A prenuptial agreement is a formal contract between two people prior to marriage or civil partnership, which sets out how their finances will be organised in the event of the breakdown of the marriage.

Prenuptial agreements (PNAs) are not formally binding in England and Wales. This is in marked contrast to many jurisdictions, including Scotland, the rest of Europe and in most other jurisdictions where PNAs are regulated by law and are therefore commonplace.

The Home Office has recently revealed that the social costs of domestic abuse in 2016 and 2017 was £66billion. The majority of this cost, £47billion, was a result of physical and emotional harm inflicted by perpetrators. For the report, click here.

The new Domestic Abuse Bill published on 21 January 2019 seeks to introduce new measures to ultimately protect victims of domestic abuse in family law courts.

There are times when a divorce may not be the appropriate way to bring a marriage to an end and you may be entitled to an alternative method of ending a marriage. I have had clients who inform me that there were unusual circumstances when their marriage took place or that there are certain issues that have arisen which mean they are entitled to a nullity – an annulment of the marriage.

The current law on civil partnerships is governed by the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (CPA 2004). The Act defines civil partnership as a legal relationship between two people of the same-sex, formed when they register as civil partners. A civil partnership will give a same-sex relationship added legal rights and responsibilities. It, in fact, places same-sex couples on a very similar footing to spouses who are married. The fundamental difference between marriage and civil partnership, is that only same-sex couples can enter into the latter. Some of the similar rights available to civil partners are summarised below.

The false notion of a ‘common law marriage’ existing in UK law is a widespread one. According to a poll conducted this time last year by Resolution, a national organisation of family lawyers, two-thirds of people in unmarried cohabiting relationships were unaware that there is no such thing as a common-law marriage.