Marilyn Bell provides a recap on the duty of financial disclosure, and the remedies available to combat incomplete disclosure ‘The court will look at the facts at the time the order was made, not with the benefit of hindsight.’ The parties to a divorce may provide financial disclosure voluntarily, or as part of court proceedings. …
Continue reading "Disclosure: No place to hide"
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Joanne Green looks at the limited circumstances in which an order made by consent may be set aside on the basis of duress ‘Duress can only be in play if it operates on the mind of a victim, so as to destroy the victim’s own free will.’ Family practitioners will know that there are limited …
Continue reading "Child Abduction: Under pressure"
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Rebecca Harling highlights the consequences of material non-disclosure and the approach of the courts ‘The Supreme Court has confirmed that dishonest spouses found to have concealed their assets during the course of proceedings should not be allowed to benefit financially from their material non-disclosure or fraud.’ All parties to financial remedy proceedings are subject to …
Continue reading "Non-Disclosure: Facing the music"
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Toby Hales analyses whether the Supreme Court decisions in Gohil and Sharland will finally cheat-proof family justice ‘While every divorcing or separating couple should be encouraged to settle their finances by agreement, the jurisdiction to make such an agreement into an order lies with the court and the court alone.’ There were more than a …
Continue reading "Disclosure: Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide"
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Beth Mason and Georgia Day look at the Court of Appeal decision in Critchell and what may constitute a Barder event ‘There have been many attempts to set aside orders based on a Barder event, but the courts have been reluctant to let such applications succeed and the threshold for success is high.’ Family lawyers …
Continue reading "Barder Appeals: Finding closure"
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James Brown summarises and comments on the key points in the final report of the Financial Remedies Working Group ‘The Financial Remedies Working Group has recognised that a successful aspect of the pilot scheme at the Central Family Court has been to dispense with a first appointment when both parties agree directions.’The final report of …
Continue reading "Law Reform: Something for everyone?"
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In the first of a two-part analysis, Claire Glaister and Frances Bailey look at the prospects of success when seeking to set aside an order on the basis of non-disclosure ‘The Court of Appeal stressed that there was no support in any of the authorities for the use of Ladd alone to form a jurisdiction …
Continue reading "Setting Aside: Half-truths"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | September 2013 #132Michael Prest (husband) and Yasmin Prest (wife) were married for 15 years and had four children before the wife petitioned for divorce in March 2008. During the marriage the matrimonial home was in England, though for most of the time the husband was found to be resident in Monaco and there was also a second home in Nevis. Petrodel Resources Ltd (PRL), which was incorporated in the Isle of Man, was the legal owner of the matrimonial home and five other residential properties in the United Kingdom. PRL was part of a group of companies, one of which was the legal owner of two more resident...
Patricia Robinson considers best practice when dealing with disclosure The parties’ duty to the court to provide full, frank and clear disclosure is absolute, and also a breach by commission is serious and amounts to plain perjury, whereas a breach by omission can be excused as an oversight. As set out in the Family Procedure …
Continue reading "Financial Provision: Defining disclosure"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | September 2012 #122Anthony Morris (Mr Morris) orchestrated a series of frauds between August 2007 and April 2008 by which £52m was misappropriated from various occupational pension schemes by their trustees, GP Noble Trustees Ltd and BDC Trustees Ltd. The appellant was Independent Trustee Services Ltd (ITS), which had been appointed as trustee of the 1653 pension schemes by the Pensions Regulator in July 2008. Mr Morris was found liable in dishonest assistance for £52m and in knowing receipt for £4.89m by Peter Smith J in July 2010 ([2010] EWHC 1653 (Ch)) (the chancery action).
Mr Morris had married...
