LIFE BITE: The Sharland & Gohil appeals: Another Bite at the Cherry?

23/10/201528/10/2019 / Karen / Leave a comment

There was much press coverage over the Supreme Court’s decision in the Sharland & Gohil appeals last week to allow both Alison Sharland and Varsha Gohil to reopen their divorce settlements after they discovered that their husbands had not made full disclosure of their financial position at the time the Court decided the split of the matrimonial assets.

In all Court proceedings dealing with the division of assets on divorce, each spouse is legally required to provide the other with full details of their entire financial position. This information is required to ensure that the Court and both parties are aware of the full extent of each other’s financial circumstances at the time a decision is being made as to how the matrimonial assets are to be divided.

It seems only right that one spouse’s fraud in failing to disclose their full financial position at the time of settlement should result in the case being reopened to ensure that a fair outcome is achieved on all of the facts.

The assets in most marriages will not be as substantial as Mrs Sharland’s – she had initially accepted a £10 million settlement from her husband! However, ensuring that each spouse obtains their fair share of all of the assets is no less important in more modest cases.

In reality, the circumstances in which both Mrs Sharland and Mrs Gohil subsequently found out that their former spouses had been lying about their finances are fairly unusual – after the divorces were intially settled, Mr Sharland’s business was floated on the stock market and Mr Gohil’s full assets were revealed during a money laundering trial. In most cases, if the extent of each party’s assets is not fully revealed during the divorce case, it is unlikely that this information would be discovered by the other spouse at a later date.

There has been a lot of debate that these appeal decisions may lead to an “opening of the floodgates” with countless divorces being reopened in a bid by one spouse to try and have “another bite at the cherry”. Others however believe that the decision made by the Court in these appeals may act as a deterrent to others tempted to hide assets out of the Court’s reach.

If you would like any further information on this issue or any matter concerning divorce or division of matrimonial assets, please feel free to contact us here or leave us a message below.

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NSPCC Northern Ireland

19/10/201528/10/2019 / Karen / Leave a comment

Almost 2,000 children in Northern Ireland were identified as needing protection from abuse last year.

The NSPCC are the leading children’s charity in the UK and Channel Islands fighting to end child abuse. Through our work, the NSPCC help children who have been abused rebuild their lives, protect those at risk, and find the best ways of preventing abuse from happening.

At NSPCC Northern Ireland, we provide support to parents and families in caring for their children. We assist families that are going through difficult time, like battling addiction or overcoming mental health problems, as well as providing therapeutic services to help children move on from abuse.

We also provide guidance to professionals such as social workers to help them make the best decisions for children, across the UK.

What services are available in Northern Ireland?

The following NSPCC services are available in Northern Ireland:

ChildLine

Childline is a 24 hour helpline for children and young people who need help and support. It is a private and confidential place for a child to talk to one of our counsellors, all of whom are trained staff and volunteers with experience of listening and talking to children and young people. Call 0808 1111, or access support by email or direct message by visiting www.childline.org.uk

NSPCC Helpline

The NSPCC Helpline provides help and support to thousands of parents, professionals and families. This is a place adults can contact by phone or online to get advice or share their concerns about a child, anonymously if they wish.

Professionals such as teachers and doctors also contact us on the Helpline for information guidance and impartial advice from professional counsellors on a range of issues, no matter how small they may seem. You can call the Helpline on 0808 800 5000 or email help@nspcc.org.uk

Young Witness Service

The NSPCC Young Witness Service offers free, independent and confidential support and assistance to children and young people who have to go through the trauma of giving evidence in court. NSPCC workers and volunteers provide information and advice to children and young people – as well as their family, friends and supported, – before, during and after a trial.

This service is available to young witnesses in all types of crime and in every Crown, Magistrate or Youth Court. The service can be contacted on 028 2044 1650 for further information.

