This case dealt with the fairly novel issue of whether the impact of Covid on H’s finances was a cause to vary a financial order. In October 2019, the judge ordered a division of matrimonial assets to the effect that H received 58% and W 42%. The order was made on the basis H would …

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The fact of ‘unreasonable behaviour’ to prove irretrievable breakdown of marriage under the MCA must be established in accordance with the legal requirements. No one case is the same. In this case, 28 divorce petitions were referred by the judge heading up the divorce unit at Bury St Edmunds. The particulars of behaviour set out …

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Friends and family are often best-placed to supervise contact between children and a parent or other relative. However, assessment and support may be necessary. To that end, Nagalro has published a tool that both practitioners, clients and other lay people may find invaluable. The SCARF (Supervision of Contact- Assessing Relatives and Friends) Tool for assessing …

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Another Covid-19-related ruling concerned whether or not a 13-year-old boy, who was the subject of a care order, should have the Covid-19 and flu vaccinations. The child himself (C) wanted the vaccines, and he was supported by his father, his guardian and the LA. However, M did not want him to have the vaccines. The …

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M appealed care orders with a plan for three of her six children to be placed into care. There was a background of sexual abuse and neglect, and M had herself been in care as a child and first gave birth at the age of 16. After further concerns were raised, the LA sought to …

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The court was entitled to draw inferences from H’s disclosure failures, and made an order in favour of W. W applied for interim financial provision including costs funding. The court had previously found that she had been validly divorced in China with the effect that her application under the MCA was to be dismissed. This …

Continue reading “Financial remedies – adverse inferences”

This case considered the validity and recognition of W’s ‘first’ Islamic divorce (talaq) in the jurisdiction of England and Wales. H argued that when he married W in Pakistan, she was still married to her first husband as her divorce from him was transnational in nature and not, therefore, recognised in this jurisdiction. He said …

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H’s application to vary a pension-sharing order was dismissed as ‘hopeless’ from the outset. H, 53, had enjoyed a long career with the same company (X), eventually becoming its commercial director. Since the parties divorced in 2017 (having separated in 2013), he had left X to work for a similar company. W, also 53, is …

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Family practitioners would be prudent to note a warning from the president of the Family Division around the preparation of witness statements and drafting orders. Sir Andrew MacFarlane says in a memorandum that the task of drafting orders has become a prolonged process, with drafts ’embellished to a Byzantine degree’. Although being asked to consider …

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