Raleys Solicitors

At Raleys we’re (obviously) interested in law, and we’re always interested in keeping our fingers on the pulse, so to speak. So we’ve been following the situation regarding the Hague convention and Japan with interest.

One factor governed by the Hague Conventions states that any child from a failed marriage with parents of two difference nationalities can be returned to their country of residence should they be taken to one parent’s country without the permission of the other parent. This agreement does not cover all countries however, since only signatory countries must comply.

As far as Japan is concerned, the Hague Convention has been rather a bone of contention. The prevailing trend and the current legal precedent in Japan is that children of divorced couples live with just one parent, losing contact with the other. It is almost always the mother who is awarded sole custody. Therefore the Hague Convention’s rules on international child custody contradict Japanese law and the country’s ‘norms.’

Japan is currently the eye in the centre of a storm of publicity over the Hague Convention and the country’s leaders have been under pressure from many G8 countries to sign. The consequences of signing the convention could be huge for Japan because the population has a high number of international marriages, with almost 20,000 marriages made up of one Japanese and one international partner ending in divorce in 2008.

At Raley’s we have been watching with interest as the prevailing public opinion in Japan has appeared to shift. It was first argued that the convention would endanger children of domestic violence victims by putting them back in contact with violent parents. But recently, the tide of public opinion has changed direction and seems to stand more in support of signing the convention.

This is perhaps due to the high profile case of one mother who is unable to see her child as a result of Japan not having signed the convention. The Japanese lady is in her country following a divorce from her Czech partner. The father has the child in his own country and has told courts he has no intention of taking the child to Japan. Whilst the Czech Republic is a signatory of the Hague Convention, Japan still isn’t so the mother as yet has no right to insist her child be brought back to Japan.

It’s turning into quite an interesting debate and we’ll be keeping our eyes on the news to let you know what happens and our thoughts and opinions. We’d love to hear yours too.

The number of family law disputes involving children in January 2010 was up 32% on figures the same month in 2009, a leading divorce advisory service has said.

Divorce.co.uk and other divorce advisory services have pointed out that there is normally a sharp increase in cases of child custody, divorce and child support disputes in the couple of months following the stressful Christmas and New Year period, but that this increase is above average.

Family law disputes following children typically increase shortly after Christmas because of the pressures that the festive season puts on families. Many separated parents try to increase the amount of time they spend with their child over the school holidays and this can often lead to resentment by the other parent.

The recession and money worries have also contributed to the rising family law disputes. It is claimed that extra spending at Christmas leads to resident parents feeling justified in asking the other parent for increased child support. This often leads to arguments.

Family law disputes are distressing at any time of year and at Raleys Solicitors we pride ourselves on our understanding approach to your dispute. However, we also recommend that anyone who is divorcing or embroiled in a family law dispute visits http://www.divorce.co.uk for divorce advice.

Many a tabloid story has told us in excruciating detail the legally and morally questionable tricks employed by the super rich when divorcing to save their fortunes from their ex-spouses, but we rarely hear about actual legal loopholes used, maliciously or otherwise in divorces. Well that’s because they don’t happen so often, but people should be sure to seek legal advice from a well qualified family law solicitor when divorcing to avoid losing out due to legal loopholes.

Let’s take a recent high profile example of a divorcing couple that has appeared in the news and cut their long story short. The middle aged couple were British, had married in the UK but now lived in France following the husband’s long and successful business career. When the wife discovered her husband had been having an affair, she filed for divorce.

It’s not clear whether she tried to file for divorce in the UK first, but either way a couple must have been resident in the UK for twelve months before filing for divorce here, so it wouldn’t have been an option. The story ended with her filing for divorce in the French courts, meaning that her husband’s UK based pension worth over £1m was never taken into account. Add that to the fact that few other countries’ courts look as favourably on women as UK courts do and she was left with a significantly smaller divorce payout than she would have had she divorced in the UK.

The moral of the story is to know your rights, consulting a family law solicitor is the only way to guarantee you do not miss any loopholes which may alter the outcome of the proceedings.

