Nicholas Starks
Nicholas Starks has 30+ years' experience in family financial provision (divorce, TLATA, IPFDA, Schedule 1 Children Act and civil partnerships). His work involves high net worth claims featuring businesses, farming, overseas assets, trusts, pensions and variation of nuptial settlements. Nicholas is head of St Ives Chambers’ Family Finance team and was voted ‘Barrister of the Year, 2019’ by Worcestershire Law Society. He sits as a deputy district judge in civil and specialist financial remedy cases and on Lexis Nexis’s panel of experts. Reported decisions include Kaur v Matharu [2010] EWCA Civ 930, Colborne v Colborne [2014] EWCA Civ 1488 and LF v DF [2021] EWFC B50.
Latest
Of Dogs and Divorce
Of dogs and divorce: why treating pets as chattels is an anachronism.
This is Ernest, our beloved English bull terrier. According to English law he has the same status as the chaise longue upon which he is performing his Kate Winslet impersonation. How can this be right? How can he
Pre-Nuptial Agreements: an ‘Oven-Ready’ Solution to a Pressing Problem? A House of Lords Debate
Late last month, Baroness Deech brought a motion in the House of Lords, ‘That this House takes note of the law relating to prenuptial agreements’.
The debate came against the backdrop of Baroness Deech having (of course) long pursued financial remedies reform through her Divorce (Financial Provision) Bill. She has
Stamp Duty Land Tax and Divorce
This is sometimes the forgotten tax on divorce. Maybe this is fair enough as there is a pretty clear exemption in tax law that states that stamp duty land tax (SDLT) will not apply to transfers pursuant to divorce.
However, the last few years have seen the introduction of two