Raleys Solicitors

None of us likes to think about what will happen once we are gone, but making a will is the best way to ensure that our wishes are respected and that our loved ones are taken care of.

Recent research by the charity Barnardo’s found that 58% of the British people they surveyed did not have a will. That figure was even higher, 74%, amongst people who co-habited. Making a will is especially important for co-habiters as their live-in partner may not be automatically entitled to inherit anything as a spouse would be in the absence of a will.

The survey found that those people who had children were more likely to make a will, with the desire to provide for their children’s future prompting them to do so.

Dying without leaving a will can cause many problems for the family members left behind and making a will is the best way to protect them.

Raleys Solicitors are happy to help with planning for the future, including in making your will.

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.

At Raleys Solicitors we understand that sometimes the law can seem a little bit confusing and that making big legal decisions about the future can be daunting. We also understand that walking into a solicitors’ office can be scary and that many people fear their solicitor will baffle them with long, complicated monologues about the law and its intricacies. This is why we make ongoing efforts to make our legal advice as accessible as possible to everyone.

A recent example of our commitment to making law comprehensible for everyone was our Property, Wills and Probate Advice Day at Barnsley Age Concern Day Centre on February 15th.

The event was headed by Raleys’ Angela Gavin, who is head of Property, Wills and Probate department here. People of all ages were invited to attend to receive legal advice relating to all aspects of this area of law, including writing wills, protecting assets and granting somebody lasting power of attorney.

The reason Raleys hold such events is that we understand that having to think about a time in the future when a person will no longer be able to manage their own legal affairs can be incredibly distressing, so we know that it is important to plan properly for such a time so that difficulties and problems can be avoided in the future.

Angela has previously given advice to pensioners at the National Pensioners Forum in Barnsley and also offered advice to staff at a local hospice. As part of our ongoing commitment to our clients and to making law more accessible we will be holding similar events in the future, so look back soon to find out more.

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.

Some of the team here at Raleys Solicitors recently took part in a sponsored bike ride in order to raise money for a memorial statue at Kellingley Colliery, near Knottingley. The statue is in memory of Don Cook, 50, of Brayton, near Selby. Mr Cook tragically died in September 2008 when part of a mine shaft roof collapsed on top of him at the colliery.

The name of all the miners who have lost their life at the colliery will be embossed onto the statue, which will be designed in the form of a miner and placed at the entrance of the shaft. So far, the four members of Raleys have raised over £1800 and hope that the figure will keep rising. The bike ride was 45 miles long, starting and ending at the site of the statue.

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.