Family Law News

One of the UK’s most senior family law judges has said that couples may be able to complete their divorces online by 2017.

Last week the Match of the Day presenter and former England striker Gary Lineker divorced his wife of 6 years, Danielle Bux. This was Lineker’s second marriage, having split from the mother of his children, Michelle Cockayne, after 20 years of marriage.

Liverpool FC manager Brendan Rodgers has been in court in an attempt to finalise his multi-million-pound divorce from his wife of thirteen years.

It has been revealed that one of the stumbling blocks for the divorce is the 102 properties that the couple own, with the buy-to-let empire set to be valued as part of the financial settlement. According to some legal sources, Mrs Rodgers who has two children with the current Anfield boss is seeking half of her husband's wealth. Rodgers, who is set to remain as the Liverpool boss until 2018, earns at least £5 million per year prior to bonuses, and will earn at least £20 million by the time his contract expires.

Using this capital the manager has also built a massive rental property empire with his business partner Judith O’Hagan. For an accurate settlement to be found, the court is valuing the houses and assessing how much his soon to be ex-wife could be entitled to.

Mrs Rodgers went before a family court in London asking for a ruling on the amount of maintenance she should receive from her ex-husband. Her lawyer said: “Susan is saddened that after a relationship spanning 24 years she had to go to court to secure sufficient maintenance from her husband.”

According to The Times, divorce centres will open in England and Wales that will aim to make getting a divorce as easy as obtaining a TV licence.

The move will effectively allow couples to get an “over the counter” divorce with the 120,000 seen in the UK being taken out of the UK court system and away from the public eye. The centres will aim to conclude a divorce in 48 hours and handle the vast majority of UK cases with the vast amount of paperwork being dealt with by administrators rather than judges.

Under the current divorce system in England and Wales, uncontested divorces cost around £400 and last on average 33 weeks.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin have filed for divorce after announcing they had split up over a year ago.

The Coldplay frontman and Hollywood actress announced they had "consciously uncoupled" in March 2014 after ten years of marriage. The couple had two children together but took significant time before officially filing the papers.

There have been mixed reports on the settlement agreement between the couples with some stating that their business managers and solicitors have been left to argue the details, with others reporting that everything has been split equally.

The Government is to act on one of the recommendations made in the Law Commission’s ‘Matrimonial Property, Needs and Agreements’ report, and produce new guidelines for divorcing couples on what they should expect when property and income is distributed by the courts.

Courts in Birmingham, Weston-super-mare and Coventry are the top three busiest divorce courts in England and Wales, according to new Government figures. Next on the list are courts in Romford, Leicester and Bristol as well as Norwich, Leeds, Chelmsford and Manchester.

A new independent report has found that relationship support services deliver financial and emotional benefits to both individuals and society in general.

Leading relationship charities have joined forces to create an alliance which aims to put strong and stable relationships at the heart of a thriving society. The Relationships Alliance, comprising of Relate, Marriage Care, the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships and OnePlusOne, recently had its official launch in the House of Commons.

According to a recent study from America, divorce can be contagious, reports the Pew Research Centre.

According to National Family Mediation (NFM), the Relationships Foundation’s latest “Cost of Family Failure Index” has revealed that the cost of relationship breakdown and divorce is continuing to rise, and has now reached £46 billion a year (which works out at around a cost of £1,541 per taxpayer).

Separating couples are being urged to use mediation instead of ending up in courtroom battles after a list of England and Wales divorce hot spots was revealed.

New measures are being put in place to support separating couples at the time of year when the number of people considering separation and divorce is at its peak.

Resolution, the national family law association, has recently published the results of a survey, which shows that four out of five people believe putting children's interests first should be one of the main considerations in a divorce. Around 53% thought that making the divorce conflict-free should also be a priority.

Recent research has detailed the costs of meeting the minimum basic needs of a child in 2012.

A recent UK based survey into the reasons why couples divorce has found that disputes over household chores were the cause of divorce for 30% of couples polled, reports the Daily Mail. Infidelity caused 40% of marriage breakdowns, and drifting apart 35%.

Palestinian religious authorities are to make changes to Islamic divorce laws that will make it easier for women to divorce their husbands, reports the Washington Post.

New research by Confused.com has revealed that love could be one of the biggest losers of the recession as bailing out one's partner or spouse is the most resented expenditure among the nation's adults.

The results of a survey into conflict between couples have shown that money is a common cause of conflict at every stage of a couple's relationship.

Researchers in America have found that many couples on low incomes are opting to live with a long-term separation rather than get a divorce.