Family Law Matters

About Annulments

I have previously mentioned annulments as an alternative to dissolution for a civil partnership;  It is also possible to have marriages annulled.

But what does this mean and how does annulment differ from a divorce?

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Civil Partnerships – how to dissolve them...

The ending of a Civil Partnership can be dealt with in a similar way to the ending of a Marriage.

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Civil Partnerships – how are they formed...

The process of forming a Civil Partnership is very similar to entering into a Civil Marriage.  Two people are regarded as having entered into a Civil Partnership once they have both signed the Civil Partnership Document in the presence of a Civil Partnership Registrar and in the presence of each other and of two witnesses.  The Document is then signed by the Registrar and the witnesses.

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Civil Partnerships – what are they...

Over the past year or so  the media has made much of the new “same-sex marriages”.  By March 2006 6,516 same-sex couples had “married” and even celebrities like Elton John have now tied the knot.

So what is this new phenomena and why is it now possible?

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Do you think you are a Common Law Spouse?

More and more people are choosing to live together without being married.  Sometimes they have children together, often they jointly own a house and they may have joint savings or investments.

In fact, currently, 2 million couples live together in Britain without being married*.

But what happens if these relationships break down or if one of the partners dies?  Surely the other partner has acquired rights in their property and has a right to make claims through the Courts if they have lived together for 2 years, or 5 years or longer?

This is the myth of the “Common Law Spouse”.

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