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Businesses are featuring more prominently in divorce court battles, a leading law firm has warned.

Family members are contesting ownership and petitioning courts to transfer shares or order a sale as part of their pleadings.

Associate James Brown from Manchester-based Pannone said family businesses had become an “increasingly contested issue”.

He said falling house prices during the recession and the growing awareness that husband and wives can claim half of all assets had contributed to the change.

He noted that some contested divorces take two years and the disruption to a business can be significant.

“Pre-recession we were not seeing fights over and about the business quite so much,” he said. “We think the value of the assets were enough so you could divide the pot. One side could keep the property and the other, running the business, would keep that.”

He added: “The problem is a that if a couple is fighting over a house that is a static thing; the value can go up and down but that’s it. For a business it’s the impact on the business itself.

“Two years is an enormous amount of time, preventing your business from doing what it should be doing. Taking your eyes off the business and focusing on the divorce can have a hugely detrimental impact.”

Mr Brown recalled a salvage company that recently went bust after the husband and wife fell out. The wife owned the majority of the shares but both claimed to have come up with the original business idea.

Mr Brown said: “The husband over enthusiastically tried to contact some of their major clients to ask them to say he had brought them in as clients. The clients immediately took their business elsewhere and that business has gone into liquidation.”

In another example, the elderly chairman of a long establised business was drawn into a divorce dispute involving his son and daughter-in-law because she disputed his role in the company and argued that her husband should own all its shares.

“Dad, who had set up the company, and the husband, who was a director, were both having to spend a lot of time and money on divorce proceedings when they should have been focusing on the business,” said Mr Brown. “That business is still running but I think both would say their profitability has been hit because they are not focusing on it .”

Mr Brown estimated that around 150 companies have been adversely affected by divorce between shareholding directors in the last three years.

The Institute of Family Businesses has asked the Law Commission to make prenuptial agreements – protecting assets including stakes in family companies owned before couples marry – legal and binding in the UK.

The commission is considering the legal status of prenups following the Supreme Court’s recent decision in the case of German heiress Katrin Radmacher.

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I have sold and moved a few years later and I know not what they would be worth today, but I believe a Hoxton cost at least 1 million House of ￡ now, while an apartment in the Court of count can never be too.

My parents divorced when I was three, and a few years later, I lived with my mother and sister in a basement flat offshore Old Brompton to Kensington road. That looks like a very large address now, but it has not been subsequently.

MOM, photographer and did not have much money, and I've always been aware of the fact. We did not go on vacation very well, I inherited from my clothes and I felt much shame in having no money. I must have been very materialistic young age, probably because I had friends who lived in large houses and held very lavish parties, which is what you concern when you're little.

My mother later remarried and in the second half of my childhood my father-in-law has provided for us - not that we were suddenly rich, but we have become more comfortable.

Yes, the feeling has remained with me. When I first started to earn money I increased very excited and he spent very quickly on lots of things that I wanted to (mostly clothing).

I've never been particularly smart with money so I did not invest, I've just spent it as soon as I received it. When I look back now, I think that was a little reckless, but it is probably necessary it out of my system.

I always love spending it, but I'm more conservative. I only go on holiday once every two years, for example. When I first started working, I was lucky enough to draw a number of films abroad, so I travelled widely. Having come from a background rather limited, it opens the world to me so I don't feel the need to do more.

But when I go that I would like to make a special event - the last dates back to the Viet Nam and we travelled class club and went everywhere where we wanted. Viet Nam is not a very expensive place to stay anyway.

What is it good with money? This is an interesting philosophical question - I would not say I'm tight with money and I hope that does not change because I would rather free with things. On the other hand, I do not know how to earn money with money and I really fail to understand the investments properly. When I bought something that seemed like good investment, it has all turned.

For example, if I buy an expensive piece of furniture, for example, almost invariably there a scratch on it in a few weeks. Or if I buy a laptop good it will get hijacked - I had to occur twice in rapid succession five years ago. I was able to retrieve my lost your laptop on insurance, the first time, but the second time it happened that he was not covered for any reason any in small characters.

We make many decisions together and separate all the costs of our life in the Middle, but I think it is better that I am with money. I come away slightly confused by figures - my brain POPs and I can only concentrated for a long time.

It's not because I'm bad with numbers (I was good in mathematics at school), is that I lose interest. Richard stays focused, because he likes to get an agreement and he studied the best places to buy something, for example. I think this is quite a male attribute, but I am very pleased to let him do so because I though it myself.

I do not think that I never bought anything which has been particularly good. Even if I go into a souk vacation with all my fire cannons ready to discuss, I still go out with a particularly good bargain. But I shop in a large number of charity shops, and you can pick up some clothes scratched good pleasant prices if you are lucky. I bought once a small dress of Issey Miyake to ￡ 2 in a charity shop. I guess it's the female version of searching for cheap prices, Richard is on the internet.

I would like to see the money out, so I'll use a debit card much. But for the same reason that I'd like to use cash and sometimes I find something you are in a store, I wish and ask them to hold while I go and find a cash machine.

-I have only a NatWest MasterCard. I agree with the people who say that with a credit card is feels like real money, so I have an emergency, but I prefer not to use regularly.

Yes, I started a 20 years ago. I was informed that it would be a good idea, but I just never put a small amount in each month to keep checking because I'm not sure - performers do not have to retire.

Yes, my accountant always tells me it's a good idea to me.

Yes, but I don't move my money around because I can't be bothered with the paltry amounts of interest on offer.

I would say that I points more easily, which is the internal waitress in me. I had to use tables for myself, I know that if the food is not good there is no fault of the boy so I'm going to switch. And if the service is already included in the Bill that I could point at the top that I know is not required. I have same nominators Tip If the service was terrible, which is silly.

No, I do not trust it. A few years ago I heard a woman on Radio 4 and she was a specialist of Microsoft. She said that no amount of firewalls someone did arrest if they wanted to hack into your computer and that she would never Bank on line for this reason. The comment itself into my cortex so it was for me.

In any case my work is acting, which is to communicate with people, so I would much rather move down to my branch and sit and have a conversation with someone. Look at the figures loom just across my computer screen only float my boat.

I appreciate that it would be wise to have a plan for parts dry at my age, but I'm afraid I've never anything provided in my life. Opportunities are just came to me and I followed the or I've missed their. Perhaps it is something that should be examined more closely now.

Tara FitzGerald give readings Carols in the city in the Cathedral Southwark on December 9, in support of Marie Curie Cancer Care (www.mariecurie.org.uk)

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