You may be aware of the old-style Small Claims cases, for which Legal Aid was not available. After existing for 23 years these will disappear now from the courts for all cases raised after 1st November 2016. As of then they are no longer Small Claims but proceed under “simple procedure”, and the limit for these cases will go up to £5000. This means that if you are raising or defending a claim for money of under that amount, the simplified procedure is likely to apply. The system is designed much more for the electronic era.

According to a recent study from the US, financial factors such as a wife’s ability to support herself are not necessarily predictive of divorce. Instead, it is couples’ division of labour that is associated with the risk of divorce.   

There has been a sharp increase in the number of people seeking inheritance tax (IHT) planning advice as a result of pension freedoms and rising property prices.

A former model, who was seeking £196 million as a divorce settlement from her ex-husband, has been awarded £53 million by the High Court in London, reports the BBC. When her own assets are added they bring the total settlement amount to around £75 million.

Despite the uncertainty caused by the Brexit decision, house prices still look likely to increase by 5.7% on average during 2016, according to the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr).