What would you like to know about divorce? Many first-time visitors to this blog arrive after searching for answers about divorce and family law on the internet. Others submit enquiries directly to the comments section on this blog, or contact me directly. It is very clear to me that few people really do know their legal entitlements and most people think they dont need to see a solicitor. It was the same on Tuesday 10 January when I appeared alongside Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on ITV's This Morning, to offer advice to viewers. Click the link to see the interview in full.
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Working in London is very different from our other two offices. Travelling to Harrogate I'm used to a leisurely short drive through gorgeous Yorkshire scenery, parking easily and then enjoying a comparatively relaxed pace of life I had never before fully appreciated...until now. It's the same in Cheshire. Even on the long drive over the Pennines, I go at my own pace, in my own time and after a morning at work can literally pop over the road to the Greenhouse, a fantastic and friendly veggie restaurant.
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Mr Justice Mostyn is not only a very good judge, but also a brilliant academic. Some of his written work is so complex that, years later, I’m not embarrassed to say I didn’t understand a word of what he had to say about the long-gone CSA maintenance formula.
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Another week, another football stadium! This time, it's not Wembley but the Reebok Stadium: the home of Bolton Wanderers football team. It is also the venue for the Bolton Law Society Family Law Conference, which I chaired yesterday.
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Next week a “sound work” called Audio Obscura opens at St. Pancras rail station in London. Armed with headphones, participants enter the crowd. As they pass through the station, they “overhear” fragments of conversations and stories going on around them. It sounds odd, but I suppose that the work encourages participants to use their imaginations. People’s imaginations, of course, travel in different directions. I am fascinated by the idea behind Audio Obscura. I have always enjoyed meeting and advising people - and often, guessing what they are about to tell me. I like helping them to find ways out of their various problems. During long working days, that vital interaction keeps me going.
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Here’s a summer competition: It’s a fictitious scenario, with a puzzle at the end, which centres upon a rocky marriage. The wife is shying away from the truth. The husband is consumed with the guilt of an illicit affair.
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With my recent Roman holiday in mind, together with my concern for litigants in person who may not be able to afford legal representation or believe they can do as a good a job as a lawyer, what follows is my latest column for Solicitors Journal.
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Today I have returned to the office after a fortnight’s holiday in Italy. I haven’t taken such a lengthy break in a couple of years. We spent a week away at Easter, but for me the time was overshadowed by a tragic event. It also turned to be a busy week at the office and, all in all, it wasn’t much of a break.
However this fortnight away provided a much needed rest. I did very little work …
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At Stowe Family Law Settlements, we have started to receive enquiries and questions from prospective clients about MIAMs – or, to give them their full name, Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings. MIAMs were only introduced in April 2011, but if you are considering divorce you will need to know what they are, who can provide them and if you need to have one before issuing divorce …
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I was recently invited to contribute to HuffPost Divorce, where you can now find a slideshow featuring my Top 10 Low-Down Dirtiest Divorce Tricks. Some of them appear to have struck a nerve with …
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Love The Home You’re In, read the slogan on the side of the lorry. I was driving across the M62 last week, on my way to Stowe Family Law’s Cheshire office, when the words caught my eye. The lorry …
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Yesterday, writing about Financial Dispute Resolution hearings, I described how frustrating it can be when an FDR hearing fails and a case proceeds to a Final Hearing. Wasted time and increased costs, stress, worry… Surely there must be a more …
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When a financial application is made to the divorce courts, three court hearings are scheduled to take place: a First Appointment, an FDR hearing and a Final Hearing. Two years ago I published a post …
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Since writing this column I have discovered that there will be less than 100 mediators qualified to undertake these assessments by April 6th. To place that figure in context, there were 126,496 …
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I have already looked at The Drama Triangle from the perspective of Lord Byron and Lady Caroline Lamb. It’s an age-old problem. Now I’m bringing it up to date, by looking at how the Drama Triangle works within the context of a serious and growing problem: cyberbullying.
The classic situation is that of a spurned husband or wife, who is hell bent on revenge and loses self-control after being …
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