The Austin Lafferty Blog

Recent research by the Australian Institute of Family Studies has found that children of married couples have higher levels of learning and social and emotional development than children of cohabiting parents or single mothers.

However, according to the authors, the differences in children's development were explained by the family's financial circumstances, mother's educational level and parenting approaches rather than the marital status of their parents.

According to researcher Ruth Weston, the study found that 31% of married mothers had a university degree or higher level of education compared to 15% of single and cohabiting mothers. Married mothers were also more likely to be employed and married couple families were less likely to experience financial hardships.

Cohabiting parent families were slightly worse off financially than married parent families but slightly better off than families headed by single mothers. However, of particular concern was the fact that the gaps between the children of single mothers and those living with married parents appeared to widen over time.

Ms Weston said the study also compared parents' reports on their approaches to parenting across the three types of families, and found there were differences between the groups regarding the extent to which they adopted a consistent approach to parenting. Married parents reported greater consistency in parenting than cohabiting couples or single mothers.

Partners provide a vital source of positive emotional support for the vast majority of people in the UK. Nine out of ten people who were married or cohabiting talk to their partner about their worries, according to data from Understanding Society, the world’s largest longitudinal household study of 40,000 UK households. Around 94% of those surveyed rely on their partner for support when a problem crops up.

As part of the Understanding Society study of 40,000 UK households, researchers asked people how much personal and emotional support they felt they received from not only their spouse/partner, but also other family members and friends. Respondents were also asked to rate negative support from their partner, other family members and friends including how much they felt criticised and let down by those people.

“Spouses or partners were largely described as providing positive support,” explains Professor Heather Laurie, Director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. “Some 88% of respondents said their partner understood the way they feel, with only 10% admitting that they had felt let down by their partner when they were counting on them.”

Understanding where people receive emotional support from is important, researchers argue, because existing evidence suggests a ‘buffering effect’ of having positive social support in the face of shocks such as divorce, ill-health, bereavement, or losing your job. Having positive and strong social support also appears linked with better psychological and physical health.

Over £6.5 million of Lottery money is to be spent on supporting families living with domestic abuse across Scotland.

The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery Good Cause distributors, has announced a package of funding worth £6,494,961 to 18 projects across Scotland. This funding means there will be greater access to proven support services for women and families who have lived through domestic abuse.

There are currently 50,000 recorded incidents of domestic abuse in Scotland each year and Scottish Women’s Aid believes that one in five women will experience domestic abuse at some point in their lives.

Heather Coady, Children’s Policy Manager at Scottish Women’s Aid (SWA) said: “Scottish Women’s Aid welcomes the news that the Big Lottery Fund has funded domestic abuse projects across Scotland to the tune of £6.5 million. This is a significant injection of cash towards an area of work that supports vulnerable women, children and young people living with the trauma of domestic abuse and recognition that this is an area desperately in need of funding.”

SWA have also been awarded £367,109 to develop a nationwide CEDAR Children Experiencing Domestic Abuse Recovery project to work with families and women to help them move on from the emotional and social difficulties experienced as a consequence of domestic abuse.

A judge in Fort Lauderdale has ordered a bickering couple to go out on a date together, reports the Sun Sentinel.

The couple had come before the judge after an argument triggered by the man forgetting his wife's birthday escalated into a mild domestic disturbance.

According to the Sun Sentinel, the judge directed: “He’s going to stop by somewhere and he’s going to get some flowers. And then he’s going to go home, pick up his wife, get dressed, take her to Red Lobster. And then after they have Red Lobster, they’re going to go bowling.”

The judge stressed that he wouldn't have given such a “whimsical” sentence if the domestic violence accusation had been more serious, or if the wife had been in danger of being hurt.

He also ordered that the couple attend marriage counseling.

A court in the United Arab Emirates has witnessed what must be one of the shortest marriages in history, reports Emirates 24/7.

The judge presiding over the court in Ras Al Khaimah had complied with a request to solemnise the marriage of an 80-year-old man to a 20-year-old woman.

After spending only an hour in her new husband's home however, the woman came back to the courtroom and asked the same judge for a divorce.

She gave no reason for the request, but after gaining the husband's permission, the judge granted the divorce.

The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Agency has revealed the scale of the cost of administering some Child Support Agency (CSA) cases. A typical case requiring a variety of actions to ensure the payment of maintenance can cost up to around £25,000 over 18 years.

