Granny power!

In a sweeping review of the family justice regime commissioned by the Government, it is being recommended for the first time that separating parents be expected to ensure that grandparents continue to have a role in the lives of their grandchildren. Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister last year said it was “crazy” that millions of grandparents lose [...]

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Congratulations on your new arrival, now about a divorce….

In a major review of the family justice system, former civil servant David Norgrove has suggested that upon new parents attending to register the birth of their child, that they be provided with a leaflet spelling out their parental responsibilities, in case of divorce or separation. Parental responsibility is a term under the Children Act 1989 that sets [...]

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Legal Aid Reform: How are Women Affected?

I attended the APPG meeting on ‘Legal Aid Reform: How are Women Affected?’ We heard from over a dozen speakers including Emma Scott, Director of Rights of Women, Linda Lee, President of the Law Society, Carol Storer of the LAPG and Richard Miller, Head of Legal Aid Policy at the Law Society. Richard highlighted how older women [...]

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Whaley v Whaley, Round 2. One for the girls?

Millionaire Athelstan Whaley appeared before the Court of Appeal last Wednesday in an attempt to overturn Mrs Justice Baron’s order made last year requiring him to transfer to his former wife Belinda two properties in Kent and to pay her a lump sum of £3 million. Athelstan’s basic presentation is that complying with the order will render [...]

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Un-named, but one for the boys?

The Telegraph reported last Wednesday (“Wife loses bid for bigger payout from estranged husband”, Victoria Ward) on an anonymised judgment handed down by Mr Justice Mostyn, resolving the financial claims of 2 divorcing Americans. At issue was the division of the family’s estimated wealth of £9.714 million.  The wife, aged 46, wanted her husband’s pre-marriage assets of £2.1 [...]

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Pitt v Holt and Futter v Futter (aka Hastings-Bass revisited) – one up to the Revenue

The story so far. Hastings-Bass, a case decided in 1975, gave life in legal terms to the proposition that should a trustee (or a person acting in a similar capacity such as a Court of Protection deputy) make a decision (otherwise known as “the exercise of a discretionary dispositive power”) with unforeseen but adverse fiscal consequences through, say, [...]

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