Kim Beatson, Partner
New Law Journal - 27 January 2012
Kim Beatson investigates the struggle to establish jurisdiction in pre-nuptial cases...

Lehna Hewitt, Trainee Solicitor
This article looks at the case of Gowers v Gowers, ancillary relief proceedings where all the wealth was generated during the couple's 12 year marriage...

Lehna Hewitt, Trainee Solicitor and Kim Beatson, Partner
New Law Journal - 16 December 2011
One of the factors under section 25 Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 which the court must have regard to when redistributing the assets on divorce is the age of the parties and the duration of the marriage. What is the court’s approach when the marriage has been short?...

Kim Beatson, Partner 
It used to be widely believed in legal and other circles that a primary carer (usually the mother) who sought leave to remove her children permanently from the jurisdiction would succeed providing her plans were coherent and sensible...

Margaret Hatwood, Partner
A recent survey revealed that one in ten men and one in five women access their partner's computers, viewing emails and other documents. Actions range from glancing at a loved one's computer when they are away from it, to accessing email accounts using passwords...

Kim Beatson, Partner
Family Law Journal  - October 2011
Single parents have been vilified for centuries and whilst the stigma may have reduced with the years it has not disappeared...

Margaret Hatwood, Partner
On 9 November the Supreme Court gave judgment for Ms Jones in this eagerly awaited case. The issue concerned whether a Court can infer unequal ownership of a property by an unmarried couple who hold a property as joint tenants in equal shares at the date of their purchase...

Kim Beatson, Partner
Family Law Bulletin - Winter 2011
Couples in dispute south of the border now have to be assessed for mediation suitability before taking a case to court, unless they can claim an exemption...

Lehna Hewitt, Trainee Solicitor
On 7 July 2011, the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in Re K. What followed was the most fundamental decision on leave to remove since Payne v Payne, and the case has been heralded as the end of Payne hegemony...

Lehna Hewitt, Trainee Solicitor
Unmarried couples who separate do not have the same legal rights as married couples who are divorcing. However, a parent of a child has an absolute obligation to maintain that child...

Kim Beatson, Partner and IACP Board Member
Sarah Lloyd, Director of ADR, Resolution
We have a population of around 52 million people in England & Wales, generating around 112,000 divorces a year. We have a split profession, between solicitors who liaise with the clients and negotiate agreements and a smaller number of barristers who are the advocacy specialists...

Kim Beatson, Partner
In September 2011 Kim spoke at the European Collaborative Law Symposium about the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals' website. These are her top tips for collaborative lawyers...

Mariko Wilson, Trainee Solicitor and Kim Beatson, Partner
New Law Journal - 29 July 2011
This article follows financial relief following marital breakdown in an overseas jurisdiction...

Kim Beatson, Partner and Shelley Cumbers, Solicitor
New Law Journal - 11 March 2011
Solicitors Journal - 14 March 2011
It used to be widely believed in legal and other circles that a primary carer (usually the mother) who sought leave to remove her children permanently from the jurisdiction would succeed providing her plans were coherent and sensible...

Margaret Hatwood, Partner
The Grandparent Times - Spring 2011
Grandparents have been the poor relations of the family justice system. However, a review of the family justice system is underway to consider how best the system can provide greater contact rights for grandparents. The report by the Ministry of Justice is due later this year...

Margaret Hatwood, Partner
Lecture Notes from Advanced Family Law Conference- 4th February 2011
Nowadays, spousal maintenance is often for ‘joint lives’ especially where there are young children. However, this has not always been so. Historically, maintenance could be until remarriage or until the wife committed an act of “unchastity”. However, cohabitation is not a factor that is taken into account in the Matrimonial Causes Act...

Margaret Hatwood, Partner
Family Law Journal - January 2011
Reluctant respondents include those who are represented and those who are not. The respondent in person is an increasing trend for all sorts of reasons. Amongst the reasons are the lack of public funding for persons of moderate means...

Kim Beatson, Partner
In the current economic climate the price of legal advice is obviously crucial but the cheaper lawyer may not have the necessary expertise. Efficient, experienced lawyers could be better value and possibly less expensive in the long run providing the focus is on the settlement process...

