Jones Myers has appointed a senior family law specialist with almost four decades of expertise in relationship breakdown and financial settlements to head its Harrogate office.

Neil Dring, Senior Solicitor and Consultant, joins the firm’s Financial Remedies Department, which is regularly instructed in multi-jurisdictional proceedings and cases involving complex corporate and offshore trust structures.

His track record in divorce and separation includes complex high net worth financial disputes and advocacy, along with both pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements.

Jones Myers, which set up offices in Harrogate in 2017, has recently moved to bigger town centre premises opposite the Harrogate Justice Centre in Victoria Avenue in line with client demand.

Neil said: “Jones Myers’ standing as an award-winning leader in its field which attracts the best family lawyers is acknowledged on a regional and national level. Its esteemed Children’s Department is also renowned internationally.

“The firm’s ethos of seeking non-confrontational solutions to relationship breakdowns resonates with my approach and values, and I am looking forward to playing a key role in the practice’s continued expansion.”

Richard Peaker, Jones Myers Managing Partner who heads the Financial Remedies Department, said: “Neil is a highly respected and well-known family lawyer whose breadth and depth of experience highly complements our expertise and approach in delivering bespoke solutions for our clients.

“We warmly welcome him to the team as we continue to go from strength to strength in Yorkshire and beyond.”       

The appointment coincides with the practice’s York team also moving to bigger city centre offices at Bootham Row to accommodate future growth.

Retaining its Family Law Firm of the year North award in the Family Law Awards across 2020-2022, Jones Myers was the only Yorkshire-based family law firm in the national finals of the awards’ Children Law Team of the Year category.   

The practice, whose headquarters are in Leeds, also has offices in York and marks its 30^th anniversary this year.

For divorce or family law related issues including children, call us at Leeds on 0113 246 0055, Harrogate on 01423 276104, or York on 01904 202550. Visit jm2023.jonesmyers.co.uk, email info@jonesmyers.co.uk or tweet us @helpwithdivorce

Jones Myers blog is ranked 9^th in the UK’s Best 25 family law blogs and websites to follow in 2022.

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Many business owners with failed marriages have found themselves losing an organisation  they have worked long and hard to build over decades, to their ex.

With UK family businesses employing over nine million people and accounting for a quarter of the UK’s GDP, according to the most recent statistics from the Institute for Family Business, safeguarding the family company is also critical when a divorce or separation becomes inevitable between husband and wife business partners.

Such cases, when husband and wife teams own joint shareholdings as “co-preneurs”, and are both seeking to retain their stake in the company, are the most difficult to resolve. Many couples also employ their children in the family business – increasing the importance of a smooth transition to safeguard their sons’ and daughters’ respective roles.

In a divorce, a company is regarded as a matrimonial asset, to be sold or shared like any other. It is therefore vital for a couple in business together to secure sound legal advice before marrying, so that a pre-nuptial agreement can be drawn up. If already married, it is worth considering a post-nuptial if you failed to sign a pre-nup – or to protect any new business ventures.

Although pre-nups and post-nups are not legally binding, courts do take them into account and they can make the whole divorce process run more smoothly. However, despite their advantages, they will not prevent your business from coming under close scrutiny. How much is it worth? What income can it produce – now and in the future, when assets are divided? Should it be producing more?

Judges will often examine a business’ liquidity and how this might be paid out to the wider family to meet costs such as accommodation. Although problematic if you planned to use that liquidity as the seed corn for a future start-up, you must not hide any assets.

Collaborative law can be the most constructive, cost-effective and least painful approach to finding a financial solution when both partners are involved in a family business – and can also lessen impact on the company. It sees a couple and their lawyers working together on problems face-to-face, with additional professional advisers such as accountants on hand when necessary. It aims to resolve matters amicably and without the case going to court.

Talking about the future of your business, and who will run it, in a calm and supportive atmosphere is infinitely preferable to the hostility and acrimony of a courtroom battle – and can protect enterprises by avoiding the distress and distraction that can derail a company.

If you have any comments, queries or concerns on divorce affecting your business or wider divorce related issues, leave a comment below, call the Jones Myers team on 0113 246 0055 or tweet us on @helpwithdivorce.

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Should boardroom squabbles ever make their way into the bedroom? Not if the recent spate of high profile co-business divorce cases is anything to go by. The well documented cases of oil trader Michael Prest and his wife Yasmin, Ford boss David Thursfield and his wife Linda, Scot and Michelle Young and billionaire philanthropist Sir Christopher Hohn and his former wife Jamie Cooper-Hohn have firmly turned the spotlight on the issue of marital discord and corporate asset division.

