Kirstie Law outlines the background in Prest v Prest and the issues before the recent appeal in the Supreme Court In family cases, there is no arm’s length dealing and, if a spouse is able to hide assets behind a corporate structure, a just outcome in financial remedy proceedings may be impossible to obtain. Family …
Continue reading "Financial Provision: Predictions on Prest"
This post is only available to members.
Camilla Thornton looks at the approach of the Court of Appeal in a case involving non-matrimonial assets and problematic evidence The order notionally gave credit to the husband for his contribution, but entitled the wife to benefit from the resources of the marriage to which she had made a significant contribution. The case of Davies …
Continue reading "Financial Provision: Assessing value"
This post is only available to members.
Ellie Foster and Pippa Hayden highlight the impact of third-party resources on maintenance pending suit The court had to understand the extent of financial support provided to the husband by his family and also to examine the extent to which payments had been made historically to the wife by, or via, that source. The recent …
Continue reading "Financial Provision: Interim measures"
This post is only available to members.
Tracey Dargan and Nathaniel Groarke summarise the courts’ approach to pre-acquired and inherited assets In N v F, Mostyn J stated that he would have excluded more of the husband’s pre-marital assets were it not for the fact that such assets were required to meet the wife’s needs. A number of recent reported cases have …
Continue reading "Financial Provision: Building fences"
This post is only available to members.
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"
This post is only available to members.
In Lilleyman the divorce cross-check was applied to a claim for reasonable financial provision for a widow, as Martin Holdsworth and Louise Tatton relate ‘Equality of treatment may not necessarily lead to equality of outcome.’ The recently reported cases of Lilleyman v Lilleyman [2012] and Lilleyman v Lilleyman (costs) [2012] concerned a widow’s application for …
Continue reading "Financial Provision: Big money, short marriage"
This post is only available to members.
Gareth Curtis looks at the approach taken by the court in the big-money case of F v F on a range of complex assets ‘This case affirms the high threshold that must be met to establish that matrimonial assets have been recklessly disposed of to reduce the pot of assets available to meet a spouse’s …
Continue reading "Financial Provision: High stakes"
This post is only available to members.
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | April 2012 #118The parties separated after a relationship of approximately 25 years and the wife commenced divorce proceedings (decree nisi being pronounced in October 2010). They had one child who was aged 18 (the husband had three children by his first marriage). The husband was aged 66 and the wife 54.
The total wealth was in the region of £21-£24m (all but approximately £1m was in the husband’s name). The source of the husband’s wealth was a business that his father bought shortly after the second world war, which floated in the 1950s and sold in the late 1980s. From his father, the husband ...
Clare Williams analyses the courts’ approach in a limited assets case and the correct procedure on appeal ‘In a case where needs were so utterly dominant and resources so tight, it may come as a surprise that any consideration of pre-marital contributions was on the table.’ Family lawyers often complain about the remoteness of the …
Continue reading "Financial Provision: Needs must"
This post is only available to members.
In the conclusion to a two-part analysis Huw Miles looks at the courts’ approach to compensation ‘The court must take care not to create a set of rigid stepping stones or apply a formulaic approach that is not set out in the statute.’ Part one: ‘Love, honour and compensate’ In this article we will consider …
Continue reading "Financial Provision: Fair shares"
This post is only available to members.
