I’ve heard all the excuses and all the explanations.

So, how do you know he’s planning to leave you? Here are some early warning signs…

1. He starts taking an unusual interest in his clothes and overall appearance. You have nagged him for years about boring suits and stained ties. You have urged him to adopt a trendier hairstyle and told him that unwanted facial hair really isn’t a turn-on. Now he’s taking action on his own - and alarm bells are ringing.

2. He takes out new credit cards in his name only and you never see the monthly bills.  This is a sure sign that he’s spending money on things he doesn’t want you to know about. Continue reading »

By Paul Taylor
IT is one of the perils of Marilyn Stowe’s job that she has awkward encounters with people she has, in the strictly legal sense, taken to the cleaners.

For instance, there was the day she was about to undergo an operation, met the anaesthetist and realised to her horror that she had just represented his wife in their divorce.

“I said `Hello, am I going to recover from this operation?’,” she recalls. Luckily, the two went on to become firm friends.

And there were the uncomfortable moments in a Leeds gym when she was recognised by prospective clients or by the bitter ex-spouses against whom she had acted.

“People were either coming up to me and saying `Can I just ask you a question?’ or saying (grimly) `It’s her’. It was awful so I left,” she says.

It was a public relations man, the disgruntled husband of a former client, who first referred to Stowe as `The Barracuda’.

“I was quite impressed really,” she says, happily embracing this free bit of PR. “I’ve been called a lot worse.”

In truth, the Barracuda tag does not fit.

Down-to-earth

Softly-spoken, down-to-earth and, as other journalists have observed, with a look of Celine Dion about her, Marilyn Stowe is a long way from the power-suited harridan that nickname suggests.

To read the rest of the interview, click here.

The examination of a solicitor’s file may be required if a fraud has come to light.

When financial cases are bitterly contested, there can be allegations of non disclosure and even fraud against spouses who disclose incomes and assets that are less than expected.

If the husband has supervised the family finances, his wife may know little about the couple’s overall financial standing. So if he is creative and anticipates a divorce, he may try and divest himself of assets in order to produce a relatively modest balance sheet. In such a situation, what can a wife do?

Continue reading »

An open letter to Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, Prime Minister.

Dear Prime Minister,

Joshua Rozenberg interviews the Chairman of the Law Commission in today’s Daily Telegraph. Three family law matters are touched upon: reform of ancillary relief law, pre-nuptial agreements and cohabitation law reform.

I note that there will be no reform of the law in relation to the division of a couple’s assets. The courts will continue to apply the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 and I’m pleased about that. As a family law solicitor, I approve of the discretion given to the judges: it helps couples across the country who don’t have “big money”. I am very much against the equal division of assets as in other countries, because there are occasions when 50:50 cannot be fair. No two cases are the same.

I also note that the Law Commission will be examining the legal status and enforceability of pre-nuptial agreements. I can’t think why valuable public resources are going to be spent helping the very rich to protect their assets. Continue reading »

Meet law student Abigail Black, who is working with us until the autumn. She has already secured a training contract with a major USA law firm based in London; from what I have seen, she will go far.

Abigail was telling me about some of the challenges faced by law students in search of good work placements, and I suggested that she write a “guest blog” about her experiences. We hope that her advice will be of use to other students.

Forget the endless university exams, the demanding coursework and the time-consuming dissertation; one of the biggest challenges facing law students today is working out where to go and what to do after graduation. Faced with an increasingly saturated and competitive legal marketplace, it is becoming more and more difficult for law graduates to make informed decisions about which type of law firm holds the key to that elusive career.

I must admit that until recently, “work experience” was a phrase that struck dread and dismay into my heart. I undertook my first placement after my GCSE exams. Two weeks later, I had established a firm friendship with the photocopier and could recite the tea and coffee preferences of every member of staff - but I had learned little else.

Fast forward a few years and, armed with a 2:1 law degree, I was excited but nervous when the opportunity for work experience at Stowe Family Law arose. My expectations were high - but I feared that, once again, I would find myself left none the wiser at the placement’s end. Fortunately, this hasn’t been the case. Continue reading »

  The law needs changing - the Government must do more than tinker at the edges

Although I believe that the increased number of unmarried couples has created problems that are not covered with existing legislation, I was startled to learn that the Government has unveiled proposals to make unmarried mothers declare their children’s fathers on birth certificates.  

At present, only children born to married couples must have a father’s name entered on their birth certificates. When a mother and father are not married, the naming is at the mother’s discretion. Every year nearly 50,000 babies - seven per cent of the total - are “sole-registered”, with only the mother’s name on their certificate.

The new proposals are described by The Daily Telegraph as follows:

Mothers will be forced to name their child’s father on birth certificates for the first time under Government plans which will improve collection of child maintenance from absent fathers.

The 45,000 mothers who leave the father’s name blank when registering a birth each year will have to identify him unless they can prove it is “impossible, impractical or unreasonable” to do so.

Once a name is given, the potential father will be contacted and ordered to register or submit to a paternity test. If a DNA test is positive, the man’s name will be recorded on the child’s birth records.

Fathers who deny paternity, but do not undertake a DNA test, will face potential fines.   

Speaking as a family lawyer, I’m less than impressed. Continue reading »

Proposed legal rights for cohabitants have one reader reaching for the panic button.

As regular readers are aware, I hold strong views about the Government’s reluctance to introduce new legislation for cohabiting couples. I believe that cohabitants should be allowed to put their relationship before the court in the same way that divorcing couples can. 

Not everyone agrees with me. One reader has contacted me to argue that the law should not be changed. I think he raises some interesting and pertinent points about cohabitation and remarriage, and I would like to explore his case in more detail.

Continue reading »