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• Divorce
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In order to get a Divorce at present, the person who wants the Divorce the ‘Petitioner’ must prove that the marriage has ‘irretrievably broken down’. To prove this, the Petitioner must prove one of five grounds:-

Provided that the Divorce is uncontested it is a relatively straightforward procedure with no need for the parties to attend Court. However, if the husband or wife opposes the Divorce, a Court hearing may be necessary.Once the Petition has been issued and the husband and wife have consented to the Divorce taking place, the Petitioner can apply for the Decree Nisi. This is the first stage in the Divorce process. Six weeks later, the Petitioner can apply to the Court for the Decree Absolute which is the final step.

It should be noted that the Divorce procedure is totally separate from anything to do with the finances relating to the marriage and the children.

Divorce is not the only way to deal with a marriage that has broken down and there are several reasons why couples may want to separate rather than obtaining a divorce such as:-

• There may be religious or moral objections to divorce.
• The marriage may not be considered to be irretrievable and the couple may want simply to have a trial separation.
• The couples made plans to divorce after 2 years - this requires a period of 2 years separation.
• The marriage may be less than 12 months old so an immediate Divorce is not a possibility.

This is a precise legal term introduced by the Children Act 1989.

The parent or parents with parental responsibility have certain duties towards the child and they make fundamental decisions in respect of the child’s life.

If the parents of the child are married, both the mother and the father automatically have parental responsibility.This may not be the case if the father and mother are not married. After December 2003 an unmarried father will have parental responsibility if he is on the child’s birth certificate.

Even if one of the parents does not have parental responsibility, he can have parental responsibility with the agreement of the mother or alternatively obtain it by way of Court Order.

In a Divorce, the Court will generally leave the arrangements concerning the children up to the Divorcing couple. It is only if no agreement can be reached that one of the parties may need to apply for one of the Orders under the Children Act 1989.

Residence Order

This is an Order for the child or children to live with one or other parent. It is becoming increasingly common to have Joint Residence Orders.

Contact Order

This is an Order requiring the person with whom the child or children lives, to allow the children to have contact with the other parent.

If the parent with care is concerned about how the contact parent may behave and convinces the Court of this, the Court may attach conditions to the Order. There are many types of Contact Order that can be obtained from ‘staying’ contact down to only ‘postal’ contact

Prohibited Steps Order

In short, this Order means a parent cannot do something without the Court’s approval, for example taking the child abroad.

Specific Issue Order

As the name indicates, this is an Order determining a specific issue or problem which has arisen or which may arise in connection with any aspect of parental responsibility.Any Application for any of the above Orders can be made by any parent or guardian of the child including the unmarried father of the child and anybody who had a Residence Order.

Family – unmarried couples

The law relating to unmarried couples is completely different from the law surrounding married couples. Co-habitees have more limited rights than married couples for example, a co-habitee does not have any right to maintenance for himself or herself but only for the benefit of any children.There are also limited circumstances in which a Lump Sum Order can be obtained.

It is likely that this area of law will be changing in the not too distant future.

Financial settlement on Divorce can be complicated. Often on Divorce the parties have been married for some years and the assets of the parties have been built up together. Each party feels entitled to a share of those assets.

The question then arises ‘how much?’.

People can decide between themselves what they would be happy with and this is by far the best way to arrange matters because it reduces acrimony and reduces the legal costs. It enables the couple to deal with matters as they want.If the matter went to a Court, a ruling might be given that does not suit either party.

If the parties can decide for themselves what they want or it can be negotiated between solicitors, the agreement can be drawn up into a ‘Consent Order’ which will be sealed by the Court and will generally prevent any future claims against each other unless there is a Maintenance Order in favour of one of the parties in which case either party can go back at a subsequent date to vary the maintenance part of the Order.

If the matter has to go to Court the Court will decide what the appropriate Order is and it has to take into account the provisions of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973.

There are various factors that the Court must take into account as follows:-

The law is changing in relation to the rights of same sex cohabitants. The new Civil Partnership Act 2004 is likely to come into force in late 2005 which will mean that same sex cohabitants will be able to register as civil partners in order to obtain legal recognition of their relationship. The Act enables same sex couples to acquire many of the legal rights and benefits currently enjoyed by married couples.