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'Tax issues with overseas assets or income in divorce' - Sofia Thomas
When ignorance isn’t bliss: Practical Tips on Avoiding Negligence Claims
Nuptial Agreements: The latest thinking with Richard Todd QC
Financial Remedy Courts Update
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Her Majesty's Attorney General v Akhter & Anor [2020] EWCA Civ 122
The Attorney General appealed from a decision to pronounce a decree nisi of nullity, following an Islamic marriage ceremony which the parties had known was of no legal effect. The couple had reached an agreed settlement, and so took no part in the appeal. A petitioner in separate nullity proceedings had been given permission to intervene, as were the campaign group Southall Black Sisters. The first issue was whether there are ceremonies or other acts which do not create a marriage, even a void marriage, within the scope of section 11 of the 1973 Act. The court concluded that there could be such ceremonies, and that they would not entitle the parties to a decree of nullity. The second issue was whether the ceremony in this case had been a non-marriage (or as the court preferred, non-qualifying ceremony) or a void marriage. A non-marriage would create no separate legal rights while a decree of nullity with regard to a void marriage would entitle a party to apply for financial remedy orders under the 1973 Act. Sir Terence Etherton MR, King LJ and Moylan LJ concluded that this had been a non-qualifying ceremony. The judge's order was set aside as there had been no ceremony in respect of which a decree of nullity could be granted. Judgment, 17/02/2020, free -
The Hon Mr Justice MacDonald speaking at the Four Jurisdictions Conference 2020
Family Law - Past and Future, presented on 1st February 2020. News, 13/02/2020, free -
LC & Anor (Children) [2019] EWHC 3791 (Fam)
An application for the summary return to Zambia of two children of British nationality, brought to England by their South African mother. Zambia had signed the Hague Convention on the civil aspects of international child abduction, but had not been accepted by the United Kingdom as a reciprocating party, and so this was instead decided under the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court. Before the abduction, one child had made allegations of sexual abuse against the father, but unsupervised overnight contact had been required to continue. With this in mind, Holman J was not satisfied that returning the children to Zambia was in their best interests, not without much fuller inquiry and fact finding. The mother had stated that she would not return to Zambia, and the court could not risk the potentially disastrous outcome of the children being returned to an unprotected situation without her. The application was dismissed. Judgment, 12/02/2020, free -
M & F (Children) [2020] EWHC 162 (Fam)
The children had repeatedly told their guardian, and through her the court, that they wanted to continue living with their mother in England. The Spanish court had ordered that they live with their father in Spain. Russell J DBE found that on any objective and neutral analysis both children were habitually resident in England. They were settled here and were fully integrated into their schools and social environment. There was no significant evidence contrary to such a finding, and jurisdiction was with and in this court. The mother's appeal against enforcement of the Spanish order was allowed. The children would live with her, and would have contact with the father, subject to him providing written permission for the renewal of the children's passports, and documentary evidence that the Spanish order had been discharged and all criminal complaints in Spain against the mother had been dropped. Judgment, 06/02/2020, free -
AB v CD [2019] EWHC 3381 (Fam)
An application by the father pursuant to the Hague Convention 1980. The child was born in Brazil but the family had subsequently moved to England. The parents had been on an extended visit to Brazil when the mother left with the child, first to the USA and then returning to the UK. The father argued that the child was habitually resident in Brazil and that this was a wrongful removal. Judd J held that, while the family had not yet decided where they would live in the long term, the mother and child were habitually resident in England. Given the mother's long-standing residence in the UK and the plans that she and the father had made, she did not lose her habitual residence during that trip to Brazil. Though the father no doubt felt wrong-footed and insecure when the mother left, the plan to return to England had not changed and he had not revoked his consent to that. The father's applications were dismissed. Judgment, 04/02/2020, free -
Sir Andrew McFarlane's 'call for evidence'
Sir Andrew McFarlane, The President of the Family Division, is undertaking a review of the current arrangements which regulate access by journalists and the public to, and the reporting of, information concerning proceedings in the Family Court (‘the Transparency Review’). News, 04/02/2020, free -
'Tax issues with overseas assets or income in divorce' - Sofia Thomas
Recording of talk first given at the At A Glance Conference, October 2019. Webcast, 03/02/2020, members only -
HMCTS shuts heavily criticised divorce centres
The government is closing some of its regional divorce centres as a result of work shifting online, the Gazette has learned. News, 03/02/2020, free
