How law reform could help reduce domestic abuse for cohabitants

Graeme Fraser William Sturges LLP

In this article I consider how law reform for cohabitants could reduce the prospect of domestic abuse for those experiencing separation. My article endorses and adopts recommendations made by Resolution’s report on domestic abuse in financial remedy proceedings.

Up to one in four women experience domestic abuse during their lifetime. If the property is solely in their abusive partner’s name they will frequently have no legal rights of ownership leaving them trapped with their abuser. Schedule 1 to the Children Act 1989 has failed to eradicate discrimination based on birth status and requires modernisation and statutory reform. Resolution Member surveys conducted in 2024 highlight an overwhelming failure to take economic abuse into account in proceedings between cohabiting couples.

My article explores a range of strategies to ensure that domestic abuse is properly and fairly tackled for cohabiting couples following separation. Safeguards will be needed for opt out agreements and determining eligibility under a reformed cohabitation law. There is also evidence that domestic abuse would become a relevant factor in new legislation regardless of which cohabitation model is to be adopted. 

The full article has published in the February issue of 

Read the full article here.