Nicola Gunn, Partner
It is not uncommon in family disputes, where emotions are running high, for one spouse to suspect the other spouse of attempting to conceal assets by destroying documents or hiding information with the intention of depriving them of a full and fair settlement...

Kim Beatson, Partner
The Christmas period can prove a testing time for relationships. Financial pressures, prolonged periods with relatives and the traditional Christmas tipple can make the season a testing and stressful time for relationships...

Sue Jackson, Trainee Solicitor
The recent reported challenge to the Will of Malcolm McLaren, the creator of the Sex Pistols, highlights the need to avoid challenges by family members and others by ensuring the Will is made correctly...

Margaret Hatwood, Partner
Only a castaway on a desert island could have avoided reading about the long running saga of the Granatino v Radmacher case. Nicholas Granatino, a French born banker, is challenging a Court of Appeal ruling which reduced his divorce settlement....

Kim Beatson, Partner
Family Law Journal - September 2010
At a Resolution national conference some years ago we held a debate on whether there should be more transparency in children cases. One of the speakers was Jim Parton, former Chair of Families Need Fathers....

Sarah Hughes, Solicitor
Family Law Journal - August 2010
Hadkinson v Hadkinson (1952) 2 All ER 567 concerned a mother who, following the conclusion of her divorce proceedings, remarried and removed the child of the family to Australia. This was in breach of an Order made during the course of the proceedings that the child not be removed without leave of the Court...

Margaret Hatwood, Partner
Family Law Journal - June 2010
Margaret reviews the recent cases in this rapidly changing area of family law...

Kim Beatson and Camilla Fusco, Partners
Everyone who works with international clients knows that relocating abroad can be a very unsettling experience. The family faces a big task of finding a new home, getting it furnished, settling the children in a new school, coping with a new culture and adjusting to new jobs...

Camilla Fusco, Partner
In this era of global travel and with the expansion of the EU over the last 6 years, Family Law practitioners are increasingly called upon to advise from an international perspective...

Margaret Hatwood, Partner
Margaret comments on the barrister’s ex wife case Vaughan v Vaughan: A First Wives Club?...

Sarah Hughes and Shelley Cumbers, Solicitors
How many of us have been on the telephone to a client and heard the words Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace? With the modern trend of social networking, online chat rooms and instant messaging becoming ever popular, it was only a matter of time before family lawyers had to start addressing these issues...

Margaret Hatwood, Partner
Family Law Journal - January 2010
In Miller v Miller; McFarlane v McFarlane described as the paradigm case for an award of compensation, the House of Lords said that not only did the court have to have regard to the s 25 Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (MCA 1973) criteria but to three additional strands namely needs, compensation and sharing...

Family Law Journal - September 2009
Ancillary relief has for many years seen the courts adjusting the private financial lives of family members: however, it has now begun to look to the public side of that ideological divide...

Victoria Jones, Family Department
On 27 April 2009 the law changed allowing the media access to family hearings for the first time. Other court rooms have long been open to the press but family courts have always been the exception...

Sarah Hughes, Solicitor
Resolution Review - June 2009
On 4 February 2009, the House of Lords delivered their Judgement in Holmes-Moorhouse (FC) v London Borough of Richmond upon Thames (2009) and held that a father with a Shared Residence Order was not entitled to Local Authority housing because his children ‘could not reasonably be expected to reside with him’...

Patricia Carr, Solicitor
This article analyses the decision in the Holmes-Moorhouse case and discusses what advisors for applicants and local authorities should do in the light of the decision...

Shelley Cumbers, Solicitor
Family Law Journal -  January 2009
In the Queen's Bench Division case Reynolds v Stone Rowe Brewer (A Firm) [2008] EWHC 497, Tugendhat J addressed not only the importance of providing accurate costs estimates for clients from the outset...

Margaret Hatwood
Family Law Journal - February 2008
This article looks at the impact of Hill v Haines on financial provision orders, and considers the long-term effects of the case...

Margaret Hatwood
Family Law Journal - April 2007
This article looks at the new rules, which apply to those cases where petitions were issued after 3 April 2006...

Margaret Hatwood
Family Law Journal - November 2007
This article aims to review the movement towards a situation where agreements are increasingly regarded as binding and hopes to draw practitioners’ attention to possible danger areas...