Internal management estimates show that when the case involves legal action, the cost to the public purse can jump significantly - by as much as 50%. A ‘difficult’ case in the North West involving years of enforcement against a determinedly resistant parent cost the taxpayer around £40,000.

The wealthy businessman had avoided paying regular child maintenance for his two sons for more than 16 years. During a marathon legal battle the Agency was forced to deploy nearly all of the legal enforcement tools available to it including liability orders, third party debt orders and a charging order imposed on his home. In the end an order for the sale of the property finally compelled him to make a payment of £70,000.

None of the estimated costs in these examples include the added burden of the CSA’s inefficient computer systems, which are due to be replaced over the next few years.

A recent study has found that men get over a divorce much quicker than women, and are twice as likely to consider getting remarried, reports the Huffington Post.

According to the study, which was carried out to promote a film's DVD release, 47% of men would be keen to marry again after going through a divorce, compared to only 20% of divorced women.

The study also found that around 31% of divorced men, but only 19% of women, had tried internet dating, and 42% of divorced men were so keen to meet a new partner that they would be prepared to pay for professional dating advice.

The Government has announced that, as part of the restructuring of the child maintenance system, an extra £20 million will be made available to support families going through divorce or separation. 

The money will help families work out their own arrangements, rather than trapping them in the current outdated system, which has been shown to be expensive and divisive and does not put children first.

A typical case in the Child Support Agency can cost the taxpayer around £25,000, rising to around £40,000 if enforcement action is needed. Many parents already share the care of their children and it is estimated that if those made their own arrangements for maintenance this could save the taxpayer £45m per year.

Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said:

"This is about helping to put children first in what is a difficult and traumatic time for all concerned. Most parents want to come to arrangements with a minimal disruption to their children and by offering them the right support we can help make this the case.

"We need to radically re-think the support we provide to separating parents to place family responsibility and the welfare of children at its heart. Our plans to reform the child maintenance system will enable parents to come to their own family-based arrangements which work far better for children."

The Hague Conference on Private International Law is to convene Part II of the Sixth Special Commission Meeting to review the practical operation of the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention and the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention from 25th to 31st January 2012.

The Child Abduction Convention applies typically where one parent has moved a child abroad without the consent of the other parent and without the permission of a court. In such a case, the “left behind” parent may apply through the Hague system for the prompt return of the child.

The Hague Child Protection Convention provides for co-operation among States Parties on a wide range of cross-border child protection matters, e.g., parental disputes over contact with children, the protection of runaway children and cross-border care.

The Special Commission programme includes, among other things, presentations and discussions on:

• the enforcement of mediated agreements:
• grave risk of harm defence in return proceedings;
• international family relocation; and
• the future of the Malta Process, a dialogue between senior judges and high ranking government officials from Contracting States to the 1980 and 1996 Conventions and non-Contracting States with Sharia based law. The Process is aimed at improving State co-operation in order to assist with resolving difficult cross-border family law disputes in situations where the relevant international legal framework is not applicable.

Source: the Hague Conference on Private International Law

A senior Conservative Peer has announced his intention to challenge the Government's plans to charge single parents to use the future Child Support Agency.

Lord Mackay of Clashfern, who as Margaret Thatcher’s Lord Chancellor introduced the Child Support Act 1991, has tabled an amendment that would exempt from the charges those parents who have no alternative but to use the statutory maintenance service, because private arrangements are not possible or appropriate. The amendment is due to go to a vote on Wednesday 25th January.

The amendment would prevent the Government imposing the following charges on parents who turn to the statutory maintenance service because, without its help, their children would not receive fair and regular child maintenance:

• An up-front application charge levied on the applicant (overwhelmingly ‘parents with care’, around 97% of whom are mothers) in order to use the future new Agency. The Government is discussing a charge of 100 or £50 for an applicant on benefits.

• A ‘collection charge’ taken by the Agency from each maintenance payment it collects, in the range of 7-12% of the payment, before the money is passed on for the child/children.

There is a further ‘collection surcharge’ which the Government proposes to levy on the ‘non-resident parent’, additional to actual maintenance due, in the range 15-20% of the maintenance liability, where the Agency has to step in to collect the maintenance to ensure it gets paid. This would not be affected by the amendment.

Gingerbread Chief Executive Fiona Weir said:

“We are very grateful to Lord Mackay for taking up this vital issue in the Lords, and the indications of support he has received so far show the high level of cross-party concern at the government’s proposals.

