Fall of Divorce Rates and Court Cases

News of a fall in the Scottish divorce rate this afternoon;

The number of people getting divorced in Scotland fell by 2% in the last year to 9,453, official figures have revealed.

The most common reason for splitting up was that the couples had not lived together for the last year.

Source BBC

Earlier today figures were released indicating there has been a fall in the number of cases brought before the civil courts including family cases.

Source The Journal of the Law Society Scotland

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English Solicitors Urged to be Rude

An article written by Scottish solicitor Lucia CLark  of Morton Fraser last week urged  English solicitors to be rude when dealing with cross-border divorce applications between Scotland and England & Wales.

In England & Wales solicitors there is a  a Family Law Protocol  and the family lawyers organisation, Resolution, also publishes Guides to Good Practice. The  aim is to  encourage out of court settlements. It is considered  good practice  to send  a draft of a divorce petition to the other spouse to check if they will agree not to defend the divorce and give them the chance to object to a particular allegation.

Of course Scotland has it's own legal system with different divorce procedures. There is no practice in Scotland of sending a draft divorce writ for approval.   If a solicitor in England  writes to a Scottish solicitor notifying them of the intention to commence divorce proceedings the  Scottish solicitor's response will be  to  raisie a divorce action in Scotland. The convention is that the country where divorce proceedings are first initiated has jurisdiction. So Lucia's advise to English solicitors is be less polite!

The lesson for a spouse  who lives in England & Wales and wants to divorce someone living in Scotland is ensure your solicitor appreciates the law is different in Scotland  and  they know to issue proceedings  without notice. 

Full article  Family Law

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Family Law Blogs Scotland

After my long break I thought  there would be a few more  divorce and family law bloggers in Scotland by now to keep me company. I  tried a search engine and was somewhat surprised to find my blog mentioned on  The Journal of the Law Society of Scotland website.   Iain Nisbet of Absolvitor reviews eleven Scottish blawggers to keep an eye on in 2011. If I'd have known that I would have come back a lot sooner!

Unfortunately there still doesn't appear much in the way of interaction  between family law bloggers here. If anyone knows of someone please let me know. However,  Stephen Moore of CaseCheck  left  me a comment  back in 2010 about their latest site Family Law Edinburgh which has a lot of useful information and a Family Law News section which I have now added to my blogroll.

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Novel Way of Collecting Child Support

We have all heard of protesting dads but this summer in the music festival season I came across this one mum's revenge. I think this is a beautiful song well sung although apparently  it was as written before  this particular tale was told -  ("you will breathe no more" is artistic licence, I presume!)

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Collaborative Law

I have been through the links on my blog and discovered some obsolete and broken ones. One obsolete link was for Collaborative Family Lawyers Scotland which  is now called  Consensus.

For those readers who are new to family separation collaborative law  is a process where separating spouses each choose their own lawyer.  Both spouses and their respective lawyers meet to work out an agreement that can work for the family around the table. The clients and  lawyers sign an agreement that commits the spouses to trying to resolve the issues without going to court and prevents the lawyers from working on the case if the collaborative process breaks down.  Before the round the table meetings  each spouse has  a preliminary meeting  with their own lawyer to discuss what needs to be done and to prepare beforehand.

The advantages of collaborative law is that everyone is committed to finding agreement rather than going to court,  it avoids conflict  so there is no unnecessary damage to long term family relationships and other professionals such as accountants or counsellors can be brought into the process. Because there are no court proceeding the cost are kept down. The disadvantage is if no agreement is reached the spouses have to pay for the collaborative lawyers and then conventional lawyers.  

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