Anna Johnstone, Trainee Solicitor
The new special guardianship provisions, provided for in the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (the Act), came into force on 30 December 2005. Section 115 of the Act introduces a new legal status for non parents who are or wish to care for children in a long term, secure placement...

Kim Beatson, Partner
Arsenal footballer Ray Parlour has been ordered to pay his ex-wife Karen a third of his future earnings in a landmark divorce settlement, which has sparked a national debate about marriage. Kim Beatson unpacks the hype...

Kim Beatson, Partner and Shelley Cumbers, Solicitor
Your TOLATA (Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996) proceedings have almost reached conclusion. The Judge has considered whether the Applicant has acted to his detriment, made direct financial contributions, whether a constructive or resulting trust applies or, perhaps more unusually, whether there is any basis for a claim in proprietary estoppel...

There were almost 670,000 children born in the UK in 2006, the vast majority of which were born into families with at least one parent in full time employment. Increased opportunities for women to return to their career after birth means that it is now common for both parents to be in full time employment...

Kim Beatson, Partner
The introduction of the Civil Partnership Act on 5 December 2005, offers to same-sex couples the opportunity of registering their relationship and thereby obtaining rights and obligations broadly equivalent to those of married couples...

Yannis Constantine, Trainee Solicitor
On 05 December 2006, it will be one year since the introduction of the Civil Partnership Act (‘CPA’) 2004. The CPA is a landmark piece of legislation that removes discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation from a number of statutes and enables same-sex couples to obtain legal recognition of their relationships. By registering their relationships, gay and lesbian couples can enjoy the same civil rights and share the same responsibilities as married heterosexual couples...

Rebecca Jones, Solicitor
The Gender Recognition Act 2004 provides for transsexual people to make an application to the Gender Recognition Panel for a gender recognition certificate which provides for legal recognition in their acquired gender. If the applicant is married, an interim gender recognition certificate will be issued by the panel if the application is successful...

Kim Beatson, Partner
Nearly one in four children in England and Wales live in one-parent families. Thankfully, most parents who separate make arrangements that meet the needs of the children without involving the courts at all. But a growing number make applications to the courts for orders regulating where their child should live and the pattern of contact with their non-resident parent...

Debra Mo, Partner
Kehoe represented a valiant attempt to influence the workings of the Child Support Agency, says Debra Mo, but was this worthy case doomed to failure and what means of redress remain?

Kim Beatson, Partner
Sometimes it seems as if a large part of family life is about problem solving - finding the right school for your child, organising transport to get everyone from A to B, even finding enough time to keep up with domestic chores while still having time for the fun things in life. But what happens if the problem is more fundamental and goes to the heart of the family itself?...

Kim Beatson, Partner
One serving of sprouts at Christmas is more than enough for any child. That's the advice from campaigning family law group Resolution, who warn that live-apart couples need to plan with extra special care to make Christmas a great time for the children...

Kim Beatson, Partner
Kim Beatson gives an overview of the recent Green Paper on reforming child proceedings...

Debra Wilson, Partner
Cohabitees (couples who live together who are not married) are a reflection of the diverse family trends that have evolved over the last few decades. Divorce rates have increased, with a corresponding decrease in the number of marriages contributing to greater incidences of cohabitation...

Kim Beatson, Partner
I went to a wedding recently where the bride’s parents (each with their new partners) sat on opposite sides of the aisle. The wedding reception was a tense affair. Both the bride’s father and stepfather made speeches but the animosity between them was evident – all very sad as the bride’s parents had divorced some ten years earlier...

Sarah Hughes, Solicitor 
Family Law - July 2008
In one of our recent cases, the husband and wife agreed a financial settlement within divorce proceedings. The parties owned two properties, the family home which was in joint names and a cottage in...

Andrew Moore, Trainee Solicitor
Family Law - September 2007
Prior to the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984 (‘MFPA’) the English courts did not have jurisdiction to deal with ancillary relief proceedings where the divorce decree had...

Thomas Duggins, Trainee Solicitor
'To be a successful father . . . there's one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don't look at it for the first two years' - Ernest Hemingway After the birth of his fourth child, Tony Blair was famously photographed...

Yannis Constantine  
The Civil Partnership Act 2004 (the ‘CPA’) came into force last year, on 05 December 2005. The new Act gave same sex couples the right to register their relationships and, for the first time in England and Wales,...