Please submit your assignment electronically through Turnitin in Canvas – failure to submit, or late submissions without an authorised extension, will be considered as non-submission and you will receive a mark of zero. Your assignment will be checked for plagiarism. Please note: at your first submission, you have the opportunity to review your submission – until you have clicked submit you have not submitted. Your second submission will be your final submission and you are therefore strongly encouraged to ensure this is the final and best version of your assignment. When resubmitting ensure that you fill in exactly the same submission data to ensure that your previous submission is overwritten.
You should put your UB number on every page of your work. Please note that the assignment will NOT be returned to you and you should therefore keep a copy for your records.
Word limit 4,000
Weighting – 100% of the total marks
PART A
3,000 words 75% weighting for this assessment
Consider the following extract:
‘What this demonstrates is that there are dangers in seeking to promote family life or talk about family law unless we are clear what it is we mean by families. We need to be precise about the aspect of what aspect of the family law is seeking to promote, or which group of people is intended to be covered by that particular law. Indeed, it may be that some parts of family law will apply to some families and not to others. It is not that some groups are family and some are not, but some family groups may need the benefits of a particular law and others not. The search for one perfect definition is likely to be doomed, but what we can strive for is the definition of ‘family’ best suited to the particular circumstances’.
J Herring, R,Probert, S Gilmore, Great Debates in Family Law (Palgrave 2nd ed 2015) at page 11.
In the light of the above extract, and by employing your own research, critically analyse how the state seeks to regulate the family
PART B
1000 words 25% weighting for this assessment
Hannah and Waleed married in 2003 and separated in 2020.
They have 3 children, twin girls, born in 2006 and a boy, born in 2010.
Hannah is 47 and Waleed is 45. They met in 1997 when Hannah was doing some part-time work at Waleed’s parent’s business. They quickly fell in love and began living together the year after. Hannah was in her first year of university when they met.
Hannah is a General Practitioner working at the local doctor’s practice. She earns a net income of £75,000. She works incredibly hard.
Waleed is a landscape gardener. He does a little work here and there, but he is and always has been the primary carer for the children. Last year he earned about £5,000 doing cash jobs in the local area.
Waleed comes from a successful family. His parents owned a number of care homes for the elderly. Indeed, it was these homes that got him into gardening as he used to look after all the gardens as a teenager.
Waleed has no formal qualifications. However, he did earn a reasonable income from his work and he provided for himself and Hannah whilst she was at medical school. When they married, the year Hannah qualified, Waleed’s parents gave them £50,000 to buy their home.
Their home in an old Victorian terraced house in Heaton. It spans 4 floors and has 6 bedrooms and substantial gardens. The property needed serious renovation when they bought it and Waleed dedicated himself to bringing the property up to a very high standard.
The couple purchased the property for £100,000 with a small mortgage of £75,000. They used the £50,000 from Waleed’s parent’s as a deposit of £25,000 and spent the remaining £25,000 on purchase costs and the early renovations. The property is now worth £400,000. The couple have taken out secured loans on the property over the years to pay for the materials to renovate it. The mortgage currently stands at £125,000.
The couple have modest savings spread across several accounts which total £24,000 but no other assets.
Hannah has an NHS pension which she has been paying into since 2003. As it stands today, the pension would provide Hannah with an income of £15,000 and a lump-sum of £45,000. The earliest that she can take the benefits is 60. It is anticipated that by the time Hannah is 60, the benefits available to her will be 3 times the current benefits.
Waleed has no pension. He knows that when his parents die, he will inherit a 5th of their estate, which will provide him, his father says, £200,000. Happily, both his parents are in their early 70’s and are both very fit and healthy and spend every winter at a property owned by them in Lahore. Waleed will gain a share in this property too.
Hannah and Waleed have holidayed in the Lahore property for many years. They both adore it.
Hannah and Waleed are both devastated that their marriage has come to an end, but they accept that they have become like brother and sister, not man and wife and have agreed that they should both move on whilst they are still young enough.
Hannah and Waleed come to see you for advice. They don’t want to fall out about money and they seek the opinion of a family lawyer as to what a court would do if it had to decide their case.
They both agree that Waleed will remain primary carer for the children, but he will begin to increase his earnings over time as the children get older. It is agreed that the children will spend lots of time with Hannah whenever her work schedule permits it.
Hannah is worried about her pension. She see’s it as her only security for the future. She will not inherit a penny. Her parents have nothing, not even their own home.
Waleed is worried about his future too. He has spent the last 20 years supporting Hannah in her career at the expense of his own. He will always earn a living, but only an average one.
By reference to statutory material and key case law, advise Hannah and Waleed as to what a court might do in their case, and why.
