28th October 2010
It's not often that matters of family law hit the headlines (except when celebrities get divorced, of course) but the recent Supreme Court ruling which upheld the pre-nuptial agreement of wealthy heiress Katrin Radmacher has seen the sort of news coverage usually reserved only for major events.
The Radmacher ruling has even been discussed on prime time TV with BBC presenter Carrie Grant appearing on The One Show (26-10-10) to discuss the impact the ruling may have on "ordinary couples".
Grant spoke to a young couple and various women who appeared to be at a wedding fair. Views on pre-nuptial agreements were mixed.
The woman interviewed with her partner said that she would have been disheartened if her fiancé had asked for a pre-nup. She said it would have been as if he was planning a future in which they were gong to divorce.
One woman said that she would want to protect her business, so she would be happy to draw up a pre-nuptial agreement. But many of the women expressed the view that they would not have been happy to sign.
Grant spoke to a family law solicitor who said she believed the general public had mis-conceptions about pre-nups; believing them only to be for the rich and famous, but that this was not the case.
When Grant suggested that it was only family lawyers who benefitted from the drawing up of a pre-nup, the solicitor said, "A pre-nup is far cheaper than a divorce. Hopefully it will minimise the level of acrimony between the parties because they're not arguing over who has what out of the financial pot."
The solicitor finished by saying that she hoped people would see the Radmacher ruling as "the way forward" and that it would act as a prompt for couples to seek legal advice on pre-nuptial agreements.
