News and Insights

Myth: 'If my ex doesn’t pay child maintenance, they can’t see the children'

Answer: False.

Contact and maintenance are two separate issues. If you are the parent of a child, you have a right to have contact with your child(ren) but you also have an obligation to pay child maintenance.

If you are not seeing your child (either voluntarily or involuntarily), a court would still expect you to pay child maintenance.

Conversely, you cannot stop your ex-partner from seeing the child(ren) solely because they are not paying child maintenance.

Myth: 'The court will simply divide our assets in half when we divorce'

Answer: Often false. 

The Court will often look to divide assets built up during the marriage equally, it is more often than not that there are not enough assets to meet parties’ “needs” (i.e. capital and income needs to live independently) and therefore, more often than not, there is an unequal split of the assets.

This is usually to account for the disparity in one party’s ability to be self-sufficient going forward (usually the bread winner) and the other who is less able (usually the home maker).

Myth: 'Because my ex committed adultery/caused the breakdown of the marriage, I will get more money'

Answer: False.

The court tries very hard to avoid allegations between the parties as to whose fault the breakdown of the marriage/civil partnership is.

There are very limited circumstances when a party’s “conduct” during the marriage will be relevant to the division of the marital assets and that is in what the courts term as “gross and obvious” situations.

Myth: 'Mothers are always awarded primary care of the children'

Answer: False. 

There is no presumption that children should live with their mothers rather than their fathers.

The court will make orders in respect of where a child should primarily live in the best interests of the child. What is in the best interests of the child(ren) will vary from case to case.

Myth: 'Even though we aren’t married, we are protected by rights of “common law marriage”'

Answer: False.

Jersey does not provide any additional rights to those who are not in a marriage or civil partnership no matter how long you have been in a relationship.

If you have children you may have a claim for child maintenance under the Children (Jersey) Law, however, if you live together in a property owned by your partner, you do not have any automatic legal right to that property, even if you have been helping to pay the mortgage on it.