With more than a tenth of UK marriages now involving a person who was not born in the UK, problems resulting from either spouse having a foreign domicile are becoming increasingly common. It follows that with 40 per cent of marriages ending in divorce, things can be complicated if one of the divorcing couple is not domiciled in the UK. The difficulties can become particularly significant if a financial settlement on divorce has to be financed by assets that are held abroad by a non-domiciled person who has not remitted them to the UK. The tax position can become extremely…
One of the less well-known ways to deal with areas of dispute in a divorce is to arrange for them to be arbitrated. Arbitration involves the appointment of an arbitrator agreed upon by the parties to the dispute and has the advantage of being a process that provides secrecy and a certain outcome. It is also normally faster than alternative methods of settling disagreements, such as court proceedings or mediation – although the latter can also normally be carried out quickly with the willingness of both sides. It is also usually a low-cost method of achieving resolution of a dispute.…
When the ex-wives of two very wealthy men discovered that their divorce settlements had been concluded on the basis of information supplied by their husbands which was clearly wrong, a series of legal battles culminated in a decision by the Supreme Court which shows that the courts may be expected to clamp down hard on those who give misleading evidence in such cases. The two women claimed that their husbands had deliberately misled them by hiding their true wealth throughout legal proceedings to divide their respective family assets. The result was that they had accepted smaller settlements than they were…
Am I choosing the right lawyer? Are you comfortable discussing personal matters with your lawyer? Do you feel he will keep them confidential? There is no substitute for experience, so avoid younger lawyers. They may be cheaper and have better knowledge of social media involvement, but there is no substitute for experience. How can I reduce legal fees? Never use a solicitor as your secretary. He can, and should, help you reduce costs. He can send you a chronology setting out the key dates of the marriage, and a case summary with the basic facts. He can guide you how…
Benefit fraud reduction means different things for different people. For DWP and HMRC it seems the goal is simply to reduce the number of people receiving benefits by any means possible. It’s definitely true that some of the people who receive the “invitation” for an interview under caution are guilty, but even when that is the case; the matter is not usually dealt with in an appropriate way. The response by authorities to even the most minor transgressions is often so over the top it would almost be comical if it were not such a grave concern. This is not…
Over the past few years the NHS has been under heavy scrutiny from both sides of politics, the media, and the public in general. On the whole, the system still works, but very much in the same sense that you can still paddle a leaking boat. As we have mentioned before, the people who are least critical of the NHS are the public, who still generally tend to indicate satisfaction with the standard of treatment they receive, despite staff shortages, lack of funding, and more difficulty in obtaining access to services. Of course just because the public are not complaining…
Whenever laws about domestic violence and domestic abuse are tightened, there will always be some people who feel that the revisions don’t go far enough, while there will be an equally vocal group arguing that the laws are too strict. Some will even question the need for having domestic violence laws at all, since violence of nearly every kind is already prohibited. New law has recently been announced, dealing with the very complicated issue of “coercive and controlling behaviour”. The reason why this is complicated is because it can be very difficult to define exactly where the line gets crossed,…
If you say the word “FERIS” to most people, it will call to mind either the ferris wheels found at carnivals or that classic 1980s movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. But for certain sectors of local Government, it represents a lucrative – if highly questionable – source of income. FERIS is a scheme introduced by the national Government in 2014, and the acronym stands for “Fraud and Error Reduction Incentive Scheme”. Let’s set aside for the moment that all levels of Government should already be fully committed to reducing fraud and error without the need for incentives. While the impact…
We talk a lot on this blog about injustice. One of the most fundamental principles of justice is that anyone who stands accused of wrongdoing should at least have the opportunity to clear their name before any punishment may be applied to them. Currently there is a great injustice being perpetrated against the British public, and it is that anyone accused of benefit fraud (including tax credits claimants) is officially treated as guilty until they can clearly establish their innocence, with at least partial penalties being applied against them with immediate effect. The consequences of this policy can be devastating…
An excellent article in the Solicitors Journal www.solicitorsjournal.com Is well worth a read, if you have a problem involving benefit fraud and property problem with something held in somebody else’s name. The Court of Appeal judgment in O’Kelly v Davies clarifies the law. In that case the property was initially owned in the joint names of the claimant and defendant, who lived in the property together. The property was then transferred into the sole name of the defendant. This was done, as the judge said, ‘the better to enable the [defendant] to make fraudulent claims for benefit’. Nevertheless, the judge…
