Who needs a goldendoodle when you’ve got a “pibble”?
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Our Holiday Season This Year
As the holiday season is wrapping up, I wanted to reflect upon how it was for our family this year and what we did. December is such an awesome time of year with so many holidays, some for pretty much everyone, no matter what religion you are, and even if you don’t celebrate any religion, with the holiday spirit in the air and the beautiful lights and happiness all around, it is still amazing.
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Author: Penniless Parenting
Divorce Day: is it just a media myth by Julian Hawkhead
It’s a sorry admission to make but my Twitter feed is full of family lawyers and family law commentators so inevitably I have read again that Divorce Day is set to dawn.
A term coined by the press, Divorce Day refers to the first working Monday in January after the Christmas and New Year festivities when, apparently, lawyers must brace themselves for a spike in people enquiring about a divorce.
For many family lawyers, including me, this day is a myth. Granted, we have peaks in enquiries, September is often a busy month, but on no one day in the year do the floodgates open and people queue down the street desperate to get divorced. This is not Black Friday (another media-created phenomenon) or the first day of the Harrods sale or even the 6 am start Next sale.
Films, television, celebrity news and social media have all played a part in the transition of divorce as a taboo subject to a much more casual topic of conversation. Now, don’t get me wrong in many ways this is fantastic progress. Nobody should be stuck in an unhappy or abusive relationship. However, to trivialise divorce, to make marriage seem as returnable as your unwanted Christmas presents only serves to destabilise a cornerstone of our society.
The idea that spending too much time together at Christmas arguing over family politics or “New Year – new me” triggers a call to your nearest divorce lawyers only skates over the emotional internal wrangling those individuals are going through as they think about the impact on their spouses, their children, the grandparents and the wider family and friends.
The fairy-tale celebrity weddings that abruptly end within the year with a (fictitious) “quickie divorce”, sends a message that marriage is dispensable and show nothing of the hurt, pain and upset a divorce can cause.
Most of the clients I advise do not decide to get divorced because it’s a Monday or because it’s the new year. If I sensed that they had, I would urge them to look at options to try to save their marriage. Instead, most have been considering it for a long time, sometimes years. Making the final decision to speak to a family lawyer and get legal advice is part of a process. It’s a huge step and not something that is or should ever be dictated by seasons, by the time of year.
Behind the media coverage on Divorce Day are people and families dealing with a relationship breakdown and all the emotions that this brings. Let’s not condense that down into just one day.
This year, I hope that Divorce Day has had its day.
Julian Hawkhead
Senior Partner
The post Divorce Day: is it just a media myth by Julian Hawkhead appeared first on Stowe Family Law.
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Author: Julian Hawkhead
A week (or so) in family law: Parental orders, legal aid and more
First things first: Happy New Year!
OK, having got that out of the way, on to the latest family law news. Well, there is not much, actually. For obvious reasons the Xmas/New Year break is usually pretty thin on family law news, and the break just gone was no exception. However, there was one significant piece of news, along with an important debate about the future of legal aid.
The significant piece of news was that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 has been amended to provide that single parents who have had a child born through surrogacy are now able to apply for a parental order. To explain, under the law surrogate mothers and their spouses remain the legal parents of any children. Accordingly, the parents with whom the child is to grow up (i.e. the parents who commissioned the child from the surrogate mother) must apply for a parental order, which transfers the status of parenthood to them. However, until now a parental order could only be applied for by two people, in a relationship akin to a marriage. This situation was declared incompatible with the Human Rights Act by the then President of the Family Division Sir James Munby in a case in 2016, in which a single man was refused a parental order. The amendment to the law remedies the incompatibility. For further information about the amendment and its effect, see this post by Bethan Cleal, who is a solicitor in Stowe Family Law’s Winchester office, and a specialist in domestic and international surrogacy arrangements.
The legal aid debate was sparked by The Guardian newspaper, which ran a series of articles on the topic of the legal aid cuts during the period between Xmas and the New Year. The articles were clearly intended to coincide with the government’s review of the effects of the cuts, and included this account of the experience of a mother, who believes that a lack of legal aid led to her ending up in prison, deprived her of a life with her children, and rendered her homeless. It is hoped that the review, which is due any day now, will recommend that legal aid be reinstated, at least for early advice in family matters. No doubt the authors of the articles hoped that they might encourage the government to make such a recommendation, by making it clear just how damaging the cuts have been, creating a two-tier system for those who can afford legal representation and those who cannot, and even leaving many people effectively without a legal remedy. Of course, the articles didn’t tell us anything we lawyers didn’t know already, but hopefully they will at least have spread the message, thereby putting pressure on the government to take action to at least put right the worst effects of the cuts.
Moving on, I suppose I should mention one piece of ‘news’ that has occupied a few column-inches in the newspapers over the last week: the media has once again engaged in the annual event that is ‘Divorce Day’. I am not going to rehearse here the arguments as to whether ‘Divorce Day’ is a real or manufactured phenomenon, as in a sense it doesn’t matter: either you are involved in divorce proceedings now, or you are not. And if you are, I have set out my three top tips to help you get through, in this post.
And finally, the Law Society Gazette has reported that a former police officer who has set up a venture linking the public with McKenzie friends has said that it is an ‘irrebuttable truth’ that family law does not need lawyers. I knew I was wasting my time when I did all that training, studying all that law and reading all those cases…
Have a good first weekend of 2019.
The post A week (or so) in family law: Parental orders, legal aid and more appeared first on Stowe Family Law.
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Author: John Bolch
These Disposable Cups Were the Talk of My House Party
I recently found myself shamelessly marveling at Tossware disposable plastic beer and wine glasses, and I’m brazen enough to say you’ll likely do the same.
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Author: Corey Foster on The Inventory, shared by Chelsea Stone to Lifehacker
There Is Now an Earthquake Early Warning App for Los Angeles
Getting an immediate warning on your phone that an earthquake is about to begin is now an option in the Los Angeles County area with the new ShakeAlertLA app. Finally, a use for my phone.
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Author: Aimée Lutkin
Start Foam Rollin’ With Your Homies For $18
The holiday season is stressful, so roll out all that tension in your back and beyond with this $18 Gaiam Foam Roller, down to its lowest price ever. Foam rollers are a secret weapon of workout fiends for pre-workout loosening up or post-workout soreness reduction. Or just skip the workout altogether and lay on top of…
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Author: Chelsea Stone on Kinja Deals, shared by Chelsea Stone to Lifehacker
Shooting a Car with a Polarizer Changed My Life
Photography for me has always been nothing more than a hobby, so it was never a high priority for me to get the best and most professional gear. As a kid, I tooled around on an old Polaroid camera and some point-and-shoots. I got my first DSLR—a Canon T3i Rebel—for Christmas in 2011. I traded up to a 6D a few years…
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Author: Kristen Lee on Jalopnik, shared by Virginia K. Smith to Lifehacker
Black-Eyed Pea Hummus Will Make Your New Year Better
I have always thought that black-eyed peas were bigger than New Year’s. In fact, until I moved out of Mississippi, I didn’t even know they were a New Year’s “thing.” (My family eats them pretty much all year round, usually as a simple side cooked with a little ham.)
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Author: Claire Lower on Skillet, shared by Claire Lower to Lifehacker
Create a Personal Finance Balance Sheet to See Where You Stand
If you’re planning a financial overhaul in 2019, one of the first things you need to do is figure out where you stand. And as advised by Kiplinger, one of the easiest ways to do that—and potentially discover possible cracks in your foundation in the process—is to create a balance sheet.
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Author: Alicia Adamczyk on Two Cents, shared by Alicia Adamczyk to Lifehacker