As a family lawyer, what advice can I offer a grandparent seeking a residence order in relation to a grandchild? Cases involving children aren’t easy for lawyers to handle. Far from it. They are frequently packed with emotion and distress, which however hard you try can sometimes rub off on the lawyers involved – say if an innocent child or children are caught up in a very nasty situation and clearly suffered as a result.

That is why I decided to set up a dedicated Children unit within the firm, because these cases demand experienced, sensitive handling. Certain family lawyers are cut out for this type of work, and others aren’t. I find dealing with children cases very difficult, but just this once, there was a high profile child case with which I did become involved – with assistance from the head of our Children’s Unit, Stephen Hopwood, to whom I am very grateful! Here it is:

Simon Barlow

At Stowe Family Law, as regular readers of this blog will know, the details and circumstances of all those who seek our advice are kept confidential. In this case, however, I am going to make an exception…

Born on 6 July 2003, Simon Barlow lives at 19 Rosamund Street, Weatherfield, with his father Peter Barlow. His mother Lucy has died and Peter’s girlfriend, Leanne, lives with them. Simon likes her and once, when she moved away and left him, he called his male rabbit “Leanne.” Simon attends Bessie Street Primary School, likes bedtime stories and rabbits, and hates fires and nativity plays.

He has grandparents, Ken and Deirdre Barlow. He has another grandfather, George, who has only just appeared in his life because George and Simon’s late mother Lucy were not on good terms.

Peter is an alcoholic and once set the house on fire when drunk. Luckily both Simon and Peter were able to escape. Because of Peter’s behaviour he is at odds with George over what is best for Simon.

Does any of this sound familiar?

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It was more than a year ago when I first blogged about Agbaje v Agbaje. (See: London is the “divorce capital of the world”? Think again!) This drawn-out case involves a couple who married in 1967, gained British citizenship, separated in 1999 and divorced in Nigeria.

Had the case been heard in England, Mrs Agbaje would have received at least half of the couple’s assets. As it was a Nigerian court left her virtually penniless, with her former husband retaining assets worth £616,000. The case has been in and out of our courts for years now, with Mrs Agbaje seeking a fairer settlement here in England.

Today the Supreme Court ruled in her favour – and I was delighted. So when journalists contacted me for comment, I didn’t exactly mince my words (below).

I don’t necessarily share the same opinions about matrimonial jurisprudence as Frank Arndt, Head of our International Law department, who was quoted in The Lawyer. We hail from differing backgrounds: mine is rooted in the common law with discretion as its key, whereas German family law is strict and codified. And the difference in our approach actually works well in the office, where we can advise clients from differing perspectives.

Incidentally, I have never been keen on the description of London as the “world’s divorce capital”. Even though Stowe Family Law is opening a new London office, I feel obliged to point out that good settlements aren’t curtailed by the M25!

Nigeria divorce judgment attracts attention

By Jane Croft

Law Courts Correspondent

The Supreme Court reinforced London’s reputation as “divorce capital of the world” after it found in favour of a Nigerian woman who took her case to the UK courts after disputing the divorce settlement she was awarded by a Nigerian court .

Family lawyers said the keenly watched judgment could open the floodgates for wealthy spouses in “big money” divorce cases who are unhappy with divorce awards made by overseas courts to seek a bigger payout in the UK.

London has been dubbed ”divorce capital of the world” because recent changes in the law meant wives are now favoured in big money break-ups.

The Supreme Court ruled that Sikirat Agbaje had not received an adequate financial settlement from her barrister husband when the couple divorced in Lagos in 2003 after 38 years of marriage. Continue reading»

Last summer I visited Porto Ercole in Tuscany, Italy. There, I reflected on some recent family law cases – and the lack of change in human nature since the time of Caravaggio, who died on the rocky beach I was visiting and is buried nearby.

Caravaggio was a master of human nature, which he summarised ably in his paintings. No-one knew more than he of the flaws in the human character, which can lead to profound suffering. He inflicted suffering, and suffered for it. He lied, cheated, gambled and murdered. He was wracked with guilt thereafter, yet left a peerless legacy to the art world: some of the most descriptive, moving and greatest paintings ever produced. Caravaggio knew the nature of torment.

It is 400 years since he died and until 10 January this year, the Borghese Gallery in Rome exhibited some of Caravaggio’s artwork together with that of 20^th Century artist Francis Bacon. Another artist who has been called “a tormented painter”, Bacon has also been  described as “one of the most anguished artists of the 20^th Century”. He had a fascination with the Crucifixion and an open mouth, a Scream. These two artists were featured together: they may have lived four hundred years apart but according to Anna Coliva, the director of the Borghese Gallery, they are “linked by a deep suffering for the human condition and an internal sense of devastation”. It was quite an exhibition. Immensely moving and thought-provoking, it was a stunning success.

