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Kingsley Napley’s Medical Negligence Team ‘walks together’ with the Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity
Sharon Burkill
In a report published by The Telegraph this week, the High Court has awarded a wife, after 25 years of marriage, only £4.3million pounds in a divorce where the total wealth was between £21million and £24million. The reason given for this unequal sharing of wealth was that much of the Husband’s wealth had been inherited from his family and so the court felt it should remain with him.
During this time of the year we are often approached by clients faced with arguments about how the children should divide their time between their parents during the school summer holidays. These disputes have the potential to be acrimonious and stressful to all concerned. Clients often query what is the “usual” or “normal” arrangement where parents have separated which is a difficult question to answer as there is no regime prescribed by the law or a right or wrong answer and our response is often whatever the client, as the parent, considers to be in the child’s / children’s best interest(s). As a guide, the experts often suggest that it is appropriate for younger children to visit / stay with the non resident parent for shorter periods of time but more frequently and as the children become older, that the periods of time should be extended to larger blocks of time (perhaps with the principle of the school holidays being divided equally). Our advice is always to grapple with the issue well in advance of any school holidays (particularly where foreign travel is planned) to try to avoid last minute fraught negotiations and potentially a Court application.
This has been a busy week for commentators on Family Law issues. Yesterday, Sir Paul Coleridge, a senior Family Court Judge, remarked that obtaining a divorce is now easier than getting a driving licence. Was this an exaggeration or is it really true?
Sharon Burkill
Natalie Cohen
Caroline Sheldon
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