their marriage by stomping on a glass at the end of the ceremony.

The ketuba especially appears to be in demand with the number of ketuba artists growing rapidly to cope with the extra numbers wanting to have one. Some of the demand seems to stem from the fact that it is poster-sized and is quite ornate with many non-Jewish customers even choosing very traditional Jewish texts.

Are you attracted by the ketuba? I’m not surprised that the stomping of the glass has been mentioned as this, to me, seems a perfect way to have something at the ceremony to confirm that the couple are now man and wife. Will it catch on here as well as it seems to be in the USA?

Civil partnership case settled in Court of Appeal

A West End actor has lost part of a £1.7m settlement he was awarded following the break-up of his civil partnership.

Don Gallagher, who starred in Priscilla Queen of the Desert, along with other roles, was initially awarded 42% of the total £4m assets after his relationship with Peter Lawrence ended, despite bringing assets of just £40,000 when entering the partnership. The inflated figure was partly due to his contribution towards making a “lovely family home” and the initial judge, Mrs Justice Parker, said that the £1.7m was to recognise his contribution to the 11-year relationship with Mr Lawrence.

However, in what is the first case of its kind in which the Court of Appeal has ruled over the settlement of a same-sex partnership, the appeal judges said that the original judge had been wrong to divide the assets up in the way she had and reduced Mr Gallagher’s share from 42% to 33%, meaning he had to pay back about £300,000.

Mr Lawrence, speaking after the ruling, said that the case did not concern the principles of civil partnerships, which are roughly identical to marriages and are ended the same way, but it was more about how to divide assets which were brought into the relationship by one of the parties. Mr Lawrence, has a more lucrative career, working in the City, than his former partner, but Mr Gallagher did play a more domestic role, keeping the house in the manner to which they were accustomed. Is that as important a role as being the main breadwinner?

Source

 

Child custody battles

A new report by Lord Justice Thorpe, chief of the Office of the Head of International Family Justice, has reported that many child custody battles in this country are resulting in the children being abducted and taken abroad. Link

It is expected that 240 children will be affected in this way in 2012, compared to just 27 in 2007 and is likely to rise further in future years. The judge said that 65% of children born in London in 2010 had at least one foreign parent, so international family litigation is clearly a growing area. His report indicates that most cases in Europe involve children taken to or from Germany and Poland and relations between social workers in both England and Poland are often fraught with it being difficult to establish who has jurisdiction.

Lord Justice Thorpe also alleged that Italy and Poland did not have a judge that British authorities could talk to on the matter, while he also said there had been difficulties with courts in India, Egypt and Mexico. Is it a growing problem in your experience and could more be done by way of international action to try and prevent the problem occurring? We’d like to know what you think.

 

New arbitration for family disputes

A new arbitration scheme has been launched to sort out family disputes in this way.

The scheme, organised by the Institute of Family Law Arbitrators (IFLA), has involvement from other organisations including the Family Law Bar Association and has seen 30 family lawyers train as family arbitrators. Couples using the scheme will be able to appoint their own arbitrator or have the IFLA select one for them.

It will cover divorces, inheritance claims, financial claims after a divorce abroad, disputes about the ownership of property and civil partnership financial claims. Arbitration was developed by the IFLA to solve financial disputes without the expense of going to court, while it is also seen to be quicker, more flexible and less formal than going before a judge.

Is this a good idea, to have a system which is less adversarial, confidential and potentially less stressful for the people concerned or will most cases ultimately have to go before court anyway? We would be interested to hear what your views are on arbitration.

http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed95911

Marital property agreements

The Law Commission is to take a little longer over its review into marital property agreements and will now examine the financial provisions following a divorce or the dissolution of a civil partnership. However, how will this affect family law in the future and what reforms are necessary as a result?

It is looking specifically into the extent to which one of the parties should be responsible for the financial needs of the other once the relationship has come to an end and will also examine non-matrimonial property , that is assets acquired by either party prior to the marriage or civil partnership, and how they should be divided up, or not, post divorce or dissolution. There will be a consultation paper on the issues released later this year with a final report due out in 2013.

Professor Elizabeth Cooke, Law Commissioner with responsibility for family law, said that the law, as it stands, creates too much uncertainty and leads to inconsistent outcomes. She added that any reform of the law must come about due to wide-scale consultation within the legal profession and also amongst the wider public.

Anyone with experience, either of family law, or with divorce and the dissolution of civil partnerships who can help with the debate, please get in touch and lets discuss it here.

http://www.co-operative.coop/legalservices/latest-news/family-law/review-of-financial-provisions-of-divorce-to-commence/?ArticleId=801287867

Judge dismisses pre-nup

There are many on both sides of the argument over pre-nuptial agreements and whether a judge should intervene when they have been made between the two parties.

Well Mr Justice Mostyn in the High Court did just that in dismissing an agreement that had been made between Ms Kremen and her former husband, Russian financer Boris Agrest. The couple separated after 10 years of marriage and under the terms of the agreement her claim would have been worth 970,000.

The judge intervened because he said the pre-nup was grossly unfair , citing in particular that there had been some pressure applied to Kremen so she did not freely enter into the agreement with a full appreciation of its implications. He also said that the agreement did not reflect her contribution to the fortune they had built up, that it did not remotely meet her reasonable needs and it grossly prejudiced the needs of the children.

Mr Justice Mostyn awarded Ms Kremen a lump sum of 12.5m including 8.3m constituting maintenance and said he hoped that his judgement would be a final instalment in what he called a chronic and complex piece of matrimonial litigation . Does this case mean that pre-nups are now effectively worthless or are they still a matter to be taken into account by a judge when ruling on a divorce case? Yours views on the matter would be most welcome.

http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed95199

Fall in family law disputes

New Ministry of Justice figures show that there has been a small drop in the number of family law disputes in the UK.

The figures show a drop of 1% in the number of people granted a decree absolute in the third quarter of 2011, while there has been a more dramatic fall, of 14%, in the number of domestic violence orders which have been issued. Domestic violence applications meanwhile, fell 15% in the same period.

The third quarter of 2011 also saw a fall of 5% in the amount of children who were involved in private law applications compared to the same period in 2010, though there was a rise of almost a third, in the number of children who were involved in public law applications.

The figures suggest that mediation may have played its part in the reductions and Neil Robinson, vice-chairman of the Family Mediator’s Association, said that with the economic situation affecting the country, as it has done for several years now, more are turning to mediation before going to a solicitor as a last resort. He said that the country has had 800 years of an adversarial legal system, so it will take some time for mediation to have a significant effect, though it certainly will in future years.