A heterosexual couple who wanted to enter into a civil partnership have lost their case. Rebecca Steinfeld, 34, and Charles Keidan, 39 were seeking a judicial review of the law but this was refused by the judge, Mrs Justice Andrews. The couple have been together for over five years and have an eight-month-old baby.
...Family Law News
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.
...More than 15,000 same-sex marriages have taken place in England and Wales since the law was changed according to official figures.
Statistics from the Office for National Statistics revealed that a total of 15,098 couples had legally married since 2014. Of the 15,098 couple that had married, 7,366 were marriages while 7,732 accounted for conversions from civil partnerships. 55% of the marriages were between two females with 45% being between male couples.
The number of partners wishing to obtain a civil partnership fell by 70% between 2013 and 2014. Same-sex marriage in England became legal at the end of March in 2014.
Barnardo's has launched the Government’s first Charter for Care Leavers.
Members of the House of Lords have debated the key principles and purpose of the Inheritance (Cohabitants) Bill, which is a private members' bill aimed at making significant changes to the rights of a cohabitant in the event of their partner’s death.
Recent data from the Office for National Statistics has revealed that there were 723,913 live births in England and Wales in 2011, increasing slightly (by 0.1%) from 723,165 in 2010.
Children from single parent families are growing up in poverty as successive governments fail to make work pay and tackle single parent unemployment, reports Gingerbread. The charity has launched a three-year campaign calling on the government to take action to help single parents escape unemployment and working poverty.
The Family Law Bar Association has issued a comment on the retirement of Sir Nicholas Wall as President of the Family Division and Head of Family Justice for England and Wales on the 1st December.
Eight charities have joined forces to launch an inquiry into how best to provide stable and permanent homes for children in England who cannot live with their birth families.
Figures published by the Department for Education this week have revealed there are now more than 50,000 children living with foster families in England on any given day.
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.
The Government has announced a new cross-government definition of domestic violence, which will include victims aged 16 and 17.
Adopting and fostering will become a faster and more efficient process thanks to new arrangements for approving carers, Children’s and Families Minister Edward Timpson has announced.
Recent research has detailed the costs of meeting the minimum basic needs of a child in 2012.
Single parent charity Gingerbread has claimed that around 100,000 parents stand to lose an average of £6 a week due to a little known technical change to the child support assessment system.
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 Department of Work and Pensions has published the latest quarterly statistics on the payment of child maintenance through the Child Support Agency (CSA).
Recent figures from debt charity Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) have shown that divorce and relationship breakdown is leading 25 people to seek help with unmanageable debt each day.