Police familymatters matters

The Police Federation
Spring 2012
Police
familymatters
Islamic Legal Service
Russell Jones & Walker has one of
the largest family law teams in the
country with 13 years experience
representing Police officers.
With the recent addition of Aina Khan, the UK’s leading solicitor
providing innovative family law solutions under UK and Islamic law,
we have identified a niche area and launched a groundbreaking new
division - the first in the UK - RJW Islamic Legal Services.
Society’s Family Panel and Children Panel. She is a top expert in
handling the highly charged negotiations arising from cases covering
both UK and Islamic family law. Aina has a wide network of specialist
contacts in the UK and abroad to assist her clients.
As well as providing you with the best possible advice and
representation under English law, we also provide specialist help in
achieving a just solution for you covering:
She appears regularly on TV, radio and in the press, here in the UK and
abroad. She also gives lectures highlighting the pressing issues facing
the Muslim community as well as on mainstream English law.
She is uniquely placed to find the answer for police officers and their
families to problems arising in this complex area.
Islamic Divorce
Islamic Financial Settlements upon Divorce
Unregistered Islamic marriages and Mehr finance claims
Recovery of Wedding Jewellery and Belongings
Islamic Mediation
Islamic Marriage Guidance and Counselling
Aina Khan heads the Islamic Legal Services division and leads our
specialist family law team. She is an accredited member of the Law
Celebrity Pre-nups
The Daily Mail have run a story suggesting that model Heidi Klum and
singer Seal, who have been happily married for 6 years will be pursuing
a divorce due to irreconcilable differences.
The couple married in Mexico in 2005 and have three children together,
whilst Heidi has one child from a previous relationship, whom Seal
adopted shortly after their marriage. With Heidi Klum rumoured to be
worth an estimated $70 million, having earned a reported $20 million
just last year and Seal’s wealth a significant amount as he is one of
the most well known soul singers around, it will be interesting to see
whether theirs will be an amicable and private separation or a messy
affair which ends up splashed across the tabloids.
If they did enter into a pre-nuptial agreement before marrying then
this should greatly reduce the uncertainty regarding their financial
Contact us for all queries relating
to Islamic legal matters or services:
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[email protected]
www.rjw.co.uk/islamic
settlement. A pre-nuptial agreement can set out the division of a
couple’s finances on a separation and even deal with where the children
will live and how much financial support one parent will make to the
other for the benefit of the children. They can also include clauses
prohibiting a couple from disclosing information about the other and
discussing their separation in the press.
Although pre-nuptial agreements are not legally binding in
England and Wales since the Supreme Court decision in the case of
Radmacher v Granatino (2010), the Court will give effect to a prenuptial agreement if it is freely entered into by each party with a full
appreciation of its implications and provided it is not considered to be
unfair.
With Heidi Klum and Seal ‘the golden couple’ considering ending their
marriage, it is important to remember that pre-nuptial agreements
should be a carefully considered by any engaged couple.
This factsheet is for general guidance only and should not be treated as a definitive guide
or be regarded as legal advice. If you need more details or information about the matters
referred to in this factsheet please seek formal legal advice. This information was correct
at time of going to press February 2012.
What effect does the Supreme Court ruling of Jones v Kernott have
on couples who own property together but who aren’t married?
How then does this affect the man on the street? If you buy a property
now (and indeed since 1998) you will have completed a TR1 form. On
this form you can specify exactly how you hold the property - so if one
party puts in more money than the other, that party can protect their
interest so that when the property eventually sells they know exactly
how the proceeds of sale will be distributed.
Ms Jones and Mr Kernott met in 1980 and purchased their jointly
owned property in May 1985, but never married. At the time of
purchase there was no opportunity to confirm how they held that
property, other than jointly, unless they entered into an express
declaration of trust. They separated in 1993. Since that time Ms Jones
brought up their children and paid the mortgage. In 2006 Mr Kernott
sought to recover a 50% share of the property. However, the Supreme
Court disagreed with him and said that it would be unfair for him to
have 50% of the net proceeds of sale in the circumstances and ordered
that he have a 10% interest in the property.
Case study - an unmarried couple buy a property. One party puts
£100,000 towards the purchase price, the other puts in £50,000. If
they want to protect their respective contributions, then they need to
confirm on the TR1 that they either hold the property as “Tenants in
Common” in unequal shares of 67:33 or expressly say that upon the
eventual sale one party receives £100,000, the other £50,000 and any
excess is split equally between them both (depending what they agree).
If they tick one of the other two boxes, i.e. “Tenants in Common” in
equal shares or “Joint Tenants”, then when the property eventually sells
the proceeds will be divided equally between them both, regardless of
the fact that they contributed different amounts.
So when the Land Registry Form TR1 was introduced, which made
provision for purchasers to expressly declare their beneficial interests,
the type of dispute that arose in Jones v Kernott should not arise again.
To conclude, if you are buying a property with your partner, or perhaps
putting money towards the deposit of your child’s property, then
you must have this clearly stated on the TR1 at the time of purchase,
otherwise you risk losing your money. It’s generally too late to do
anything about it after purchase, so make sure you get the right legal
advice at the time of purchase.
How do you arrange contact
with your children when you
are working shifts?
One of the most frequently asked questions our clients who have
children ask is how they can arrange contact when they are working
shifts. We tend to find that ex spouses who may have understood
our client’s shift patterns for years while they were together suddenly
suffer amnesia and have no idea how the shifts work once they
are separated. We may be being cynical about this but you would
be amazed at how many times we receive letters from ex spouses
solicitors saying that little Jimmy cannot possibly continue seeing his
father on his father’s rest days because his mother has no idea as to
when those rest days are and it would therefore be far too confusing
for little Jimmy.
It is however important to remember that the children do need a good
degree of certainty as it provides them with reassurance and security
that they know with which parent they are to be living with and
when. We encourage clients to put a chart up in their kitchen with a
timetable of when the children are going to be with them and when
Contact us
Please feel free to discuss your own position and concerns.
Contact your nearest Russell Jones & Walker 0ffice on:
T: 0808 175 7710
E: [email protected]
W: www.rjw.co.uk/polfed
they are going to be with the other parent. The children often help
make these charts and it means that they can look at them and easily
remember where they are supposed to be and when. It is important
that children are involved in these arrangements.
Always remember however that you work for an organisation that
is family friendly and if you do need to change shift patterns or your
working arrangements due to children, then your employer does have
a legal obligation to consider it.
Our offices:
Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes,
Newcastle, Sheffield, Wakefield & Edinburgh - Associated office.
Russell Jones & Walker Solicitors is regulated and authorised by the Solicitors
Regulation Authority (SRA number 54695) and regulated by the Financial
Services Authority for insurance mediation activity.
This factsheet is for general guidance only and should not be treated as a definitive guide or be regarded as legal advice. If you need more details or information
about the matters referred to in this factsheet please seek formal legal advice. This information was correct at time of going to press February 2012.