Landmark ruling for cohabiting couples

Whilst judges are still calling for new legal rights for cohabitees, a woman who wasn’t married to a man she lived with has won £28,500 from him because he ‘promised her a home for life’.

The woman, Catherine Blackburn, moved in with David Southwell, a businessman, after they got together and started a relationship. She had two daughters by a previous relationship, and they moved into the shared house too.  Mr Southwell put £140,000 of his own money into buying the house and the couple took out a £100,000 mortgage, which Mr Southwell paid.  He claims to have also paid most of the household bills, bought her a new car and funded her way through university while she studied to become a speech and language therapist.

Now, in a landmark ruling, Ms Blackburn has been awarded £28,500 after the couple split and Mr Southwell changed the locks on the house, leaving her and her two daughters homeless.

The ruling could well open the floodgates for other similar claims.

Ironically, Mr Southwell didn’t commit to marrying Ms Blackburn because he feared the payout involved if they did marry and then split.

What to do about Litigants in Person?

The Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949 established a scheme of legal aid intended to provide practical equality before the law 'for those of moderate means'.  At its height it cost around £2bn annually and was therefore incredibly expensive.  In 2012 the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 took away legal aid for parties in most family proceedings.  Since then, Judges have had to contend with Litigants in Person (LiPs) turning up with a bin liner full of papers and not really knowing what to do.  There has been a growing sense of 'something should be done'...

Recently, Sir James Munby, president of the Family Division looked at three cases.  In one case, about contact of a child, the father spoke no English, couldn't afford a translator and was therefore unable to cross-examine the social workers involved.  In both the other cases the mother accused the father of rape - in these cases, without legal representation, the fathers needed to challenge the accusations against them, and the mothers faced being cross-examined by their alleged assailants.

Legal Aid is still available in some cases where a party has suffered (or is at risk of suffering) domestic abuse and so in these three cases the mothers (and only the mothers) obtained representation.  This clearly brought about an inequality in the parties in court which goes directly against the Family Procedure Rules 2010 which requires the court to ensure 'in so far as practicable' that parties are 'on an equal footing'.

Sir James Munby came up with an unexpected solution - 'If there is no other properly available public purse, the cost will have to be born by HM Courts & Tribunals Service'.

At this stage this is simply a recommendation - no Judge has made such an order, and there is as yet no precedent.  It seems we continue as we are for the time being, LiPs will continue to struggle and the court system may clog up with unrepresented parties and their bin bags.

If you or someone you know finds yourself needing to be in court and without representation, do remember that we are happy to work on a 'pay as you go' basis for LiPs.  Have a look at our website or contact us for more information - we'd like to think we can help you.

Couples converting from civil partnerships will get backdated marriage certificates

The government has confirmed that backdated marriage certificates will be issued to couples converting their civil partnerships to marriages.

After criticism earlier in the year about how conversions were to be carried out, the Government Equalities Office has this week confirmed that a full, backdated marriage certificate will be issued to couples – and not a ‘certificate of conversion’ as previously speculated.

The new marriage certificate has been developed in discussion with the LGBT Consortium and Stonewall and it will be almost identical to a marriage certificate issued without a conversion, but there will be a few necessary differences.

To ensure that there is no doubt that the marriage is to be treated as having subsisted since the date the original civil partnership was formed, as required by the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, the marriage certificate will show the ‘when married’ date as the date the original civil partnership was formed.  The certificate will also show the date the conversion took place.

This will ensure that there is no confusion over why the ‘when married’ date could be earlier than the first date it became legal for same sex couples to marry in England and Wales.

Couples in England and Wales will be able to convert their civil partnerships to marriages at registry offices from December 10.

To see the full article which appeared in the Pink News, click here