Resolution is an organisation that represents professionals in the family justice system including family lawyers who believe in resolving family disputes in a non-confrontational manner. Every year Resolution’s Awareness Week promotes a particular aspect of family law.
This year – Resolution’s 40th anniversary – Resolution will be launching its Vision for Family Justice, focusing on the need for cohabitation reform and the importance of early legal advice. This year Resolution’s Awareness Week will run from the 27th November to the 1st December.
In the UK today more than 3 million people are living together, and it remains the fastest growing type of relationship. However, many of these couples are still unaware that should they split up, they will have little or, in some cases, no legal protection.
While many people move in together still believing in the widely held misconception of the “Common Law Spouse”, this does not exist legally. Even more worryingly, almost all the rights afforded to married couples cannot be applied to unmarried couples.
Resolution’s Awareness Week is the perfect opportunity for us to try and set the record straight.
We can not only promote the legal reality around cohabitation but also tell policymakers the changes we know will help more families resolve matters more constructively. The lobbying will centre around Resolution’s Vision for Family Justice, a sizeable part of which is to amplify the need for immediate cohabitation reform.
Cohabitation is an area the family team at Collins & Hoy are already hugely involved in.
Kate Moran, a partner in our family team, is an active member of Resolution’s Cohabitation Committee. At the end of last year the committee published Resolution’s Cohabitant Separation Agreement book. Kate is especially happy to see cohabitation reform receiving some much needed publicity.
If you are living together or are planning to live together and would like to discuss the legal aspects of cohabitation or would like to explore the protection a Cohabitation agreement would provide, please contact Kate today to set up an appointment.