I give you half.....

An amazing story emerged from Germany this week - a newly divorced man, Martin, sawed up everything he owned and put half up for sale on Ebay simply entitled 'For Laura' as an act of revenge against his cheating spouse.  The auction site showed half a car

half a teddy bear...

and half a bicycle...

Several million views and quite a lot of Euros later, it emerged that the story was the brainchild of the German Bar Association, designed to highlight the squabbles that can emerge in divorce cases.

Whilst I admire their creativity (and use of Photoshop), I can't help feeling that this rather concentrates on the negative aspect of divorce, where it can actually be a time of moving on, changing your life and escaping an unhappy marriage.  

Not all lawyers are so cynical as the German Bar Association!

Just give me the money....

There’s an excellent story this week which proves just why you should always use a lawyer…

An ex-wife made an application to get her ex-husband to pay up the £80,000 he had been ordered to pay her in the final order of their divorce settlement.

He said he already paid it. However, it’s HOW he says he paid it that makes for an interesting read. He swears (and did so, in Court) that he took it to her IN CASH at Pizza Express in Slough. That’s a lot of cash. Maybe he put it in a holdall…

Sadly his story didn’t really hold up for the following reasons:

He says he took a photo of her receiving the money but he had since lost his phone.
He says he took his brother with him but the brother didn’t see the ex-wife.
He says he took a third witness, but now can’t produce that witness.
He says he didn’t get a receipt because ‘he trusted his ex-wife’.
He says she agreed to £40,000 in cash rather than the £80,000 the court had ruled because she didn’t want it to affect her benefits.
He had already said to his solicitor that he wasn’t going to comply with the £80,000 order.

Oops.

The Judge, needless to say, didn’t believe a word of it and the ex-husband is now being told to pay the ex-wife’s legal costs. The file is also being passed to the Director of Public Prosecutions who may go after the ex-husband for perjury.

Some useful points to remember from this then:

1.  Use a lawyer if you’re planning to hand over £40,000 in cash.  Also consider a bodyguard.
2.  Get a receipt.
3.  Comply with any court orders.
4.  Have a witness.
5.  Don’t lie in court.

Most important of those is:  USE A LAWYER!

You're leaving what??

A fascinating article in The Guardian this weekend looked at the things people leave to others in their wills.

For example, Diana, Princess of Wales, left her butler £50,000 and Alexander McQueen left the same sum to his dogs.

The article goes on to say that only a third of us have a will. According to the Ministry of Justice, of that third, a further third will have failed to update their will to reflect major life changes, such as remarriage. A survey by the organisation Dying Matters found that fewer than 50% of couples have any idea of what their partners’ end-of-life wishes actually are. It seems we prefer to remain blissfully ignorant.

It also tells the sad story of Peter, his daughter Katy and his second wife, Jean.  Peter, who hadn’t made a will, sadly died before Jean so under the rules of intestacy, his estate went to Jean.  When she died, Katy got nothing, everything went to Jean’s family.  This is surely not what Peter would have wanted - if he’d simply made a Will it would have been simpler.

Whilst chatting about wills and dying over the dinner table might feel like an awkward thing to do, it is very important that you do - especially if you’re remarried, separated or divorced.

If you’d like to talk to us about a will, simply email Lynn or telephone for an appointment on 029 2039 5888.

Divorce case likened to a boxing match

A former Miss Russia and a top American businessman have finally emerged from a divorce likened to a boxing match by the Judge on the case.

Ekaterina Parfenova and Richard Fields have been embroiled in an increasingly bitter divorce, with her asking for £60,000 per year for hairdressers and beauty treatments alone, and him suggesting that she could live somewhere cheaper than the uber-rich areas of London she was used to.

Their previous luxury lifestyle together included Maserati, Range Rover and BMW cars, a cook, a cleaner and two nannies as well as top restaurants and expensive jewellery.

The Judge, Mr Justice Holman, said “There are no winners and no losers.  You’ve not got as much as you [Ms Parfenova] wanted, and he’s having to pay more than he wished to pay.  What I sincerely hope is that each of you take away the lesson of this bruising experience.  It was a boxing match. It wasn’t edifying.”

Meanwhile, Mr Fields has already spent £30,000 on an antique ring for his ‘soon-to-be’ wife no. 6, and Ms Parfenova has said that her financial strategy for the future is to find another rich husband.

She also claimed that her ‘fight for justice’ had been a struggle on behalf of abandoned mothers and children everywhere.

As she received a settlement worth £3.3m and the legal costs ran to over £1m might I suggest that she’s not really that abandoned?

So you don't know where your ex-partner lives?

A few weeks ago I blogged about the woman given permission to serve divorce papers on her husband via Facebook as she didn’t know where he was living.  This got me thinking about the more usual legal route to divorcing when you don’t know where your spouse is.

You will still have to fill in a divorce petition, stating the last known address.  You will need to show that you have done everything you can to find them, such as contacting friends, family, relatives, their bank, employer and any trade union or professional organisation.

You then also fill in what’s known as a ‘statement to dispense with service of the divorce petition’ and return it to the local court with the £50 fee.

If your spouse is missing and presumed dead, there is a different form - a D8D which can be filled in.

The court can then, in either case, end the marriage without the divorce petition actually being sent to your ex-spouse.

Needless to say, this is not a usual route to divorce, and may be one where you need some legal help - we're here to help with all your divorce queries, just email me if you need help.