In all of these cases, problems have arisen as a result of one party believing that the other party has inaccurately declared their assets. In the UK, divorcing couples are required to complete a Form E, which is the financial statement that details their assets, liabilities, living costs and income. It is the primary document that the courts use to decide the financial division of assets.

However, whilst Form E arguably has many plus points in its favour – indeed, many believe it to be the best method to date that the legal system has implemented regarding full financial disclosure – one of the major drawbacks is that it only requires the previous 12 months of information to be declared.

This means that some ‘forward thinking’ spouses who are planning to divorce their husband or wife, may begin to divert assets long before they officially call time on their relationship. As a result, these assets may not then be taken into consideration when settlements are being made, unless the court can be persuaded to allow much more extensive enquiries to be made.

As with all divorces, the dividing of assets plays a key role, but when a couple are in business together, or one of them has their own company, the issues become even more complicated. The business will be seen as an asset, which means that it’s value will be taken into consideration when the couples’ assets are being divided up. If there is found to be a surplus of resources once financial needs have been met, then further thought will be given as to how this will be distributed.

When deciding whether the assets can fairly be divided in a way that allows for a clean break between the parties, the value of the business, and any cash that might reasonably be extracted from it, will be amongst the factors taken into account. This means that neither spouse can make any further financial claims on the other once they are divorced. Alternatively, if there is insufficient capital available to fund this, it may be that the income produced by the business will continue to fund maintenance payments from one spouse to the other.

At Jones Myers, we have a number of clients involved in such situations and we always recommend that those clients who aren’t yet married, but who are in business together, draw up a pre-nuptial agreement.

A pre-nuptial contract has a provision that allows assets such as a business – which can have been acquired, started up or inherited – to be included within the agreement. This means that the parties can agree how the business should feature in the financial issues to be resolved upon a future separation or divorce. However, the agreement must be drawn up with consent of each party, who each have the benefit of legal advice, full mutual disclosure, and a reasonable time prior to the proposed marriage – otherwise the court may well discount it.

Ultimately, nobody wants to kill the ‘golden goose’ and destroy a family’s main source of income, so the end result has to be fair to both parties, with the interests of children taking a priority.

Do you think Form E should be reviewed? Should there be a time restriction on the listing of assets? Would you consider signing a pre-nuptial agreement?

If you have any questions or concerns about your divorce and are worried about how your assets should be divided, please call us on 0113 246 0055, leave us a comment below or drop us an e-mail.

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The findings of a four year Law Commission review of how English couples’ finances should be sorted out – will be unveiled shortly.

The Law Commission’s report will cover whether or not pre-nuptial agreements should become law, and this has been the main focus of the UK media to date. However, the report on Matrimonial Property, Needs and Agreement which will be published on February 27, is actually much more wide-reaching.

As a dual qualified family law specialist in English and Scots law I particularly welcome this review as it represents an opportunity to look at how out of kilter English family law has become in comparison with its Scottish and European cousins.

As well as examining how marital property agreements can be enforced, the report will also look at how much financial support one spouse or civil partner should give to the other following divorce or dissolution.

Among the aspects under review is “non-matrimonial property”.  This could include property that has been inherited or given as a gift or assets acquired by either party before marriage or civil partnership.

Key areas that could face reform include:

• The demise of long term maintenance for ex-spouses
• Ring-fencing assets brought into the marriage by one or both parties
• Ring-fencing inherited wealth
• Pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements becoming legally binding

All of these are principles which are long-established north of the border.

Under Scottish divorce law, there is greater certainty – but potentially less discretion. For instance, the property available for division is narrowly defined. This “matrimonial property” is valued at the date of separation. It will include anything acquired during the lifetime of the marriage but exclude any inheritance or gift which has not been converted into matrimonial property. In England and Wales judges tend to focus on ensuring that both partners are adequately provided for – regardless of how the assets were acquired.

Other principles used to divide assets under Scots law are:

• Matrimonial property being shared equally – since the starting point is that fair sharing is equal sharing
• Financial support being paid for a maximum of 3 years – encouraging the receiving spouse to maximise his or her earning capacity after a period of adjustment
• Support being made available to prevent a spouse suffering financial hardship as a result of the divorce

In Scotland couples can also agree to a binding financial settlement between themselves without the need for a court to be involved, whereas, in England and Wales, unless a judge reviews such an agreement, there is a risk of it being unpicked at a later stage.

