“For the [guild of lawyers], their work is very much what it is for all lawyers, which is to say, doing things slowly for a lot of money“ – Terry Pratchett Let’s face it, lawyers have a bad reputation. They are pedantic,
In my role as a family lawyer, I am often asked by clients about prenuptial agreements. The idea of a nuptial agreement regularly provokes a range of emotive responses. Those who are not open to the idea start by questioning whether they
In this interview, we speak with FMC accredited Johnathan Pease of New Landscape Mediation about what exactly family mediation is as well as what it is not. Johnathan goes on to answer further questions that help define mediation as a divorce process including:
The myth of justice in Family Justice. This is a pretty bold title. Am I, as a mere Family Mediation Council Accredited (FMCA) mediator really challenging the idea that the Family Justice system has anything at all to do with meting out
What is mediation worth? How can you quantify the financial and emotional value of a successful mediation for any given family? These are surprisingly difficult questions to answer. For me, they are about as impossible to quantify as: How much money has
Getting divorced (or un-coupling as some celebs like to refer to it as), does not have to be either an expensive or lengthy exercise. I have been practising as a family lawyer for nearly 20 years so feel fairly confident that I
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” This very insightful sentence, written by the renowned philosopher and academic, Elie Wiesel, essentially explains why so many partnerships and marriages flounder or fail. In some instances, the split that is announced to
Surgeons, mediators and medicine men. Whenever we hear these job titles, we have an immediate impression as to the type of person we’re speaking about. Surgeons are seen as highly trained specialists we entrust with our lives. Medicine men, on the other
What is Collaborative Divorce? This is an alternate dispute resolution that brings both parties and both of their solicitors into the same room in a series of four-way meetings. The approach is to achieve an agreed solution to family difficulties out of
TDM speaks with Charmaine Hast, Partner and Head of Family Team at Wedlake Bell – on Family arbitration as a divorce process. If you’re going through divorce and are wondering which divorce process to use for your divorce proceedings, you may want
The Ministry of Justice recently published the Legal Aid Statistics for October to December 2015, which revealed that the number of Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings (MIAMs) have continued to decline and were down by 16% in the last quarter. MIAMs were
‘Judges say they will ignore pre-nups unless couple are rich,’ reads a recent tabloid headline, before stating that the majority of spouses who sign prenuptial agreements are wasting their time, since only the very wealthy can expect their wishes to be honoured.