Book review ” The InFighters Guide to Divorce ” by Richard Marsden

I asked for a review copy of the InFighter’s Guide to Divorce quite some time back, and the author very promptly dispatched it to me. I very promptly misplaced it and only came across it last week under a Hayne’s manual at my office.

The first thing that strikes you is the size of the book, and at A4 size it looks strangely odd. A bit like a child in suit. It’ s definitely the 19 inch laptop of the netbook generation. Nothing would be lost for most readers if future versions were appropriately sized.

I am mindful that this book likely came about through Marsden’s own dealing with the family law industry, and that the book is this way because he wishes people to challenge the system. As a manual for giving yourself a campaigning focus this book is probably the best there is. Or not wishing to be accused of applying deductive reasoning, its the best campaigning manual I have yet seen. I wouldn’t like it to be the only book I had when going through the system though. It’s just too edgy on it’s own and is best served with a book such as John Bolch’s Do Your Own Divorce.

The content of the InFighter’s Guide to Divorce is at times ballsy and uncompromising,  and I for one can forgive Richard some of the more polemic opinions of the family law system, as he is far from wrong about what it’s all about. It’s an industry, of that there is no doubt. Perjury is endemic in family law cases. Men do get asset stripped. A disproportionately high percentage of mothers do get custody of children in the UK.

On a practical level there is lots to commend this book to a litigant in person doing their own divorce, as it shows example petitions, takes you through the sequence of what happens at a contested divorce hearing; something that I haven’t seen in any other lay person friendly book. There is also considerable information on trusts and other devices that some might wish to investigate. However, given the Ponzi-esque nature of some in the financial services sector you might want to be very careful in your selection of financial advisor and institution.

Definitely worth a buy if you are considering marriage or faced with divorce. Should be compulsory reading for men considering  marriage and for both parties in a civil partnership.