Check out our new family law video made at animoto.com!

Raleys Solicitors Family Law Video

Sports relief is a great way for people to do their bit for charity whilst getting involved with fun activities. The funds raised by everyone who raises money for Sports Relief goes to helping the poor in the UK and around the world. In the UK, many of the poorest and most disadvantaged people come from broken homes and have been through the family law system for their entire lives.

You can help them by getting involved and running just 1 mile!

Do your bit, we will be too.

For more information about Sports Relief click here.

Family law is a complex sector of the law encompassing a number of different issues from child custody to divorce to inheritance tax. Some of the issues contained in family law are necessary in order to gain the best outcome for innocent parties, especially when children are involved. However, some of the laws surrounding the family are just plain obvious, and should’t we already be following them as part of our moral code?

This issue has been raised recently because there is a new proposal circulating that the law should force children and grandchildren to care for grandparents. The argument is based on the fact that a high percentage of grandparents will care for their grandchildren and provide financial security for them, especially as mothers as well as fathers are working longer hours. This new law is seen as a way to ensure that grandparents are repaid for their care and not left to suffer in old age. However, shouldn’t’ our morals already be telling us to look after our own parents and grandparents? No person would knowingly allow their elders to suffer financially or emotionally without doing as much as they could to help. And if they do leave them without care, these people are animals.

Although there have been a number of instances where family members kill other family members, most people will automatically care for their parents and grandparents. Do we really need to make it into a law? For more information on this issue why not have a look at this article.

Divorce is never a nice experience, even when the decision to end a marriage is mutual. However there are episodes in some famous divorce cases when dirty tricks have been used by the lawyers and one or both spouses in order to get the upper hand. The famous chef Marco Pierre White  separated from his wife after seven years of marriage. During the divorce case, White claims that his wife and her team of lawyers intercepted his mail and personal documents in an attempt to gain information about his finances. The chef is now taking the divorce lawyers to court so that he can sue them for these dirty tricks.

For more information on this case you can read an interesting article in the London Evening Standard. Click here to read it.

But remember, not all divorce lawyers will stoop to such levels in order to get results for their client. Every solicitor at Raleys prides themselves on integrity, skill and a knowledge of the law so that these tricks are not needed anyway.

More and more couples are going down the path of the quickie divorce in order to end their marriage as speedily as possible. This new phenomenon which was rare five to ten years ago has been blamed on the celebrity fashion to split up and divorce within a matter of days, not months. And expert relationship councillors and lawyers have lambasted the trend for quick divorces as a waste of money and often psychologically and emotionally damaging.

It would be wrong to say that every couple that tie the knot should never be allowed to divorce no matter how bad their marriage is, sometimes the truth is that no matter how hard you try, two people’s differences cannot be reconciled. However, there is a high number of couples that decide to get a quickie divorce only to realise that they made a mistake and would prefer to talk through their problems, fix them and stay together.

Many notable family  lawyers have had clients that have paid thousands of pounds to divorce before they have even sat down and talked through the reasons behind one party or both involved wanting to get out of the marriage. On many occasions it is simply a case of airing your issues, being listened to and changing your actions so that you can get on with your lives together, happily again.

But this kind of action should be done before the divorce is granted. Your family lawyer should advise you to seek marriage counselling or at least help you to talk to each other before you go to court. Through this process you might find that you would like to give your marriage another go. And if one party is still determined on a divorce, at least it helps the other to understand why their partner is leaving them.

When celebrities can announce their split to the national media and be divorced less than a month later, it does not exactly help to concrete the belief that marriage is for life, ’til death us do part’. With such a casual approach to their personal lives, celebrities are often seen to go off the rails after their divorce, neglecting their children, rebounding with any Tom, Dick or Sally (Because it is both men and women that act like this) and generally portraying bad behaviour. This has led to a more casual approach in society’s view of marriage, and makes divorce a signature on a piece of paper, not an emotional struggle that is difficult for all parties involved.