Family Law London Blog

There are many important considerations when going through divorce, but four out of five Brits believe that putting children’s interests first is right at the top of the list. Next comes avoiding conflict, according to a recent survey by family law association Resolution.

The group has launched a new advice guide, ’Separating Together: Your options for separation and divorce,’ designed to help separating couples understand and explore non-court based methods of resolving issues arising on the breakdown of a relationship.

“People have good intentions to prioritise the well-being of children and to avoid conflict during separation, but this can often be derailed by a lack of knowledge of non-court based options and an exposure to the adversarial nature of courts. Something is going very wrong, and often the result is emotionally and financially drained parents and deeply distressed children,” said Jo Edwards, Vice Chair of Resolution.

“However, there is another way. We’ve launched this guide because we want separating couples to know about non-confrontational alternatives to court. These methods can help prevent separation and divorce from being needlessly adversarial, and often can benefit the whole family through fairer settlements and by prioritising the interests of children,” he added.

A recent bulletin from the Office for National Statistics has presented provisional annual statistics on marriages that took place in England and Wales during 2010.

Key findings of the bulletin include:

• The provisional number of marriages in England and Wales in 2010 increased by 3.7% to 241,100.
• The highest number of marriages were for men and women aged 25 to 29.
• The largest percentage increase in numbers from 2009 to 2010 were for men aged 45 to 49 and women aged 30 to 34, both rising by 6%.

Over the past 20 years, there has been a rise in the number of cohabiting adults in England and Wales. The number of opposite sex cohabiting couple families increased significantly between 2001 and 2011, from 2.1 million to 2.9 million (Families and Households, 2011). Attitudes towards cohabitation have also changed. The 2006 British Social Attitudes survey found two thirds of respondents thought there was ‘little difference socially between being married and living together as a couple’ (Beaujouan and Bhrolcháin, 2011).

The Divorces in England and Wales, 2010 release showed that the percentage of marriages ending in divorce has generally increased for those marrying between the 1970s and the early 1990s. For example, 22% of marriages in 1970 had ended in divorce by the 15th wedding anniversary, whereas 33% of marriages in 1995 had ended after the same period of time. However, there is some evidence that the proportion of marriages ending in divorce had levelled off for couples married in the most recent years.

New research from dating site, ThePicnicProject.com, has found a growing number of women would rather date a mature divorced man than someone younger than themselves.

According to the survey:

• 12% of single women would rather date a divorcee than someone younger, which amounts to an estimated 655,000 single women.
• An estimated 48,000 single women in the UK admit they are actively looking for a divorced man to date.
• Around 2% of respondents (892,000) said they have recently broken up with their partner, or are in the process of breaking up with their partner.

Women cite better relationship experience as the main attraction to divorced men (12%), along with an increased likelihood that they'll be sensitive to their partner's needs (8%) and the fact they've demonstrated serious commitment in the past (7%).

A quarter of women also admit they would not be deterred by children from another relationship.

A recent survey of divorce lawyers in America has found that people's reliance on their smart phone to organise most aspects of their life has led to the phones becoming a source of evidence to be used in the divorce court.

Around 92% of lawyers questioned said they have seen an increase in the number of cases using evidence taken from iPhones, Droids, and other smart phones during the past three years.

The survey of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) also found that 94% of respondents have cited an overall rise in the use of text messages as evidence during the same time period. Only 8% of lawyers said they had seen no change in the use of evidence taken from smart phones during the past three years.

As far as the most common forms of evidence taken from smart phones, text messages hold the top spot at 62%, e-mails follow at 23%, phone numbers and call histories at 13%, with GPS and Internet search histories each sharing 1%.

A woman from Long Island appears to have made legal history by being the first person in the state to be granted a contested no-fault divorce, reports the New York Post.

Previously, in a contested divorce, the partner seeking the divorce had to claim that the breakdown of the marriage was the fault of the other partner e.g. on the grounds of adultery. A legal amendment introduced just over a year ago added a no-fault provision in an attempt to make the divorce process less acrimonious. Under this change, only one partner needed to claim that the marriage had been irretrievably broken for at least six months.

Until now, the provision had only been used in non-contested divorces, however in the case in question, a 79-year-old woman wanted to end her marriage, but her husband didn't. Based on the evidence presented, the judge agreed with the woman that the marriage was irretrievably over, and granted her the divorce despite the objections of her husband.

A recent bulletin from the Office for National Statistics presents annual statistics on divorces that took place in 2010 following court orders, in England and Wales. The figures show that there were 119,589 divorces in England and Wales in 2010, an increase of 4.9%.