Your partner or spouse tells you they want to end the relationship. What do you do? Engulfed by feelings of anger and hurt, your life turned upside down, you may take it out on each other. Communication between you degenerates until you cannot talk and communication is by text or e-mail or, worse, through your children. Greif stricken and angry, you follow your legal advisor’s recommendations and commence proceedings and along the litigation pathway you come to a settlement.

CO-HABITATION Couples embarking on a new relationship often move in together. Some couples will live in a house one of them already owns or rents and some may decide to buy a property together. The careful couple will usually make an agreement when they buy together setting out who owns what share; or agree who pays for what when they start to live together. Sometimes agreements are written down and sometimes they're not. Getting together can be a gradual process, couples sl

Where is the justice? Sadly it’s not only the public but also practitioners who are starting to ask this question. Increased court fees, a lack of legal aid for most private family law cases, underfunding and lack of clarity from the Legal Aid Authority in family mediation and County Courts closing all over the UK. But “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Well that’s the adage. Justice, killing, stronger? As you read this you might be going through the trauma of divorc

No fault divorce? The headline read “Love cheats no longer outrage us, rules Judge” Government seems to be thinking along the same lines as Mrs Justice Laing with discussions around a no fault divorce. Currently the law requires a husband or wife to issue a divorce petition using one of five prescribed grounds to prove that their marriage has irretrievably broken down. Adultery and unreasonable behaviour are two of those grounds. As things stand if you use unreasonable behavi

One Day Mediation As an accredited commercial and family mediator I can offer you one day mediation. It is my experience that very few clients involved in property and finance proceedings come out of Court thrilled with the outcome. It is completely understandable to want the security of instructing solicitors, particularly in the early stages of your separation, not only because you want hands on advice at every step in an area you’re unfamiliar with, but also because you ma