Blog
Removal of trustees – factors a court will consider
Cally Brosnan
22 January 2018
Parental alienation and intractable contact disputes – when all seems lost
Occasionally, as a family solicitor, I come across a case that makes me despair. Thankfully, it’s rare but that feeling overwhelmed me when I read the child contact case of Q and R (Intractable contact). Before I explain why, I must be clear that this piece does not intend to direct any criticism at the learned judge or the majority of the professionals who ably assisted her. Reading through the judgment it is clear that the judge was faced with an impossible dilemma:
19 December 2017
Children, divorce, narcissism and parental alienation - the perfect storm
I have for many years been representing people coming out of marriages where the other party is or is believed to fall somewhere on the Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) spectrum. The majority of these cases involve children and it is a miserable reality of family law that children often become the battleground in their parents’ drama.
16 October 2017
Divorce in the digital age - poacher or gamekeeper?
Let’s face it, we are all amateur sleuths these days, and divorce lawyers are no exception. We use the internet to find a restaurant and a hotel. Inevitably, we also have a look at our clients or their spouses and partners at the beginning of a new case. There have been some disasters, among others an apocryphal story where a divorce lawyer with a new client took a peek at the husband on LinkedIn….and oops! - that was the first news the husband had that his wife was considering a divorce. Everybody knows that the inverted iPhone at home is the tell-tale of infidelity (it avoids the possibility of a spouse seeing the impossible to explain “see you tomorrow at the Travelodge, Big Boy” or similar).
10 October 2017
Maintenance pending suit and interim maintenance - where divorce meets poker
In a story picked up all over the world, The Times of India reported that a husband had been ordered to pay “a wapping RS four lakl (approximately £4,800) every month” pending the final decision in the divorce.
21 September 2017
Divorce and coercive & controlling behaviour - Harassment’s big brother?
This summer, The Telegraph reported the disciplinary action taken against PC Wayne Hodge and found that “he was behaving in a controlling and coercive manner”. Apparently, he banned girlfriends from talking to men, wearing red nail polish or accepting Tesco deliveries if he was not at home.