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Kingsley Napley’s Medical Negligence Team ‘walks together’ with the Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity
Sharon Burkill
From 6 April 2022, the divorce process in England and Wales will see wide-ranging changes as a result of the provisions of the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 taking effect. This came about following decades of campaigning by many including Resolution to help families navigate the process in a less adversarial and more constructive way. For those contemplating divorce, and for non-family law professionals and loved ones advising and supporting them, the new process and the depth of legal analysis and commentary can feel daunting.
As a Ukrainian living in London with a 9 year old child, I know first-hand how much the children are affected by the recent developments and it is often much more than we realise. My father was in Kyiv when the war started. It was a very difficult decision to leave everything behind…and go. They left in day five after an oil plant was shot just outside of Kyiv. There were five of them in the car, with only one backpack per person: a scared cat, an oil tank, ropes and blankets took priority over personal belongings. Having only had less than five hours of sleep in the four days prior to that, they drove to the border through the very many checkpoints with armed military, in the dark and in the snow to reach the Carpathian mountains and then to cross the border.
In April 2022, long over-due law reform will take blame out of the divorce process, but we need to go further now to address the way divorce and separation impacts the entire family, not just the parents.
I am regularly asked to advise French and international couples on the protective agreements available to them before they marry and whether they need an English or French drafted agreement. They are often surprised to learn that it isn’t possible to draft a global prenuptial agreement which would be enforceable throughout the world, wherever they move to in the future. It is all the more surprising to French clients who learn that their trusted and routine contrat de mariage is not automatically enforceable in divorce proceedings in England.
Despite no longer living full-time in the UK, it is often the case that expats are still subject to the English court system in the event they divorce, says Stacey Nevin, senior associate in the Family & Divorce team at Kingsley Napley.
Sharon Burkill
Natalie Cohen
Caroline Sheldon
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