"Just answer my question!" comment by Richard Linskell
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"Warning on couples law delay" comment by Suzanne Kingston
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Financial Times - Family - March 2008
Family lawyers have criticised ministers for shelving ground-breaking plans to give cohabiting couples similar financial rights to divorcees.
Divorce solicitors warned the decision could mean years of delay in launching reform of the existing law in England and Wales, which is widely criticised as unfair.
Suzanne Kingston, head of family law at Dawsons, the law firm, said she was "really surprised" the government had failed to show more urgency.
She said: "It's disappointing. There's such a disparity between a couple's position if they are married and if they are not married."
In a written ministerial statement on Thursday, Bridget Prentice, justice minister, said the government would wait for research planned by the Scottish Executive on the cost and effectiveness of new rules on cohabiting couples introduced last year under Scotland's Family Law Act. The statement said British ministers would use the Scottish research to assess the worth of similar plans for England and Wales floated in July by the Law Commission.
Lawyers said the statement – which included no timescale – meant reform would be put on ice for years. The Scottish Executive told the Financial Times it would not start to research the impact of the Family Law Act until 2010. Mark Harper, partner at Withers, the law firm, said: "The government has failed to grasp ... that the law needs to be changed now."
Comment by Suzanne Kingston