Cohabitation

Another article by John Fotheringham, Fyfe Ireland this time about the Scottish rights of cohabitants when there relationship breaks down written for English legal practitioners here at Family Law Week. The Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 was introduced in May 2006 and John reports the scheme is working well.


The salient points are;


1) there is no minimum period of cohabitation before either party may seek payment from the other in respect of the economic disadvantage which she/he has suffered as a result of the relationship

2) the amount of the claim will depend on the extent of the economic disadvantage of the pursuer

3) there is no claim to the sole or main residence in which the cohabitants live unless it is already in joint names

4)the claim on separation must be made within 12 months or in the event of intestate death within 6 months

Sharia in Scotland

John Fotheringham of Fyfe Ireland LLP, Edinburgh and Glasgow has written a well balanced and informative article about Sharia law and it's recognition in this month's edition of the Law Society Scotland's Journal.

Scotland does not have large Muslim populations in the same way England has, so there has been no serious debate about the recognition of Sharia law in Scottish courts. Whilst Sharia councils have been set up in England to resolve civil disputes in Muslim communities they have no judicial role and John Fotheringham makes the point that they can only ever be courts of voluntary jurisdiction. It all makes sense.

Marilyn Stowe Blog

Marilyn Stowe has compiled a count down of the top ten dirty divorce tricks. See Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

10. Moving the spouse to a different country, in order to obtain a more favourable divorce settlement. There was the case of fund manager, Mark Niznik, who lured his estranged wife to move to Scotland under the pretext of reconciliation and then applied to the Scottish courts for divorce. See this article in the Daily Mail.

9. Covert surveillance of a spouse by bugging the phone, the car, the office - or by employing an enquiry agent. Always sounds like a sleazy thing to do.

8. Secretly photocopying every scrap of financial information in the house and office.

7. Salting away as much money as possible, ready for that “rainy day”.

6. Damage, destruction or sale of the household’s most valuable contents. Horror of horrors, Marilyn mentions the case of a wife selling a Steinway piano without the knowledge of her pianist husband.

5. Spending money wildly, as a form of “payback”. Not sure why it is always assumed that some wives do this and never husbands.

4. Assaulting the spouse and the new partner.

3. Using a “friend” as a spy, to gain access to the lawyer’s office. Whilst friends and relatives might be a good form of support it is never a good idea for someone to become too involved.

2. “Conflicting out” the spouse’s lawyer. This was a new one to me and involves making appointments with more than one lawyer to place them out of bounds to the other party.

1. If all else fails…running off with the divorce lawyer! After 9 years single this doesn't sound such a bad idea.


Marilyn Stowe has more than 25 years of experience handling divorce cases and family law proceedings and is highly skilled at uncovering attempts to disguise wealth and hide assets. She is regularly asked to write articles and give interviews to regional and national newspapers and magazines. I have added her blog to my roll.

Two other interesting posts were Family Law and Forensic Accountants and Beware the Desperate Housewives.

What Happened to Aamer?

Further to this post there has been no news of Aamer Anwar's contempt of court hearing on 29th and 30th April. He had claimed the prosecution of a convicted terrorist was driven by the state. Last week the Sunday Times printed an article about Aamer Anwar's battle with the law which was pretty damning of the Scottish legal system.

Certainly Court rules and forms are complex, just reading them does not in itself explain how to use them, and there is a lack of openness within the legal system. The new independent complaints system won't be active until October 2008 and there are worries about how independent it actually is. Lawyers are conservative and apart from Aamer Anwar there are no radicals in the profession.

The ruling was expected this week so I wait with bated breath.

Fathers' Working Practices

For a long time I have been convinced the biggest obstacle to shared parenting after couples separate is the absence of shared parenting before separation and that if society wants a more equal distribution of child care there needs to be a change in the working practice of fathers. As I said in this post it's refreshing to see a fathers organisation, Dad Info, interested in establishing parent-friendly workplace practices and cultures.

However, it seems men are not exercising their right to flexible working. An article in The Times today reports three times more mothers than fathers with children under 6 are requesting flexible working and if there isn't more take up the issue will be marginalised. Perhaps culturally things don't happen overnight but I'm left questioning if society really wants this change.

The Mither Tongue

Transcriptions of Scottish court cases have been affected by the awarding of the transcriptions contract to the Devon-based company Mendip Media Group. Apparently there were problems with court recording equipment and Mendip staff having difficulties with Scottish accents according to this article in The Scotsman.

Cl@n

Yesterday's Scotsman reported the Community Law Advice Network, or cl@n, has been set up with the aim of making the law more accessible to all by providing legal advice and representation to people at a place suitable to them, at the time that they need it, irrespective of their ability to pay. Its initial focus is in relation to children and young people in Edinburgh and the Lothians.