When I switched on the radio this morning it was a pleasure to hear that the main headline on Radio Four was the arrival today of the Family Court. On Radio Five Live this momentous event was the second headline, behind speculation about David Moyes and Manchester United Football Club. Does speculation count as news these days?
The arrival of the Family Court, and other associated reforms, are a genuinely big deal.
As you know I am both a experienced and specialist Family Law Solicitor and an experienced Family Mediator. I have long advocated a greater use of mediation by separating couples or by parents when they encounter difficulties in the months and years after relationship breakdown. The use of mediation, in the right way, at the right time, can save each of the couple both a lot of money and a lot of stress. Where there are children, they are also saved from having to put up with seemingly never-ending conflict, anger and resentment between their parents. I routinely refer my legal clients to mediation and support them through the process, and the system to make the best use of family mediation. (more…)
As you know we are both a specialist family law solicitors legal practice and a mediation service undertaking both family mediation and mediation in civil and commercial disputes. These two sides to the practice are very different.
As a solicitor, I advise my clients of the different options open to them and give them my professional view of the best path for them to choose.
As a mediator. I do not give advice, but my role is to help the parties in mediation equally in their desire to achieve a solution to their problem.
When I am instructed as a solicitor in family law cases such as divorce or financial disputes between cohabitants or on child contact issues; after exploring with my client whether any safety issues arise, I will often make referrals to mediation. When mediation has commenced, I am (more…)
As you know we are part Solicitors Practice and part Mediation Service. As a Family Mediation Service we are currently undertaking Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings, or MIAMs in Honiton, Taunton and Exeter. Our Legal Aid Contract with the Legal Aid Agency allows us to provide Legally Aided Mediation from a variety of locations including Honiton, Exeter and Taunton.
On Friday 12 April we received an email from the Family Mediators Association (FMA) containing the the new version of the C100 Court Form and Practice Direction for how Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings or MIAMs which will apply post 22 April 2014.
Below is a link to an Article in the Law Society Society Gazette by the new Minister of Justice Simon Hughes about forthcoming changes to the practice of Family Law. I have also reproduced his words.
Link to Article in Law Society Gazette (April 2014)
I will reserve my own comments for further blogs. The changes discussed come into effect from 22 April 2014.
Firstly we have the Unified Family Court, which should (more…)
From this date provisions from the Children and Families Act 2014 will come into force. Amongst the provisions are amendments to the Children Act 1989, which will replace Residence and Contact orders with Child Arrangements Orders
Before the Children Act 1989 came into force the court orders, which defined where the child lived and the arrangements through which a child saw the other parent were called Custody Orders and Access Orders.
Language is very important. (more…)
The infographic below was released by the Office for National Statistics in February 2014
As a solicitor who specialises in family law and divorce, I am always interested to read the latest divorce statistics.
Below is an infographic produced by the office of National statistics which summarises divorce trends based on the latest available statistics which are from 2012.
The ONS estimated that the percentage of marriages ending in divorce was 42% which is a reduction from 45% of marriages ending in divorce in 2005
The most common age to divorce is between the ages of forty and forty four years.
The majority of divorces were granted on divorce petitions filed with the court by the wife
The statistics also show that the majority of divorce petitions from wives are on the basis of behaviour or adultery.
This is not surprising. When marriages break down the wife (often with children or often because of children) is in the weaker financial position and needs to sort out their financial position sooner rather than later. Often it is out of necessity that the wife will seek a divorce as soon as it becomes clear that the marriage has broken down irretrievably.On the other hand, if the husband is in a stronger financial position, it is easier to wait until the basis of two-year separation with consent is available.
It is also the case that if the husband were to proceed with the divorce earlier, perhaps making allegations against the wife of unreasonable behaviour,then if the divorce and the particulars are handled badly, the wife who has the children in her care may become more reluctant to support contact arrangements.
The problem with the statistics about who divorces who and how and when, is that they are founded on a law which is in many ways nonsense and which is certainly out of date. The divorce law that we have is called the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 and it dates back to 1973 !
In 1973 the country was a very different place. In nineteen seventy three divorce carried much more of a stigma and often it did matter who divorced who and how.
My own view is that society has very much moved on. In 1973 and perhaps even 2003 same-sex marriage was unimaginable to many. We are now enlightened enough to have laws which allow same-sex marriage. We are also more enlightened attitudes to racism and disability.
The reasons for marital breakdown are often complex.
Sometimes; for example when there is domestic abuse, one person really will be to blame for the breakdown of the marriage, but more often the failure of the marriage will be complicated. The law has now reached the point where behaviour is mostly irrelevant when dealing with financial issues and of course all issues relating to children are looked at on on the basis of what is in the best interests of the child.
A more enlightened divorce law could work simply on the basis that one files for divorce on the basis of irretrievable breakdown of the marriage. There could then a cooling off period to allow the couple to sort out the arrangements for their children and financial arrangements and then, once these matters are being resolved, hopefully amicably and with the assistance of mediation, the decree absolute could be granted and the divorce finalised
It all sounds very simple and indeed it should be. In fact Parliament actually passed a similar divorce law to the one I describe as part of the Family Law Act 1996. Unfortunately , because of political pressures, the parts of the Family Law Act 1996 which related to divorce principles were never brought into force. This is such a pity and this issue really ought to be looked at again. In the meantime we will just have to carry on reading statistics about who blamed who the most for the breakdown of their relationships this is such a shame.
Click here to see the infographic on the ONS website
As a Specialist Family Law and Divorce Solicitor, as well as a Family Mediator, I am always interested to read about changes to Divorce rates as well as other family law and divorce related statistics.
At the bottom of this piece is an Infographic produced by the Office of National Statistics in August 2013
Perhaps the most interesting statistic is (more…)
Telephone calls between a separated parent and their children can be a deeply unsatisfying experience.
Little children can be reluctant to engage in telephone contact, and so can middle size ones and big ones.
Telephone contact can also be a cause of conflict between parents or if the parents are already in conflict; then the failure of telephone contact can make matters worse.
Very often, the separated parent will blame the other parent of undermining their relationship with their children. Often such accusations are (more…)
The most recent Divorce statistics covering the year 2012 show that; (more…)
Well, sort of. We started trading on the 1st February 2013, but the Company had been set up a few months before to allow us to successfully bid for Legal Aid Contracts for Family Law from our Honiton Office and Family Mediation from Honiton, Exeter, Taunton, Cullompton, Okehampton and Torbay. But it was on the 1st February when (more…)