Whilst there are undoubtedly arguments in favour of both systems, I will be interested to see whether the English approach starts to take on a tartan hue in the light of the report. I will be still more interested to see whether the report’s recommendations will be taken on board by Justice Secretary Chris Grayling, rather than simply generating debate.

If you have any questions or concerns about dividing marital assets, please call us on 0113 246 0055, leave us a comment below or drop us an e-mail.

You can follow us on Twitter @helpwithdivorce

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Eric, the soap’s longest serving character, also expressed his anger at not having organised a pre-nuptial agreement prior to his marriage. As Eric’s marriage to Val was his fifth attempt to find wedded bliss, some of the soap’s six million plus viewers may have been a little surprised that he hadn’t previously considered a pre-nup.

As readers of our blog are aware, Jones Myers is passionate about prenuptial agreements as they may help prevent the acrimony that often befalls some couples.

However, pre-nups are too late for older married people like Eric and Val, who are, according to recent statistics, divorcing at a rate of knots.

Known as the silver separators, the number of over 60s opting for divorce has been rising steadily since the mid-1990s.  Latest figures from the Office of National Statistics reveal that the divorce rate between 1991 and 2011 for the over 60s increased from 1.6 to 2.3 per 1,000 married men and from 1.2 to 1.6 per 1,000 married women.

But, while the option to draw up a pre-nup agreement is closed to married couples, many may be unaware they could consider signing a postnuptial agreement or post-nup.

A post-nup is similar to a pre-nup as it determines what should happen to each other’s assets in the event of divorce. The difference is that it is drawn up after a marriage has taken place.

Whilst they are not legally binding, the courts have ruled that where such agreements are freely entered into by each party, they are likely to be adhered to unless the court reviewing the agreement considers it to be unfair at that point.

A post nuptial agreement can be helpful for people who are married for a second time – or even, like Eric Pollard, for a fifth time – as they can help to protect your assets and take into consideration the needs of children from a previous relationship.  A post-nup can also be amended if personal circumstances change.

It’s always interesting to see how a topical storyline in a soap viewed by millions unfolds – and how closely it matches reality. Therefore, we wonder how Emmerdale will tackle the practical and emotional issues of a divorcing older couple – neither of whom protected their assets with a pre or post marital arrangement.

If you have any questions or concerns about pre or post nuptial agreements, please call us on 0113 246 0055, leave us a comment below or drop us an e-mail.

You can follow us on Twitter @helpwithdivorce

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Fiona, who was asked to comment by The Times on the surge in same sex “divorces” as couples feel the seven year itch, says: “The rate of dissolution of civil partnership is considerably lower than the 42% of marriages which end in divorce – suggesting that same sex couples are much better at ‘hanging on’ in their relationships.

“However, the statistics still highlight that the reality of separation is as significant for same sex couples as it for heterosexual partners.  Pre-cips can be invaluable when one or both parties wish to protect assets or property they have acquired prior to their civil partnership.  These latest figures may prompt those thinking about embarking on civil partnerships to consider pre-cips to ensure they can sort out their finances should they separate.”

In a pre-cip – similar to a pre-nuptial agreement for marriage – couples agree in advance what should happen to their finances if the relationship breaks down. Each party must take separate legal advice before entering into such an agreement.  Although not legally binding under English law, courts are increasingly taking pre-cips into account when a civil partnership is dissolved.

There were 794 civil partnership dissolutions in 2012 – seven years after the law changed to allow same sex couples to formalise their relationships. More women than men wanted to end their civil partnerships – a similar pattern to marriage – with 6.1% of females compared with 3.2% of males dissolving civil partnerships in 2012.

Fiona adds: “It’s not uncommon for heterosexual couples to experience a seven year itch and break up. These figures show that same sex couples face the same issues and challenges.  When the Bill was passed to enable civil partnerships there was a surge in couples wanting to formalise their relationships – the rise in dissolutions seven years later is perhaps not surprising.”

There were 7,037 new civil partnerships in 2012 – a 3.6 % rise on the previous year – far exceeding Government predictions at the time the Bill was passed.

“The new figures show that the average age for men entering civil partnerships was 40, while it was 37 for women.  So couples may well have considerable assets or children from previous relationships or marriage.  A pre-cip is a pragmatic way of resolving financial and issues around children before they arise.  Couples whose civil partnerships don’t work out will find that a pre-cip can help them to avoid potential conflict and to dissolve their partnership in a relatively painless manner through a collaborative process.”

If you have any questions  about civil partnerships or pre-cips then please then do email us or give us a call on 0113 246 0055. You can follow us on Twitter @helpwithdivorce

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