Archive for the ‘Legal Advice’ Category

When you’re going through divorce and your wife has left the house, which sometimes happens, especially if she’s looking to get housed, you’ll have the problem of nothing being secure in your home. You could come home and find that your possessions have been taken, your food has gone and even money has been taken. Is there anything that you can do about it?

Divorce solicitors sometimes offer contradicting advice on the matter of changing the locks on your house to keep your wife out. Firstly, if your home is in joint names, your wife has a legal right to enter the property. Therefore if you do change the locks on your house she has the right to call a locksmith and have them changed again.

This tit-for-tat could go on, with you both changing the locks, until a judge makes a ruling, which will most likely be that no one can change the locks and no one can remove anything from the house without written permission from the other person.

So, if your wife is continually entering your house when she no longer lives there and stealing your things, change the locks. Be prepared for her to do the same though.

Clive Bellmore

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Getting divorced can be a very costly exercise, as anyone who’s been divorced will tell, but according to divorce lawyers it’s becoming very easy to fund your divorce with a bank loan. According to some of the country’s leading divorce lawyers, banks are more than willing to dole out cash to those people who are looking to get divorced, when they wouldn’t be inclined to loan the money to people wanting it for other means, for example a mortgage or car loan.

Anne Kay , from the divorce solicitors Boodle Hatfield, stated:

Women who are married to wealthy partners often find themselves temporarily without funds when divorcing their partner. It is ironic that in the current economic climate, lending by private banks to fund divorce appears to be on the increase.

One of the banks prepared to offer funding for your divorce is HSBC. It is believed that banks are more than happy to offer loans to those in the middle of divorce proceedings because they believe they’ll be asked to offer financial advice after the divorce is finalised.

Clive Bellmore

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It’s a fact that rape is rape, even when it’s your own wife. A man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, found that out this week as he was found guilty in a court in Londonderry of raping his wife. The couple are going through divorce, and his wife alleged that he raped her and committed a series of domestic assaults on her in a two year spell between 2006 and 2008.

The twenty-eight-year-old man has been ordered to surrender his passport and has been released on bail. He will be sentenced just before Easter.

The couple were getting divorced at the time, but it seems the man didn’t like the idea of not sleeping with his wife, even though they were in the middle of a divorce.

Sadly for him, that’s considered rape.

Clive Bellmore

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It has been said that most divorces are caused by arguments over money or sex. While this may be true, arguments over more trivial matters are also frequent in divorce cases, especially as the financial settlement draws on and solicitors become involved.

Money and access to children is one thing, but people then begin arguing over who gets to keep the cutlery set, the car and the record collection. Of course, the cost of replacing item such as these has to be offset against the cost of arguing through your solicitor about them, as your solicitor will charge by the hour, for each letter, phone call and email.

So common sense will tell you that by arguing over things that cost very little, running up a high cost to yourself, doesn’t make financial sense. If you have a moral solicitor (as I did, believe it or not) they’ll tell you not to pursue it either.

Of course, when you’re in the middle of a divorce, common sense and financial sense are irrelevant. The principal of the thing is what counts. If something is mine, I want it back, regardless of how much it costs to get it, and how little it might cost to replace it.

For example, during my divorce I had a collection Michael Jackson jackets, including several tour leather jackets and the Billie Jean live sequin jacket. They’d been bought over the years on eBay, and would have been very hard to replace. The ex-wife had removed them from my home (for reasons known only to her) and was refusing to return them. Most likely because she knew I wanted them.

Anyhow, I pursued this through my solicitor, against her advice, insisting on their return. The act of getting the jackets back cost me plenty, but in the end I did have them returned.

Trivial? Perhaps. It was morally right though, and you can’t put a price on that.

Clive Bellmore

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Traditionally when couples divorce they have a bitter spat over who gets custody of the kids, what access they have, and who gets the possessions such as cars, houses and jewellery. However in South Africa right now arguments over who gets the dog are more common. Also other pets as well, not just dogs, but I thought I’d lead with a dog.

After the recent judgement in the UK where a man had to pay his ex-wife £50,000 per year to keep her horses, legal experts say that pet maintenance in South Africa is very common.

Billy Gundelfinger, a divorce lawyer in Johannesburg, says that disagreements over pets were very common in South Africa:

I’ve had cases where that was the straw that broke the camel’s back, where they’ve settled the residency of the children, they’ve settled the finances, the antiques and the paintings, the cars and the holiday homes, and then they fight over the pet — and one of them says the whole deal is off, we’re going to court.

He gave one example of how a divorce settlement worth millions disintegrated because neither the husband nor the wife could agree on who took custody of the Staffordshire terrier.

They both wanted the Staffie … we started the trial and then, in the tea break, I persuaded my client that this was absurd.

Eventually the couple agreed on shared custody whereby they both took the dog on alternate months.

Clive Bellmore

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When you’re getting divorced you’ll invariably need a divorce lawyer. Luckily enough I found this picture on the Internet.

Now, is this a clever piece of advertising from a divorce lawyer looking to drum up business from women who are angry at their cheating husbands, or is this a vandalised car from a spurned wife after the aforementioned cheating husband did what cheating husbands do?

Whatever it is, it catches the eye. Though, I don’t think anyone would be able to do the school run in it!

Also, if it is an advert for a divorce lawyer, would you really want to hire a lawyer who drives a yellow Corsa? Clearly they’re not very good to only be able to afford an old hatchback.

Clive Bellmore

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We all make mistakes (though some never admit it) and making mistakes when you’re particularly stressed is more common. Therefore during a divorce, when you’re at your most stressed, mistakes are easy to make. The trouble is that getting things wrong during a divorce will cost you dearly, both financially and with future happiness.

So, here are the ten biggest mistakes men make during divorce. Try to avoid these if you can.

