Unlocking the Legal Maze: Why US Birth Certificates Don’t Suffice for Surrogacy Babies in Hong Kong   For many Hong Kong couples navigating the complex journey of infertility, gestational surrogacy in the United States offers a legally secure and medically advanced pathway to parenthood. A major reassurance for these parents is the American birth certificate,...Read More

Utilizing Hong Kong’s Evidence Discovery to Assist in Mainland Divorce Property Division Litigation Mainland Divorce, Transfer of Matrimonial Assets to Hong Kong One of the difficulties that lawyers have been encountering in Mainland divorce proceedings on the division of joint marital property is the transfer of assets to Hong Kong by one of the parties...Read More

How to deal with debts between spouses in divorce proceedings? Introduction: Spousal Debts in Hong Kong Divorce Proceedings In Hong Kong divorce proceedings, a situation that often arises is that one of the spouses has incurred inter-spousal debts during the marriage for reasons such as managing assets on behalf of the other spouse or borrowing...Read More

Hong Kong Divorce Litigation for Property Settlement and Alimony: Adoption of the Losing Party’s Fee Principle for Solicitor’s Fees In Hong Kong divorce proceedings for division of property and maintenance, is the principle of the losing party paying the winning party’s legal costs applicable to the final legal costs in civil litigation cases in general?...Read More

Surrogacy, Parent Order and Right of Abode in Hong Kong I. Surrogacy and the Laws of Hong Kong on Paternity Relationships Who is the legal mother of the child in a surrogacy relationship? Under section 9 of the Parent and Child Ordinance (Cap. 429), the woman who carries the child (i.e. the surrogate mother) is...Read More

Hong Kong Marriage (including prenuptial) Property Agreements: Q&A What is a matrimonial (or prenuptial) property agreement and what does it usually contain? A matrimonial (or prenuptial) property agreement is an agreement made between the parties to a marriage, either before or after the marriage, which sets out the system and arrangements for the vesting of...Read More

Division of Property in Hong Kong Divorces: Typical Cases of Property Distribution Yau & Cheung, [2023] HKFC 169 The main asset was a Hong Kong property in the name of the husband, which the husband inherited. The husband lived separately in Shenzhen and Hong Kong for 6 out of the 7 years of the marriage,...Read More

Divorce Property Settlement in Hong Kong: How to deal with Matrimonial Property Agreements in Divorce Proceedings? Pursuant to the decision of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal in SPH v SA [2014] HKEC 957 (FACV No. 22 of 2013), the Hong Kong courts have formally established that they follow the legal position of the...Read More

Division of Hong Kong Divorce Estates: Trustee Actions involving Third Party Interests in Matrimonial Assets Common Types of Trusts for Matrimonial Assets A common type of dispute in divorce proceedings in Hong Kong is where a party to a matrimonial action claim that the nominal holder of the matrimonial assets is not the same as...Read More

The effect of divorce on the children of the marriage, especially children of tender years, is deeply felt, and most of such children desire that they could continue to be protected and guided by both parents. In Hong Kong, the usual options for custody orders, as between parents, are (1) sole custody, (2) joint custody,...Read More

Many clients, when dealing with divorce, have questions on removal of the Children of Family out of jurisdiction of Hong Kong. Removing children out of Hong Kong might have the effect of actually depriving the other parties’s access to the Child, and also might acutally depriving the Hong Kong court’s jurisdiciton to exercise control on...Read More

Disputes on the jurisdiction in divorce proceedings Hong Kong is a true international city with a large number of residents from Mainland China, Taiwan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, South Asia, Japan, South Korea and other places. Therefore, divorce cases in Hong Kong often involve cross-border and international elements. An important issue in...Read More

Being a divorce lawyer in Hong Kong, I often need explain to clients the law on the distribution of matrimonial assets and maintenance on divorce in Hong Kong.  Actually, adjustment of matrimonial assets and maintenance are generally two related aspect of one issue, which means the transfer of property from one party of the marriage...Read More

Hong Kong Divorce Lawyer: Hong Kong Pre-marital Property Agreement As a Hong Kong divorce lawyer, I often receive clients’ inquiries about prenup agreements and its legal effect in Hong Kong. Usually, if one party has a large amount of property before marriage, he may be motivated to consider the signing of a prenup agreement to...Read More

Marry in Hong Kong – Conditions and Procedure Can non-Hong Kong residents (such as foreigners and Mainland residents) get married in Hong Kong? The Marriage Ordinance (Marriage Ordinance) is the main law governing marriage. According to it, anyone who is willing to get married in Hong Kong and meets the conditions for marriage can get...Read More

Mutual Enforcement of Divorce Judgments between the Mainland and Hong Kong： The Current Situation In July 2006, Hong Kong and the Mainland Government signed the Arrangements for the Mutual Recognition and Enforcement of Civil and Commercial Judgments in the Courts of the Mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region” (“Mutual Enforcement of Judgment Arrangement”)....Read More

Divorce lawyer in Hong Kong:  conditions for divorce in Hong Kong A divorce lawyer in Hong Kong must be very familiar with Article 11A of the Matrimonial Proceedings Ordinance (Chapter 179 of the Laws of Hong Kong) which stipulates that the petitioner must rely on one or more of the following facts to prove that...Read More

The divorce proceedings in Hong Kong is quite complicated. For facilitating the understanding and practice of the divorce proceedings participants, there are some guidance documents isused by the court and the Law Society. The following is a list of part of the most usually used guidance documents-   Family Court Practice, Law-Society-Cirular-12-906a1   PD15.11 Financial...Read More

Disclosure of Assets in Hong Kong Matrimonial Litigation: Introduction In Hong Kong matrimonial litigation, assets disclosure operates mainly through filing of assets disclosure form (Form E) into the Court by both parties. Both parties have obligation to honestly and accurately disclose their financial status and documents such as their own property, incomes, assets and liabilities....Read More

In previous articles, I have introduced the law on the division of matrimonial assets and provision of maintenance in matrimonial cause proceedings. In this article, I would discuss Maintenance Pending Suit applications. What is Maintenance Pending Suit (“MPS”) Under Hong Kong’s legal system, divorce litigation which involves children, maintenance and financial disputes usually requires at...Read More