26 September 2009
Andrea Woelke is a Guest on BBC Breakfast about Pre-Nuptial Agreements
2 July 2009
Pre-nuptial Agreement followed
13 June 2009
£220,000 settlement for wife 22 years later
6 April 2009
Alternative Family Law new Website Online
6 April 2009
Parental Provisions of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 Come into Force
25 March 2009
French Senate recognises Civil Partnership
News
26 September 2009
Andrea Woelke is a Guest on BBC Breakfast about Pre-Nuptial Agreements
On 26 September 2009 Andrea Woelke was a guest on BBC Breakfast and BBC News Channel to comment on the increase in pre-nuptial agreements as reported by Resolution.
Andrea Woelke said: “Pre-nuptials can be a fantastic way of setting up practical issues. This is also a great way to see whether you can actually work together. If you are getting married, that’s for life and you have to be able to work together.”
You can watch the clip here.
2 July 2009
Pre-nuptial Agreement followed
Today the Court of Appeal in a landmark case of Radmacher v Granatino ([2009] EWCA Civ 649) decided that the German pre-nuptial agreement between the German wife and the French husband in this case should be upheld.
The husband was still awarded a housing fund for a house in London (of £2.5m) for holiday contact and one near where the former wife and mother of the children live and where the children can have contact with him during term time. However, this will go back to his former wife (or the children) when the youngest child has reached 22 years of age.
Katrin Radmacher, the heiress to the Macherey-Nagel group of companies in Düren, Germany, succeeded in arguing that her French former husband Nicolas Granatino’s claims should be limited to those of a father.
He still received child maintenance (for the time the children will spend with him) and had his debts cleared.
When the couple met, Mr Granatino was a banker in the City of London at JP Morgan earning some £330,000 gross per year and Ms Radmacher ran a show in Chelsea with her sister. Ms Radmacher’s father insisted on a marital agreement (pre-nuptial agreement), certainly so that he could gift part of his estate (about €100m) to his daughter during his life time and thus save inheritance tax. Had Mr Granatino refused to sign the pre-nuptial agreement, Dr Radmacher would probably not have passed part of his estate on to his daughter.
This case strengthens the argument that in effect foreign pre-nuptial and marital agreements should be upheld in the English courts, a questions, which in international cases is hugely important when the divorce happens to be in England because the English divorce application came first.
While this does not make pre-nuptial agreements binding in England, in practice the courts will put far greater weight on them than they did until a few years ago.
13 June 2009
£220,000 settlement for wife 22 years later
The Times reports today that 22 years after the separation a wife received a settlement of £220,000 from her husband.
The marriage lasted all but 4 years and the wife brought up their son. The husband works “occasionally as a chef” and the wife “works in a company that produces online educational materials”. There were no assets apart from an inheritance of £120,000 the husband received after the separation. He invested it in property, which he sold last year at £1.1 million.
This should be a lesson to anyone who thinks that just separating and separating finances will mean that there will be no claims from the former spouse later on. The court apparently made clear that this case was decided solely on the needs of the wife. The fact that the money came from inheritance would have excluded it from any distribution in other countries, especially since the husband got it after they separated. This is not the case in England.
The husband, who is now living in Ireland, should have considered his position carefully and lawyers specialising in international family law would possibly have been advised to move to somewhere else, for example, Scotland, and divorce there.
27 April 2009
DIY Divorce
A new page on our website explains why not to spend money on buying an online „DIY Divorce“ package. For those who want to do their divorce themselves, we have all the links to the necessary forms and guidance. The page also shows why it is important to get things right and how an expert solicitor can help.
6 April 2009
Alternative Family Law new Website Online
Alternative Family Law’s website has been entirely overhauled. There are now 9 areas of family law with over 50 pages with free information about English and international family law.
The website includes references to other web resources that offer support and further information, for example the wealth of support resources for parents who are living separate.
The free information also covers the various ways of alternative dispute resolution: mediation and collaborative law.
6 April 2009
Parental Provisions of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 Come into Force
Today the new parental provisions of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 come into force by virtue of paragraph 69(1)(a) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Commencement No.1 and Transitional Provisions) Order 2009 (SI 2009/479).
This means that any children born as a result of “the placing in [a woman] of the embryo or the sperm and eggs or of her artificial insemination” of a woman who is in a civil partnership taking place on 6 April 2009 or later will have two female parents from the day they are born under English law.
25 March 2009
French Senate recognises Civil Partnership
The French Senate today passed an amendment to a new law that would mean that French law would recognise foreign registered partnerships including English same-sex civil partnerships.
The law will now still need to be passed by the National Assembly.
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© Andrea Woelke 2009
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Disclaimer
This is an outline of the law, practice and procedure in England and Wales. It should not be taken as specific advice. All families and couples are different. The law may have changed since this was written and we therefore accept no liability for inaccuracies. Where examples are given, your personal circumstances may vary slightly, but the difference may be significant for the outcome of the legal process. Contact us for specific advice on your own circumstances.
We take no responsibility for the content of any web pages linked to outside Alternative Family Law.