The long awaited Civil Partnerships Act 2004 came into force on 5^th December 2005 and from that date it has been possible for same sex couples to register as civil partners.

Rosleys solicitors as family lawyers usually come onto the scene when things go wrong and couples face the problems of separation and dissolution of the civil partnership.  The issues then are fairly similar to those on divorce and can include issues relating to children and finances.

Civil partners accept the same legal obligations to each other as do married couples and on dissolution the outcomes should be similar.  The Courts will be very much concerned with the examination of the relative financial circumstance of each civil  partner and in the light of their respective resources decisions will be made on all aspects of financial provision including;

• Maintenance payments and how long they should continue
• Lump sum payments
• Property adjustment orders and transfers of assets or sale of assets
• Pensions issues
• Inheritance claims

Until the law has time to develop clearly in this area our advice is similar to the advice given to divorcing couples.  The law does its best not to discriminate on the basis of sexual preference but we at Rosleys solicitors feel it is still too early to known just how the law will develop in practice on civil partnership dissolution.

The grounds for dissolution of a civil partnership are similar to the grounds for divorce in all but the concept of adultery which in the case of a civil partnership is seen as a basis for an unreasonable behaviour petition.

Pre-Marital and Pre-Civil Partnership Agreements

It is possible to enter into agreements before celebrating the civil partnership or marriage.  Those agreements can provide for the possibility of the marriage or civil partnership breaking down and can be as specific as the parties wish.  The problem is that up to now English Courts have not enforced such agreements but rather have treated their existence as a circumstance to be taken into account at the time of deciding financial provision.  This is an area of law that is quickly developing and there is a great deal of pressure for the Courts to move with the times and give legal affect to such pre-marital or pre-civil partnership contracts.

Prenuptual and pre civil partnership agreements it seems may now be gaining favour with the courts.  On 19 December 2007 in the case of Crossley v Crossley the Court of appeal although not applying the prenuptual agreement treated it as a factor of "magnetic importance".  The Court was effectively applying the prenuptial agreement without wishing to overturn the old case law specifically.  Hopefully sooner rather than later the courts will establish a clear principle that prenuptial agreements and pre civil partnership agreements should be given effect.

It has been said by one or two outspoken lawyers recently that whatever the law on prenuptual agreements might be, high value clients who are planning to marry or enter a civil partnership would have to be "barking" not to have a prenuptual agreement in place.

See our web page on Financial Settlements

To discuss matters please feel free to contact Claire or John by telephone or email.

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Telephone : +44 115 958 0584