Top judge Sir Nicholas Wall calls for better rights for unmarried couples
Neil Puffett
Thursday, February 3, 2011
England's top family judge has called for unmarried couples to get new rights to share property and money if they break up.
Sir Nicholas Wall, president of the Family Division, told The Times he is in favour of couples living together to have rights "because of the injustice of the present situation", believing the current system to be unfair to women. Around four in 10 babies are born to unmarried couples.
In 2007 the Law Commission called for new legal rights for people living together in a long-term relationship but the previous Labour government did not act on the recommendation.
Many people wrongly believe that unmarried couples can resort to "common law" rights but this has not been the case since the 18th century.
Sir Nicholas recently spoke out about the dangers of parents using their children as ammunition after separation.
Last September, in a speech to the annual volunteers' conference of parenting charity Families Need Fathers, he said disputes over contact between absent parents and their former partners are rarely about the children concerned, but still end up damaging them.
