Blog
From garage to unicorn – Employment law lessons for scaling tech teams
Catherine Bourne
9 March 2018
US expats in the UK: The price of divorce has just increased
Divorce might have just become more expensive for US taxpayers. In the US, alimony payments (otherwise known as maintenance or periodical payments in the United Kingdom), but not child maintenance, are deductible by the paying spouse and are taxable to the recipient spouse as income. In the small print of the widely heralded tax reforms approved by the Trump administration in January 2018, the tax break will end for all divorce financial settlements finalised after December 31, 2018.
1 March 2018
Coercive control and its effect on family court cases
It is now three years since the Serious Crimes Act 2015 received royal assent, creating a new offence of coercive behaviour in intimate or familial relationships. Last week the Sentencing Council recommended harsher sentences for offences in a domestic setting that have the capacity for lasting psychological and emotional effect. These changes not only have an impact on criminal cases of domestic abuse, but also divorce and family justice related cases too, because criminal proceedings often have a bearing on divorce and children cases.
9 February 2018
Dubai divorce settlements - how to spend it
In what has recently been described as a landmark decision in Dubai, a financial advisor, Neil Grant, was reportedly convicted by the Dubai Criminal Courts of operating a company without being registered by the authorities. According to newspaper reports investors are now looking to recover losses “potentially running into millions of pounds”.
2 February 2018
First cases of mitochondrial donation therapy in the UK and why the “three-parent baby” headlines are misleading
In February 2015 the UK became the first country to approve laws allowing for the creation of so called “three-parent babies”. Despite the UK being first in line to approve the legislation, there has been a three year delay before doctors have now been granted permission by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to use the procedure on two women in the UK.
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:
- Children
- Civil Partnerships & Co-habitation
- Divorce & Separation
- Financial Settlements
- International Adoption & Surrogacy
- International Family Law
- Mediation & Alternatives to Litigation
- Pre-nuptial & Post-nuptial Agreements
- Anglo French Family Law
- Legal Updates
- Reflections on The Split
- Child Relocation after Divorce or Separation