1. Arguing over access to children
Seeing your children regularly is important, both for you and for them. If you don’t see them you’ll both suffer. Sometimes the woman can use them as pawns to get back at you, or leverage more money out of you. Try not to fight tit-for-tat on these matters. Your children are the most important thing, always keep that in mind.

2. Don’t bring another woman into the mix
The temptation to show off a new woman might be a big one, but for obvious reasons you should avoid this. If you start playing one-upmanship now, you’ll lose in the long run. Keep any new relationships quiet and don’t mention them as a means for revenge.

3. Don’t let her convince you that you don’t need a lawyer
You always need a divorce lawyer, without one she could tie you up in knots and leave you financially broke.

4. Avoid constant verbal abuse and battles
Arguing is unavoidable, it’s probably what led to divorce in the first place, but you should avoid abusing each other as it doesn’t lead to any constructive conclusion. Especially avoid doing that in front of the children, as they’ll be the most affected by it.

5. Don’t pick on your ex’s flaws
When arguing it’s easy to point out the many flaws you find with your ex, but this won’t help you reach any sort of settlement. By doing this you’ll alienate her from you and force her to be as stubborn as she can be. No matter how tempting, bite your tongue.

6. Avoid a confrontational divorce lawyer
While it may be in your nature to fight, fighting over every little detail will end up costing you more than it’s worth. Don’t choose a divorce lawyer who wants to battle every little detail, it’s not worth the hassle, literally.

7. Don’t let her walk all over you
Just as fighting every detail isn’t worth it, letting her have everything her own way doesn’t make sense either. Some men just let their ex’s have their own way because they’re too saddened and upset to fight back.

8. Don’t argue over property
When you’ve amassed a collection of furniture or other possessions that mean a lot to you, it can be difficult to agree on who gets what in the divorce. If the cost of arguing over these items in court is more expensive than the items are worth then you shouldn’t waste your time and money doing so. It’s a false economy spending thousands in legal fees arguing over property that doesn’t cost as much as the cost of the argument.

9. Don’t embarrass your ex by serving them with divorce papers in public
You may want to make a big thing of your divorce and make it as public as possible to show your derision for her, avoid this temptation. It will merely serve to kick off the divorce process in an especially bad tone, one that will cost you more as time goes on.

10. Don’t let anger be your first response
Divorce is usually greeted with emotions such as surprise, shock and anger. If you allow anger to be your first response you’ll merely serve to illicit the same response back from your ex, which will make matters worse. Take time to calm down and consider your response carefully, starting a war isn’t going to help either of you.

Clive Bellmore

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Vanessa Lloyd Platt is the divorce expert on breakfast show GMTV, and occasionally on the high-brow show that is Richard & Judy. She dispenses divorce advice for couples going through the process, and she’s also a successful divorce lawyer herself with her own practise, and a string of celebrity clients, including Les Dennis and Anne Diamond.

However, Vanessa Lloyd Platt is also divorced, she’s been divorced a few times, and her most recent divorce was so bitter that she accused her husband Daniel Lloyd Platt of trying to poison her. Seems like a service to the nation to me!

Vanessa, 53, divorced Daniel last year after 17 years of marriage. Vanessa is also an author having written books on successful relationships. She claimed that her husband was lacing her food with chemicals in an attempt to kill her.

However police never charged Daniel with any crime, and on Friday arrested Vanessa for making false allegations and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

I wonder if that’s the sort of divorce advice she gave out to clients? I think her career as a divorce experts on GMTV could be coming to a sudden end.

Clive Bellmore

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Newsok.com has posted an article stating the 5 things you need to have in your divorce settlement. This seems like good advice, as following it could save you an awful lot of money further down the line. Most of the advice is US specific, but still worth thinking about if you’re UK based.

For example, would you have considering making provisions for college for your children? The article advises that you work out who will pay for what with regards to your child’s college education sooner rather than later.

Another one that is relevant to the UK is that when your child comes of age to drive, your can insurance company can add a premium to your insurance to cover the fact that your kids might end up driving it. The article suggests agreeing that the non custodial parent agrees to pay some of that extra cost.

It’s all good advice, and there are some obvious things in there you might not have thought of.

Clive Bellmore

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Divorce can be an expensive business (I should know) but one UK firm from Wiltshire thought that it doesn’t have to be. They’re offering long standing marriage sufferers the chance to break for freedom for as little as £23.99.

Sign me up guys!

The idea came about when they realised that divorce was very expensive, and people always use the Internet to find cheaper alternatives to services and products, so why not get divorced?

Mark Keenan runs the company, Divorce-Online.

We have seen a 48 per cent increase in couples seeking a divorce using the web compared to the first six months of 2007.

And in a survey of 100 clients, 85 said the main factor was cost.

To be honest, cost would be a factor for me, but I’d want to ensure I wasn’t going to lose out long term in any financial settlement. Yes you could save a few quid on your solicitor’s fees, but if they can’t negotiate the right deal you’ll end up losing far more than you could be saving.

There is a need to save money in every walk of life and it’s cheaper to go online rather than heading down the high street to instruct a solicitor.

The cost of using a solicitor can be more than £900 plus court fees. This has driven couples to the web to find cheaper alternatives.

Their prices start at £65 for a divorce that goes without incident, as in an uncontested divorce.

Since the year 2000, they have handled nearly 50,000 uncontested divorces. Recently they’ve moved to bigger offices and taken on more staff, so even with their cheap fees, they’re still profiting nicely from people’s misery.

Nice for them.

Sadly the divorce rate has fallen over the last decade, but Mr Keenan reckons things will pick up again soon. As we’re in a time of economic slowdown, he expects the divorce rate to skyrocket, as it did during the period of 1990-94, when we had our last recession.

Clive Bellmore

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