DIVORCE

The old cliché that it is the children who lose out in any divorce could be extended to the husband as well, according to The Sunday Business Post, which found that the courts ejected 99% of men from the family home, giving one spouse the sole right of residence. If you happen to be a bloke, divorce can seriously damage your financial health.

A study by law graduate Róisín O’Shea found that where the courts gave a spouse the right to live alone in the family home, husbands were favoured in only 1% of cases. Judges ordered the transfer of property into the female spouse’s sole name in seven out of ten cases.

Since October 2008, O’Shea observed 493 judicial separation and divorce cases, having received permission to observe family law cases, which are usually held in private. She said 73% of judicial separation cases and 54% of divorce applications were brought by women.

“To date, all of the contested cases that I have observed were brought by the wife,” she told the newspaper. “I have not seen a single case where the wife was ordered to pay maintenance for children or a spouse. Without fail, where maintenance is at issue; it is the husband who has been ordered to pay.”