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Family lawyer fears for dependant wives of wealthy husbands in divorce

By Family Department | Published: Apr 18,2012

Senior family law judge Sir Nicholas Wall has warned that there will be a “substantial increase” in the number of cases entering the family courts where one spouse is not represented by a family lawyer as a result of proposed changes which will come into force in April 2013 as part of the Legal Aid, Punishment and Sentencing of Offenders bill (LAPSO).

Speaking at the annual conference of Resolution, Sir Nicholas said that he was worried about the smaller divorce cases where there would be no legal representation for the less well-off wife of a wealthy man. In such a scenario, he would be able to afford representation and, as a result of legal aid funding cuts, his spouse would not.

Currently, where there is such a disparity, the spouse without independent income is able to seek a family lawyer through the legal aid scheme. However, the new LAPSO legislation will mean that access to funding will be almost totally stripped and many spouses may find they are unable to afford representation.

This situation, Sir Nicholas Wall warns, could lead to potentially complex and drawn-out situations in court, where, he says, “the difficulty is compounded if neither side receives sensible advice.”

Family lawyers in Brighton, London and throughout the UK have almost unanimously argued against the changes to legal aid funding in family law issues and a number of practices are offering means for couples to negotiate divorce settlement terms in the most cost-effective manner possible.

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Asbestos negligence, no place for it in the construction industry

By Professional Negligence Department | Published: Apr 15,2012

With the recent Supreme Court ruling on insurer liability for asbestos exposure and consequent illness still fresh, it is worth reminding ourselves that the problem of asbestos exposure is not one that is confined merely to the past – however much it should be.

Asbestos is still present in tens of thousands of public and private buildings in the UK – in all towns and cities, from Brighton to London and Land’s End to John o’ Groats – and, sadly, construction professional negligence still leads to a number of people suffering unnecessary exposure each year.

As someone who is on the Health and Safety Executive’s mailing list I routinely receive emails detailing how one firm or another in the country has caused significant risk by failing to safely and correctly manage the risks associated with asbestos.

Although most such cases involve worker health being jeopardised, in other cases the issues affect others who might normally assume themselves to be immune from ever needing to worry about issues of exposure, whether they are school children, home owners or private property developers.

But as long as there are construction professionals who act without knowledge, care or skill around asbestos, lives will be at risk.

It is also worth remembering that asbestos-related construction negligence claims are rarely about industrial illness – those, tragically, are the claims dealt with by personal injury solicitors – instead they are about the financial loss and damage caused by construction professionals failing to deal appropriately with asbestos present in buildings, whether homes or businesses, and the resulting financial fallout for those involved.

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Young professionals keen to start residential conveyancing in Brixton

By Residential Department | Published: Apr 13,2012

A report has revealed that the Brixton Market area in London has experienced a surge in property prices over the past 18 months as it is thought that many professionals are keen to start the residential conveyancing process and buy a home in there.

Brixton Market is well known for selling a wide variety of foods and has become increasingly popular with young professionals and recent graduates, making it a desirable area to live.

A recent revamp which helped to fill numerous empty units in Brixton Village has been so successful that the market is now open all week, as well as opening late on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Graham White, a sales manager at an estate agent in Streatham Hill, said, “Definitely sale prices have gone up and there’s a very similar pattern in the rental market as well.

“With the market and the whole area being cleaned up, it’s attracting the kind of people who would have previously moved to Clapham or Battersea.”

It has been reported that property prices have increased by as much as 15% and a two bedroom flat which would have sold at around £270,000 18 months ago is now coming onto the market at £300,000.

The surge in interest may mean that conveyancing solicitors in London may have noticed a boost in the numbers of young professionals seeking a property in Brixton.

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Say Hello to the celebrity divorce solicitor

By Family Department | Published: Apr 11,2012

What’s the best way to make sure you and your spouse don’t end up in the divorce courts? Don’t have your wedding covered by Hello! Magazine.

For many celebrity couples a trip to the divorce solicitor’s office will be inevitable, it seems, but marriages featured in the celebrity lifestyle magazine are more than twice as likely as other marriages to fail in the first six years, according to new reports.

In the past ten years, 62 marriage celebrations have been covered by the publication and ten have ended in relationship breakdown. This represents 16% marriage failure – more than twice the official figure for divorce within the first six years, which is currently at 7%.