Other services

The NSPCC Northern Ireland operates a range of other services out of centres in Belfast, Craigavon and Foyle. These services include the following:-

Sexual abuse recovery services – protection, prevention and support services for child who have been or are at risk of sexual abuse or exploitation
Neglect services – aimed at assessing and identifying neglect, providing support to parents and reviewing family situations to protect children at risk of harm.
Early intervention services – aimed at providing ante natal and post natal support to help parents cope with the pressure of having a baby
Family support services – services aimed at supporting parents with issues surrounding domestic violence, alcohol abuse and mental health issues
Helping children living with parents with mental health issues
Support for parents struggling to take care of their children
Support for young people in care.

Visit www.nspcc.org.uk/services or call 0808 800 5000 for more information on the services we provide

For more information on the services NSPCC provide, please visit www.nspcc.org.uk/services or call 0808 800 5000

Mediation & Relationship Breakdown: Making Your Child’s Rights a Priority

19/10/201528/10/2019 / Karen / 1 Comment

This week is Mediation Awareness Week 2015 and you may have heard Joan Davis, Director of Family Mediation NI talking about the benefits of mediation this morning on U105 FM.

To help mark Mediation Awareness Week 2015, Joan has provided Life Law NI with a guest blog looking at the importance of making your child’s rights a priority when dealing with relationship breakdown and how mediation can help assist you in doing this.

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“25 years after the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the question needs to be asked – why does society still ignore child rights?

We hear a lot about human rights, animal rights, parental rights, minority rights and so on from mainstream media, but what about the rights of children?

Article 9 of The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states: –

’Children have the right to live with their parents unless it is bad for them. Children whose parents do not live together have the right to stay in contact with both parents unless this might hurt the child’.

Let’s look at that statement in the context of 21^st Century family life here in Northern Ireland:-

In 2014, 8,443 children in NI were the subject of final Court orders in Children Order cases.
Of these 8,443 children, 3,383 were under 4 years old, 2,468 between 5-8 years old, 1,683 between 9-12 years old and 90 were between 16-18 years old.
In 2013, 42% of the births in NI were to unmarried parents.
A total of 4,100 children were affected by 2,403 divorces in 2013, yet divorce statistics do not reflect current relationship and family patterns in NI family life.

It is important to consider that behind every statistic, there is a child potentially being denied a healthy relationship with one parent.

You may ask; ‘Where are a child’s rights and voice in all of these adult-constructed life-changing experiences?’ Ok , after separation, some children of a certain appropriate age will be spoken to within the legal system by a Court Children’s Officer and their views and wishes will be sought. But is this the way we should be approaching our future private family life choices, living as separated parents?

You could also ask; ‘Why do parents default to the law when a romantic relationship ends? What can we do as a society to begin changing a deeply ingrained mind-set that essentially disables otherwise capable people and renders them incapable of making a sensible decision about their own children’s future?

Independent legal and financial advice is always useful to enable informed decision-making upon separation. However, for better long-term relationships and for the overall well-being of the child and safeguarding of the child’s rights for the future, Family Mediation NI offers a 21^st Century approach to modern family disputes. We believe mediation should be the natural and first choice for most separating parents.

Entering the process of family mediation empowers parents. It enables parents to be the natural decision makers and encourages the child’s voice to be equal, to be heard and to be respected.

Child-focused mediation and, in appropriate cases, direct child consultation moves a family from an acrimonious, adversarial, ‘blame game’ system of behaviours to a responsible, future-focused, co-parenting state of mind.

Mediation provides the thinking, talking and listening space, the negotiating space and the neutral space. It facilitates option generation, assists agreement on a bespoke parenting plan and ultimately a mediated agreement that informs the way forward and introduces the learning of a new form of communication as separate but loving parents, with the child at the heart of the process.

Joan Davis

Joan Davis is the Director of Family Mediation NI. Mediation Awareness Week takes place in Northern Ireland from 19^th October – 23^rd October 2015. Contact Family Mediation NI for more information and details or check out www.mediationawarenessweek.ie

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