Should Pre-nups be Legal in the UK?

wedding
Originally uploaded by Jakeymeyers

A prenuptial is a contract between two people about to marry that spells out how assets will be distributed in the event of divorce or death. It usually lists the assets and debts of both parties, and also states what each person's property rights will be after the marriage ends, either through divorce or death.

If a couple divorces, a prenup helps a lot in dividing the assets smoothly between the two. A pre-nup allows the couple to spell out what they expect from each other financially, and creates a more harmonious union with fewer conflicts, now and in the future.

Pre-nups are not binding in the UK although judges can take them into account during divorce proceedings - as seen here Should you Bother with a Pre-nup?

BUT... The Law Commission is to consider plans to bring the legal system in England and Wales in line with other countries. It will look at whether pre-nups should be upheld by the courts and under what circumstances.

Judith Middleton, partner at Latimer Hinks welcomes the plans and look sforward to less acrimonious divorces in the future - Darlington Lawyer Welcomes Move to Make Pre-nups Legal

Legal Blogs - Why are they undervalued?

Charley With iBook
Originally uploaded by Hackintosh

Judith Middleton (partner at Latimer Hinks Solcitors), Anne Elliott (partner) and myself write blogs. All are very different.

Social Networking Guineapig follows the success of Judith's Divorce Blog and Anne's Tax Planning Blog as well as providing the opportunity to flag up events, press stories which Latimer Hinks publish.

We are a 9 partner firm and so far I have only managed to recruit 2 partners in this blogging experiment.

I recently came across an article from KMSpace - Why are legal blogs undervalued? It's well worth reading, there are also links to other articles of interest.

Here is my blog on Why Blog - the advantages

The reasons that Latimer Hinks have developed blogs as an added marketing initiative are given below in a quote from KMSpace (we seem to be on the same wavelength!)

Blogging, like any marketing or networking activity is about building your brand. With lawyers and other professionals that means showing your expertise, engaging in conversations about your expertise and publishing your expertise. Blogs allow all of these. And certainly do a better job than most firm's rather static websites.

Once you start a blog it's interesting (and addictive) to monitor how much traffic is directed to the firm's website. Traffic that would not have arrived there probably by any other means.

All you need to do is "give it a try". It's free and your marketing budget will stretch further!

FeedBurner - pushing your information

I've been burning feeds - not something i thought i'd be saying in a marketing role + it's free!

Recently Google purchased news-feed management company FeedBurner for $100 million and Google is now offering the service for free - Google Gives Away Feedburner

Why Would I Want to Set Fire to my Feed?
If you long for creative ways to attract an audience, see where your content goes once you publish it and generally add a lot more value to your feed, then "feedburning" is for you

Your "feed" is redirected so that you can get a true picture of how many subscribers you have, where they come from etc. You are provided with a very detailed analysis which can be tailored to what you require. I've used the data on one blog to help promote the other blogs. It's interesting to see where your traffic comes from and where it is going to!

See Feedburning for Bloggers

Blogging - slowly but surely there seems to be a pay off!

We've now been blogging for over a month now and Judith's Divorce Blog is finally gaining recognition.

The last time i spoke with Judith she'd had over 900 hits on her Yahoo 360 blog (which contains the same information as her blogspot blog).

The blogspot blog has been mentioned in various other family lawyers blogs, so many thanks to them - Family Lore & Bloody Relations both excellent blogs in their own right.

I've also managed to have Judith's divorce blog highlighted as a "featured external blog" wikivorce. I'm now in the process of trying for the same on Infolaw. *Update* Judith's Blog is now on infolaw!

Due to the success of this trial blog we have decided to start up another. This time to promote the Private Client side of Latimer Hinks Solicitors. Wills, trusts, probate, inheritance tax planning, estate planning etc etc.

The blog is called Anne's Tax Planning Blog and will advise on all aspects of "planning for the future". Again, i have started the blog in Yahoo 360 - we like the community based blog providers and hope to gain traffic through Yahoo and direct it to the blogspot blog of the same name.

I like the blogspot sites as you can add widgets, set up RSS feeds and monitor through google analytics, which seems to be a problem in Yahoo.

I will keep you updated

The Latimer Hinks Guineapig

This is a time for firsts - my first blog and first posting. The reason I have decided to create a blog is to diary the progress of a marketing campaign which myself and the family law partner (Judith Middleton) at Latimer Hinks Solicitors decided to undertake.

I am hoping that the campaign will generate traffic to the Latimer Hinks website and also raise the profile/awareness of the partners of the firm.

It is an experiment of which Latimer Hinks is the guineapig.

I recently attended a presentation by Roger Coathup of 21 Thoughts . Roger considers himself to be a "futures expert" (GRReat job title I might add). The presentation was excellent and set me to thinking of how best to create a social networking presence.

I took Roger's comments on board and decided to try a few out.