Of the Hello! divorces so far, three occurred in the first two years following the wedding, five made it to five years and three of the couples made it past the five-year marker to celebrate their wooden wedding anniversary. Make of that what you will.

The media has dubbed these revelations as the “curse of Hello!”, but the magazine’s editor has rejected this as “totally unfounded”.

Of course, when a celebrity couple features in a magazine they do receive a fee for the coverage, so when Kim Kardashian split from her basketball player husband just 72 days after the wedding one must wonder at the true motivation for the ceremony in the first place.

Former editor, Kay Goddard has intimated as much. She told the Daily Mail, “Perhaps they should put a clause in the contract that celebrity couples who divorce within a certain time should repay some of their fee.”

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Hometrack reveal increase in property prices during March

By Residential Department | Published: Apr 10,2012

An increase in property prices for the first time in nearly two years may lead many people to seek advice from a property sales solicitor if they have been considering selling their home.

Hometrack, a property analytics business, has released figures based on a survey of 1,500 estate agents and surveyors revealing that house prices increased by 0.2% in the UK during March 2012.

The increase in property prices is good news for the housing market, especially as the end of the stamp duty holiday had previously raised fears among experts about whether interest in buying property would be negatively affected.

Data gathered from London was the most positive and showed an increase of 0.5% during March. However, areas in the North have not seen a similar improvement, instead experiencing further price falls.

Richard Donnell, director of research at Hometrack, said, “A strong seasonal uplift in demand has put upward pressure on prices against a backdrop of low sales volumes and a lack of housing for sale.”

Mr Donnell also expressed beliefs that the data suggests that property prices will continue to rise over the next few months.

If you are searching for more information about residential conveyancing in London or elsewhere in the UK, a solicitor from Healys may be able to help you.

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Rangers FC professional negligence claim

By Professional Negligence Department | Published: Apr 8,2012

A firm of London based solicitors is bracing itself to defend a raft of professional negligence claims related to the financial difficulties currently being experienced by Scottish Premier League football club Rangers FC, according to administrators of the troubled club.

The once mighty football club is currently in administration and fighting for its very survival.

On 29 March one of the club’s administrators released a statement, now accessible on the Rangers FC website, which said: “The High Court in London ordered that in addition to the current proceedings regarding the £3.6m that was transferred into the safekeeping of the administrators’ lawyers, Taylor Wessing, the parties with claims against Collyer Bristow (the former lawyers to Craig Whyte and Rangers FC) should bring their claims by 16 April 2012.”

The statement went on to indicate that the solicitors firm would be facing further professional negligence claims in relation to the alleged financial mismanagement of the 54 times Scottish league champions.

“This has widened the court proceedings because we have substantially larger claims against Collyer Bristow which we wish to bring as soon as possible,” said the statement.

It is likely that we will know more about the professional negligence claims over the coming few weeks, with the administrators indicating that the status of the legal action will be clearer by April 16, the deadline for claims against the solicitor firm.

Distressed fans of the football club will follow the actions closely; with all wanting answers as to how one of Europe’s most historic and dominant football clubs could be brought so dramatically to its knees.

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Families need an income of £52,000 to afford London rent prices

By Family Department | Published: Mar 30,2012

A campaign led by housing charity Shelter has revealed that many families in London may be struggling to keep up with rent payments amid the results of a study which shows that families need to earn at least £52,000 a year to meet rent costs.

However, the Homes for London campaign also revealed that in eight London boroughs, including Tower Hamlets and Hackney, families would need to have an income of more than £60,000 in order to keep up with costs.

Shelter has expressed concerns that many families are now at crisis point and are being forced to pay up to half of their income in rent. It has been reported that rent costs in London rose by 7% in 2011, while the number of families renting from private landlords in London has risen by 70% to one in four in just two years.

Campbell Robb, Shelter chief executive, said, “With so many Londoners locked out of homeownership, more and more families have no other option but to rent – but rents are now so out of touch with wages that some families are spending over half of their income just to keep a roof over their head, leaving little left for food, fuel and other essentials.”

The campaign is appealing to the next mayor of London in a bid to make housing a top priority and to help protect families from the sky-rocketing prices of the rental market.

If you are searching for more information about property sales in London, a residential conveyancing solicitor from Healys may be able to help you.