“We fully support efforts to help separated parents work together to deal with the financial, emotional and practical consequences of separation. But the government needs to realise that in very many cases that isn’t possible, and if charges are introduced then it will be children who lose out.”

My old friend Professor Leo Martin and his team have created a new family legal business department at the Strathclyde Law School. The idea is to teach the range of legal services and issues that affect families that run businesses. Matters of employment, property owning, retirement and succession planning and lots more are all to be subjects for educating law students (and presumably qualified solicitors too). This is an excellent development, and brings law teaching into a very important area of life and work in Scotland.

As it happens, we at Austin Lafferty Solicitors are already well-trained and qualified in all these areas. We have a substantial clientele of business people with small, medium sized and large businesses, and often there is a family structure that owns and runs the business. Our solicitors are well geared up to advise and represent such clients and their companies at all stages. It is terrific to see a university law school shaping some of its courses to focus on this crucial collection of skills, as this mirrors the way family law firms like ours operate.

Further information on this news available on the BBC News website.

A couple from Italy who are to divorce at the ages of 99 and 96 look set to become the world's oldest divorcees, a record previously held by a British couple who were both aged 98 when they divorced, reports the Telegraph.

The marriage of the Italian couple had not been without its problems, but the final blow came when the 99-year-old man found old letters indicating that his wife had had an affair during the 1940s. Despite the amount of time that had passed, he immediately requested a divorce, bringing an end to 77 years of marriage.

Barnardo’s Scotland is issuing a desperate plea for people to put themselves forward as potential foster carers – particularly for older children.

While there is considerable focus on placing babies and younger children, the charity highlights the needs of older children. There needs to be a range of placements so that the system works for all children and young people.

Barnardo’s Scotland acting director, SallyAnn Kelly, said:

“All children and young people deserve and need a loving home in order to thrive. We urgently need more people to consider becoming foster parents to children over the age of ten.

We know from our experience that older children in care can need extra support. They need carers who can help them overcome emotional and behavioral difficulties, and provide much needed stability.”

There is a general shortage of foster families across Scotland, with at least 1,700 new foster families needing to be found within the next 12 months.

The situation is particularly worrying as the number of children in care who need foster families has continued to increase year on year, but the number of carers coming forward has not matched the need. Figures from the Fostering Network show that the number of children in care in the UK living with foster families at any one time has risen every year since 2005, from 49,700 to over 59,000 in 2011.

The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC) has recently published findings from a survey conducted in 2010 to determine the number of families that have used the Child Maintenance Options telephone service to set up a family-based child maintenance arrangement.

Key findings from the survey include:

• Around 25% of parents who had used the Child Maintenance Options service between July 2008 and January 2010 had an arrangement which included regular financial payments only; 16% had an arrangement based on ad-hoc support only; 23% had both regular financial payments and ad-hoc support; and 37% did not have an arrangement.
• Those with regular financial payments were asked how the arrangement was established: 48% had an arrangement set up via the CSA; 48% had a family-based arrangement; and 4% had an arrangement set up via the courts.
• Of those with an arrangement (family-based or statutory), almost half were established after contact with Child Maintenance Options (48%) and 42% were established before contact with Child Maintenance Options. The remaining 10% were unsure at what point the arrangement had been set up.
• Of those who put an arrangement in place after contact with Child Maintenance Options, 41% said that the service had played a large role in helping them to set up an arrangement.
• Almost three-quarters of those with regular financial payments received or paid all or some of their child maintenance. Of those, 77% received or paid their payments always or usually on time.
• Of those without a child maintenance arrangement, the majority of parents (63%) said they were not likely to make a child maintenance arrangement in the future.

The research also found that the most common reasons cited by parents with care for not having an arrangement in place at the point of the research were:

• they do not have or want any contact with the other parent (23%);
• they do not know where the other parent was living (16%);
• there was a domestic violence issue (9%).

The most common reasons cited by non-resident parents were:

• they could not afford it (20%);
• they did not want contact with the other parent (15%);
• they did not know where the other parent lived (12%).

Austin sets out his stall for a positive approach to 2012 as President-elect of the Law Society of Scotland, in the Firm Magazine.

Austin comments in the Scotsman newspaper and the Scotsman online about the recent Big Man case in which a passenger who did not seem willing or able to pay his fare was thrown – literally – off a train by another passenger.

