Family Lawyers welcome Divorce Day

Every year UK family lawyers enjoy D Day (Divorce Day). This year it was on 7 Jan 2008. D Day is the day of the year where more divorces are expected to be filed than on any other day of the year.

The post-Christmas divorce boom, said leading family lawyers, comes as spouses begin the New Year with a fresh outlook. Christmas is a stressful time, and there is often too much alcohol. Then there are people who have been considering a divorce who will use Christmas as a time of reflection and January as a time to make hard decisions. Couples with children are more likely to wait for the end of the festive season before launching a petition.

If you decide to divorce your spouse (or civil partner) then they may still inherit from you while the divorce is going through! If you have an existing Will naming your spouse/civil partner then you need to change this immediately and not wait for the actual Decree Absolute to come through (this can take several years in some circumstances). Once the Decree Absolute is made your spouse/civil partner is treated as if they had died before you and cannot inherit from your Will. If you do not have a Will then your separated spouse/civil partner may inherit under the law of intestacy!

Alan Porter of The Will Centre says, “It is amazing that couples who split up do not even take the basic precaution of changing or making a new Will straight away. Most people split up because they have usually decided they don’t want to be with their previous partner any longer, yet they don’t take steps to make sure their assets go to their children instead or even their new partner. There have been instances where we have seen a separated partner inheriting from their previous partner and the deceased’s children losing everything.”

Call The Will Centre on 01752-607040 if you are subject to the D Day blues.