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Shackleton faces negligent legal advice claim

By Professional Negligence Department | Published: Mar 30,2012

Some might say that divorce lawyer Fiona Shackleton is as much of a celebrity as many of her clients, which is quite some claim considering that over the years her client list has included Paul McCartney, Madonna and Princes William and Harry. So, it is quite natural that it should be big news beyond the legal world when it is announced that she is facing a claim for negligent legal advice.

According to papers filed at the High Court this week, a high-powered banker is seeking to claim around £250,000 for what he says is the negligent legal advice

The claimant says that in instructing Ms Shackleton, widely regarded as one of the best divorce lawyers in the country, he was entitled to expect the services of a “leading expert in her field” and as such was also entitled “to expect the highest standards of skill and care”.

The claim of professional negligence focuses on the fact that Ms Shackleton helped the client negotiate a deal to pay £7,000 a month in child support to his then unborn child, now 16-months-old – an amount the client now believes to be excessive, having been told by his new law firm that £658 a month would have sufficed in the eyes of the law.

The result of this alleged negligent legal advice? Well, according to the claimant’s professional negligence lawyer it is £250,000 loss, including the £95,000 he paid in legal fees.

As for Ms Shackleton, one pitfall of being a “celebrity” lawyer in more than one sense of the word is that people get to hear about this case and sometimes make their own minds up, even before they’ve waited for the results of a fair and proper court hearing.

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Wife fights decree nisi in family law appeal to stay married

By Family Department | Published: Mar 28,2012

In a case which highlights why some family law solicitors and judges wish to see the enactment of laws allowing ‘no-fault divorce’, a Northampton woman has attempted to prevent her husband from divorcing her because she felt his reasons for citing that their marriage had irretrievably broken down were “trivialities”.

Following a court’s decision to grant the 50-year-old’s husband a decree nisi, the policewoman appealed, arguing that the couple’s problems were “normal squabbling” and that the law regarding whether her husband could reasonably be expected to continue living with her “was not applied in the correct way”.

The husband, a 56-year-old assistant Dean at Northampton University, separated from his wife in 2008, but when the decree nisi was granted in June 2011 his wife sought to overturn his right to seek a decree absolute.

The court heard a tearful testimony from the wife who defended her actions against her husband as nothing out of the ordinary, but that her husband’s depression had limited his ability to endure what would otherwise be seen as “everyday family difficulties.

She said that the couple had only disagreed about two matters during their 20-year marriage – the fact that she did not wish her husband to use the washing machine or bring intensively farmed meat products into the house.

The court was told that she had removed a fuse from the washing machine and thrown products which her husband intended to consume as part of a packed lunch into the rubbish.

In dismissing the appeal Lord Justice Thorpe said he felt sad that the wife was completely unable “to accept what has happened to her” but that there was only one ruling available to him and that was to agree that the marriage had irretrievably broken down.

He suggested that current divorce law represents “the social values of a bygone age” where one spouse must be shown to be liable in some way for the breakdown of the relationship.

Speaking about the case, the wife said, “Everybody just lets divorce go through. Nobody challenges a decree nisi.”

However, the court ruling means that her husband now has the right to formally end the marriage by applying for a decree absolute.

Following this case, many family law solicitors and family division judges have made renewed calls for a change in divorce law.

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First-time buyers take advantage of stamp duty holiday and boost mortgage loans

By Residential Department | Published: Mar 26,2012

Conveyancing solicitors in London and across the country may have noticed many first time buyers taking advantage of the stamp duty concession which comes to an end on 24 March.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has reported that about £10.7 billion was lent in February this year which is 14% more than February 2011.

Buyers taking their first steps toward the residential conveyancing process over the past two years have been able to avoid stamp duty costs if purchasing a home priced between £125,000 and £250,000

It is thought that the end of the stamp duty holiday has prompted a surge in interest from first-time buyers, and lenders and estate agents have raised concerns that the deadline may cause further chaos to the housing market.

CML chief economist Bob Pannell said, “Although a seasonal decline is expected over the winter months, our forward estimates suggest that February was the seventh month in a row of higher year-on-year lending.

“This indicates that lending for house purchase remains brisk in advance of the ending of the stamp duty concession.”

Mr Pannell expressed beliefs that the government NewBuy scheme, which will enable first-time buyers to purchase a new-build home with a deposit of 5% or 10%, will continue to boost the property market.

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