Shortly after the Rome exhibition ended, a case called K v L resurfaced in the English courts. It is the same case that troubled me when I was in Porto Ercole, and about which I wrote at the time. It concerns a convicted paedophile who attempted to claw a share of his former wife’s fortune. Unable to bring herself to face him in court, she had resorted to giving evidence through a video link-up.

The husband subsequently attempted to appeal an order in the ancillary relief proceedings, and his application was heard in the Court of Appeal a few weeks ago. This case continues to trouble me. Why must the wife be the tormented one of the pair? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Continue reading »

The Stowe Family Law offices in Yorkshire and Cheshire are particularly busy at this time of year. I am also spending time in London, seeing clients there and readying our new office in High Holborn. I am making the most of the spare time that I have, immersing myself in things that make me laugh and feel good.

So right now I am very particular about what I listen to. I like music that is easy on the ear – but sufficiently “boom boom” to get me moving – and a radio presenter with a good sense of humour. Music and fun set me up for the busy day ahead.

Right now one presenter worth listening to, in my opinion, is Peter Levy. He is based at BBC Radio Humberside, in Hull of all places. I admit I’m biased because that city is fielding two teams against my currently battered team, the Leeds Rhinos. Rugby league has long been my favourite spectator sport; Hull FC with its new addition Sean Long – he of the sexy long blonde dreadlocks, formerly of our greatest rival, St Helens - may prove to be a major problem for us this season.

So I do sympathise that Peter Levy has chosen to base himself in Hull, poor man. I reckon that for him, it is time for a change…

Let me explain.

I first came across Peter when he was presenting the local news on TV. Chirpy, chippy, unflappable and “nicely” rude, I liked his sense of humour. I still do – until it is deployed against me, that is. Continue reading »

Sometimes, clients who come to see me are in a state of shock. Not everyone appreciates how serious this condition can be. There are different medical types of shock, but psychological shock is a traumatic reaction following a dramatic, unexpected incident such as a family crisis. In my field it can often occur when the client unexpectedly learns of an affair and/or the other spouse’s decision to end the marriage.

It is important never to underestimate the impact of shock on a client. Shock affects a client’s state of mind and can take weeks, months or even longer to overcome. Some of those who find it difficult to return to normal can even develop the more serious (but treatable) condition known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

When I see clients who appear to be suffering from shock, I politely and gently suggest that they return to see me when they are able to give me the information that I need to advise them appropriately – and also when they are able to make an informed decision about their future. It is clear even to me, a lay person, when a client is in deep shock and unable to take in a single word that I am saying. If a client persists, then of course I will give my advice – and I will follow it up in writing, as I do with all clients. At least the client will have something to read when they feel better able to take it in.

How does psychological shock manifest itself?

The symptoms vary but at first there may be numbness, a feeling of being dazed and an inability to absorb the information which has led to the shock. The mind will keep replaying the information, totally denying it, refusing to believe it can be true. Nothing else that is happening will matter: the surrounding circumstances, the people, what is playing on the radio… They will all blur into the background.

I had never experienced “shock” at first-hand until very recently. Put simply, it was awful. Continue reading »

Some recent, and surprising, court decisions from offshore jurisdictions, namely Bermuda and Jersey, demonstrate the fluctuating levels of cooperation that the English family courts can expect to receive in divorce cases.

In English divorces when there are offshore assets, often held in offshore trusts, it is common for wives to meet with resistance when they try to find out information about those assets or trusts from their husband.

One way of remedying this is by issuing Letters of Request. These are letters from an English court to the appropriate authority (usually a court) in the other jurisdiction requesting information about the assets or trusts held in that country. The letter is written by your solicitors, who then apply to the English court for its approval and to request that it is sent. The English court can, and frequently does, amend the content of the letter.

After receiving the letter the authority in that other jurisdiction can choose to do three things: Continue reading »

The recent assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai has caught everyone’s attention, not least because Dubai’s police are now searching for a team of assassins who are thought to have entered the emirate with fake passports.

I was particularly drawn to the stunning photograph of “Gail Folliard”: a pleasantly smiling woman who carried a fake Irish passport and identity, and formed part of the alleged assassination team. In her passport photo she has long blonde hair, piercing blue eyes and is wearing bright red lipstick.

Newspapers have focused on her as an example of a glamorous female assassin. However Hugo Rifkind, writing in the Times, had another take: “Gail my backside. She’s a bloke.” He quoted the well-known super spy Austin Powers: “She’s a man, man”.

I agree. But not because of the Adam’s apple that is supposed to be so prominent in her photo. It was the ruby red lipstick that stood out for me.

Do real women in real life really wear red lipstick?

The colour red

An experiment, carried out in 2008 by the University of Rochester, USA, involved showing men photographs of women who were either wearing red or framed by the colour. These “red” women were rated as significantly more alluring and sexually appealing by men than women wearing or framed by other colours.

The researchers also asked how much money the men would be prepared to spend on a date with the women in the pictures – and found that a women wearing red was “more likely to score an invitation to the prom and to be treated to a more expensive outing”.

As women know, however, red isn’t an easy colour to wear. Women have to make sure that a given shade of red suits their age, skin colouring and hair. Getting it wrong can result in a fashion faux pas; getting it right means you instantly stand out.

I was interested to note from the Rochester study that women wearing red can be perceived as powerful and aggressive. In business, men coming up against women who are wearing the colour may perform worse against them. (Is this perhaps the reason why women are expected to wear black in court?) Continue reading »

In my previous post I set the scene in a hotly disputed area of law: maintenance payments and the ex-husband who resents paying after his former partner begins living with another man.

The Court of Appeal has issued a judgement (Grey v Grey (2009EWCA Civ1424)) that should help to resolve this grey area, even though it will mean wives who choose to cohabit could stand to lose their maintenance. Put starkly, in line with changing social attitudes the pendulum has swung away from dependent wives. They may now be faced with very tough choices post-divorce: do they live with someone, or keep their maintenance?

Grey v Grey

This case involved a wealthy couple in their thirties, whose 10-year marriage had produced one daughter. When they divorced the capital was divided equally between them, and the judge set Mrs Grey’s maintenance at more than £100,000 per annum.

The husband subsequently appealed this award, on the basis of his ex-wife’s relationship with a man called Mr Thompson. The wife hotly contested the claim that she was cohabiting. Unfortunately for her, she lived on the same street as her former in-laws. Mrs Grey’s former father-in-law and an enquiry agent carried out observations which showed she was indeed living with him, a fact that she persistently denied through her solicitors and later in court.

Worse still for Mrs Grey was that her former husband had also discovered that she was pregnant. His legal team ambushed her with this revelation during cross-examination in court. She admitted her pregnancy and that she was “in a fixed, committed relationship” that was permanent in nature. (At which point I can imagine her legal team fiddling with ties, looking intently at blank bits of paper and staring, stony-faced, into the distance!)

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Your ex-wife has moved on and is now happily living with a new partner. They are in a stable, supportive relationship and he doesn’t seem short of cash. So why are you still paying her regular maintenance?

Maintenance payment is one of the most divisive issues in family law. Over the course of two posts I’m going to consider why maintenance orders exist and the emerging case law which means they might be more readily challenged in the future.

Most financial settlements between divorcing couples consider only the “reasonable needs” of the parties involved. They or the court will share out the assets – capital and income – ‘fairly’ so they can both cope financially as they move forward with their new lives. In such cases, there often isn’t any surplus money to fund a “clean break” between them. The wife has no income, or earns far less than the husband, and so needs maintenance payments from her husband to support her. Sometimes these payments have a cut-off point in the future, by which time the wife is expected to be self-sufficient, but often the order is left open-ended because she has care of the children, or has no realistic prospect of earning a reasonable living in the future – or both.

Maintenance therefore remains payable by an ex-husband to his ex-wife, often with an automatic uplift linked to the Retail Prices Index, until the wife remarries, dies or the court makes a further order. Until then she receives tax free maintenance, which she regards as the income earned as a result of their marriage.

This doesn’t happen in mainland Europe, there maintenance is not payable to an ex-wife. She is expected to manage with an equal split of matrimonial assets and if necessary go to work. The husband keeps his income intact save for child support payments. There is no doubt that this causes great financial hardship, and in England the law recognises this fact and provides accordingly.

But suppose both parties move on with their lives and they both acquire different partners?

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Do you or your spouse currently use an offshore tax avoidance scheme?

If you do, and you are also considering divorce, I recommend that you take notice of a recent legal precedent that means Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs can now close tax loopholes retrospectively and claw back unpaid taxes from trusts which have benefited.

We often see cases at Stowe Family Law in which husbands (more than wives, in our experience) have invested in elaborate tax avoidance schemes. These arrangements have been mostly disclosed during proceedings, but they become a Trojan horse when the Inland Revenue declares they might lead to a huge tax liability in the future.

The case I mention above concerns a self-employed IT consultant called Robert Huitson who set up a tax avoidance scheme in 2001 which took advantage of the Double Taxation Treaty between the United Kingdom and Isle of Man.

The Finance Act 2008 made Mr Huitson’s arrangement illegal and HMRC handed him a bill for £100,000 in unpaid tax. He claimed he couldn’t pay the bill as he had spent all of his income during the period on his lifestyle.

He was not alone. By the time the Finance Act 2008 came into force there were around 2,500 taxpayers exploiting similar arrangements, and the amount of income tax at stake was £100 million.

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