Judge orders equal split in £9m divorce, with £897k lump sum to wife
September 23rd 2025The Family Court has ordered an equal division of the couple’s matrimonial assets, leaving each with £3.44m, and requiring the husband to pay the wife a lump sum of £897,092. Amy Fallows Senior Associate Solicitor & Head of our Family Law team reports on this case. The parties, anonymised as OS (wife) and DT (husband), married in 2014, have three children and separated in September 2023 after careers in London’s finance sector. Under…
Cumbrian legal firm named as finalist in four categories at Northern Law Awards
May 16th 2025A Cumbrian legal firm is in the running for four awards in the North of England’s most prestigious law awards. Cartmell Shepherd Solicitors, which has seven offices across Cumbria and Northumberland, has four finalists in the upcoming 2025 Northern Law Awards. The firm’s Dispute Resolution, Family Law and Private Client departments have been shortlisted for Team of the Year in their respective categories, while apprentice trainee solicitor Joseph Halvorsen has…
Judge halts mother’s court action after children refused contact
November 29th 2024A mother’s application to re-establish contact with her four children has been rejected by the court after the children expressed strong opposition to seeing her. Amy Fallows Senior Associate Solicitor & Head of our Family Law team reports on this case. Her Honour Judge Suh concluded that forcing the children into direct contact would harm their emotional well-being, stating that “their welfare is my number one concern”. The children, aged between 9 and…
Court rules on sale of £42m home and luxury yacht in divorce case
October 14th 2024A high net worth divorce case has resulted in a ruling for the sale of a £42 million family home and a €35.5 million luxury yacht. Amy Fallows Senior Associate Solicitor & Head of our Family Law team reports on this case. The case centred on competing applications from the husband and wife, who have three children. The husband sought to terminate the wife’s home rights under the Family Law Act 1996, with…
Family Court upholds divorcing couple’s pre-nup agreement
September 26th 2024A recent family court ruling has upheld a divorcing couple’s pre-nuptial agreement (PNA), which specified that only jointly accrued wealth during the marriage should be considered as matrimonial assets. Amy Fallows Senior Associate Solicitor & Head of our Family Law team reports on this case that highlights the importance of clear pre-nuptial agreements in divorce proceedings. The central issue revolved around the interpretation and enforcement of the agreement which they signed before their…
No-fault divorce hailed a success after two years in practice
May 30th 2024No-fault divorce has been hailed as a welcome success, two years after it was introduced in 2022. Amy Fallows Senior Associate Solicitor & Head of our Family Law team reports. The Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 was designed to reduce the potential for conflict among divorcing couples by removing the ability to make allegations about the conduct of a spouse and allowing couples to end their marriage jointly. Under previous law, one…
Wife ordered to pay husband £120k after trying to thwart settlement
February 22nd 2024A wife has been ordered to pay her husband £120,000 after trying to thwart the terms of their divorce settlement. Amy Fallows Senior Associate Solicitor & Head of our Family Law team reports. The Family Court heard that the couple had run a property lettings business together. All the properties were in the wife’s sole name, as was the matrimonial home. A final order was made in 2021 that provided for a roughly…
New measures to tackle parents who refuse to pay child maintenance
November 15th 2023The Government is planning new measures to deal with parents who refuse to pay child maintenance. Amy Fallows Senior Associate Solicitor & Head of our Family Law team reports. Those who fail to meet their obligations will face accelerated sanctions following the introduction of powers to speed up enforcement action and other reforms to make the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) fairer. A consultation is now taking place on the use of liability orders…
Government rejects calls for legal protection for cohabiting couples
December 1st 2022The government has ruled out introducing changes to family law to provide greater legal protection for cohabiting couples. Amy Fallows Senior Associate Solicitor & Head of our Family Law team reports. Family lawyers have been pressing for more protection because many people still believe there is such a thing as common law marriage giving them the same legal protection as married couples. Unfortunately for them, this is not true. Cohabiting couples have very…
Girl can remain in UK with mother despite order from French Court
October 12th 2022To enforce an order from a French court to relocate a five-year-old girl from her mother in England to live with her father in France would be draconian, the English Court of Appeal has ruled. Amy Fallows Senior Associate Solicitor & Head of our family law team reports. The girl was born in France in 2016; two years later her mother and father separated. In February 2019, the French High Court gave the mother…
