Monday 24 February 2014

Be very careful with text messages!

Apparently there is a growing trend of sending 'sext' messages (that's a text message picture of your, um, private parts) and it can get you in a great deal of hot water.  Never mind that your loved one might be a tad surprised, a recent case in the High Court heard how a man was denied access to his young son when his ex-partner accidentally received a sext message of his crown jewels.  Oops.

Even though the contact had been largely amicable, the sext message led to a breakdown in the relationship and access broke down.

Luckily for our hapless dexter, the Judge saw fit to rule in his favour on this occasion, describing it as 'an incredibly unfortunate event' but saying that it shouldn't deny his chance to have a relationship with his son.

Just to complicate matters, it seems that the man himself didn't send the sext to his ex-partner - he sent it to his new lover and 'somehow' it got sent on to his ex-partner.

Perhaps best not to sext at all, eh?

Monday 17 February 2014

Breaking up can help.... your DIY skills!

A colleague of mine tells me the story of when she and her husband were splitting up they were in the middle of yet another screaming match on the upstairs landing.  Wanting to throw something at the errant husband, yet not having anything to hand, the wife simply kicked out at the wall.  If it had been stone she might have ended up with a broken foot, but in these days of timber-framed houses and plasterboard, her nicely booted toe just made a large hole in the wall.

Oops.

However, when she'd calmed down a bit she set about fixing it - fishing out the plasterboard, fixing a batten behind the hole, gluing the plasterboard to the batten, filling, sanding and repainting.  It took a couple of days, and when they divorced and sold the house nobody even noticed.

So she got to vent her anger, learn a new skill AND get divorced - result or what?!

Monday 10 February 2014

Call me unreasonable?

A couple from London who married in the late 1970s and divorced (but continued living together) in the 1990s have just been through the court process.

Things came to a head when the man, now in his 70s, met another woman five years ago and installed both her and her 12 year old daughter into the marital home. When the man then asked his former wife, who is in her 50s, if she would remain in the home “as some sort of housekeeper”, she (not unreasonably) found the suggestion “very demeaning and upsetting”.

He seemed surprised and could not understand why she became “so aggressive”. 

The ex-husband told her that he would “commit suicide or go on hunger strike” if she went to court regarding financial matters.

Luckily the former wife was made of sterner stuff and proceeded with litigation.


The man argued in court that he and his former wife had an agreement which meant that she would be entitled to no more than £3.4 million, but the former wife said that this had been signed by her under duress.  The man denied this but the judge ruled in her favour and has dais that she is entitled to nearly half of her former husband’s £13.6 million fortune.