Issues of citizen’s arrest, assault and the freedom of passengers not to be obstructed in getting to their destination all figure here. The vigilante has been charged with assault, and the apparently non-paying passenger has been referred to the procurator fiscal to see if he should face a charge too. Tickets please!

Recent research from America has found that around two thirds of cohabiting couples were put off marriage because of concerns about dealing with the social, legal, emotional and economic consequences of a possible divorce.

Researchers at Cornell University and the University of Central Oklahoma found that approximately 67% of the study’s respondents shared their worries about divorce. Despite the concerns, middle-class subjects spoke more favorably about tying the knot and viewed cohabitation as a natural stepping stone to marriage compared to their working-class counterparts. Lower-income women were more likely to view marriage as a "trap," fearing that it could be hard to get out of if things go wrong or it would lead to additional domestic responsibilities but few benefits.

The study also found working-class cohabitating couples were more apt to view marriage as “just a piece of paper,” nearly identical to their existing relationship. They were twice as likely to admit fears about being stuck in marriage with no way out once they were relying on their partners’ share of income to get by.

The Scottish Government has outlined new measures to improve the experience for child witnesses while they give evidence.

The Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill published renewed interview guidance for police officers and social workers and announced the roll out of visual recording equipment.

With the focus firmly on the best interests of the child, these new developments will help to ensure that the justice and children's hearings systems keep pace with modern life and provide better support for victims and witnesses, allowing them to give their best evidence and participate effectively in the process.

Costs related to the procurement of the visual recording equipment will be met from existing budgets and are expected to be £315,000 in the current financial year. This will deliver 36 interview suites and around 55 mobile recording kits across Scotland.

The revised Guidance on Joint Investigative Interviewing (JII) of Child Witnesses in Scotland promotes best practice for police officers and social workers undertaking JIIs with children.

The Scottish Government set up a multi-agency National Strategic Group to revise the guidance, purchase and roll-out of visual recording equipment and consider training requirements.

The revised guidance ensures consistency with the updated National Child Protection guidance published in December 2010 and will assist compliance with the requirements of European legislation.

The Scottish Government has recently announced changes to the law that will enable more people to stay in their homes if their husband, wife or civil partner has died without making a will. These changes follow a consultation on these areas of succession law that took place earlier this year.

Currently, if a home-owner dies without making a will, their spouse or civil partner might have to sell the family home if it was worth more than £300,000. The changes announced by the Government mean that, with effect from 1st February 2012, this house value limit will be increased to £473,000.

The Scottish Government has also announced that the financial limits where a sheriff clerk can prepare an inventory and declaration to finalise an estate without the need for a solicitor will be increased to £36,000.

Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs, Roseanna Cunningham, said:

"These small but much needed changes will offer protection for those who have lost a loved one and are left to deal with the consequences when no will has been made.

"The increase in limits to £473,000 means that most people in Scotland will be able to stay in the family home they shared with their spouse or civil partner, sparing them the distress and disruption of leaving their homes at such a difficult time.

"These are additional safeguards when an individual has not left a will. It is a reminder to us all just how important a document a will can be.”

Both of these changes are due to be made by negative resolution of a statutory instrument in the Scottish Parliament and are due to come into force on 1st February 2012. They were both last increased in 2005.

A recent study into family formation by researchers at Bowling Green State University’s National Center for Family and Marriage Research’s (NCFMR) has found that the majority (61%) of young adults have formed a family by age 25.

According to the research, over two-thirds of women (69%) have formed a family in early adulthood compared to just over half of men (53%). Education also plays an integral part in how a family is formed. Family formation in early adulthood was most prevalent among young adults with a GED diploma, at 81%. Those with at least a bachelor’s degree were least likely to form a family before age 25 (44%).

“Increasingly, young adults are spending more time in school as they pursue college and advanced degrees,” said Dr. Susan Brown, co-director of the NCFMR and a professor of sociology. “This tends to delay family formation—whether childbearing, cohabitation, or marriage—as most people aim to achieve financial security prior to starting a family.”

Researchers found over a quarter of young adults married prior to their 25th birthday. Over a third of them followed a direct or “traditional” pathway into marriage, meaning they did not live with their partner or have a child before getting married. Men were more likely than women to follow this “traditional” pathway.

The researchers also found out that living together is a strong pathway to marriage. Among young adults who got married, over three-fifths cohabited before tying the knot. Women are also more likely than men to live with someone before marriage (63% versus 57%).