Mediation
Protect the family business on divorce by using collaborative law or mediation
The personal and financial impact of a divorce is bad enough. It can be made much worse when you realise that divorce court judges see the world in a very different way to business owners and entrepreneurs. A divorce must not be allowed to damage the health of the family business where it needs to produce either future income or capital to meet the family’s needs. Judges can struggle to understand a family business owner Many divorce judges presume that business owners get up in the morning and go out to work and are guaranteed to make money. If only that were true! Family law judges often struggle to understand business risk, funding issues and the real liquidity of...
Read MoreDivorce court settlement gamble?
On separation and divorce would you spend thousands of pounds on a bet to gamble the future of your children or your financial settlement on the toss of a coin? That’s what you do in a divorce court. Why do separating and divorcing couples who are otherwise careful, cautious and conservative decide to spend so much money gambling on the outcome of their divorce settlement about money and property? How are you turned from being sensible into a reckless gambler? You think your offer is good. You think your spouse’s offer is wrong. You issue court proceedings and go to trial to let a judge decide. You may as well toss a coin since it is cheaper and quicker. And just...
Read MoreChildren are not harmed by divorce but by continuing arguments
We know from the research that children are not harmed by the fact of their parents separating and divorcing. The real harm to children is caused when the understandable differences between separated parents turn into ongoing disputes and arguments so that the conflict is allowed to continue unresolved. Children are not harmed if you give them your approval to see the other parent So what should parents do? Firstly, children need reassurance that both parents love them. The next tip comes from the highly respected psychologist and researcher Judith Wallerstein carried out research with children whose parents had separated and she followed them over a long period of time...
Read MoreIs divorce and a broken home the cause of a broken society? No!
There are plenty of easy opinions and clichéd views flying around after last week’s riots about the behaviour of teenagers being the result of coming from a ‘broken home’. All the blame, and guilt, gets heaped onto separated and divorced parents by blaming divorce as being a direct causal link to unacceptable behaviour in teenagers and young adults. It is not that simple and the divorce rate has been going down. In fact the main harm to children is not from the fact of their parents divorcing but from being caught in the crossfire of on-going conflict. As a divorce solicitor I have a responsibility for not making things worse. In fact I am I am proud that many fellow...
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