Latest issue
Latest blog posts
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Wells Sharing: Commonplace or a Matter of Last Resort?
The importance of the ‘clean break’ has been reemphasised in recent years with greater emphasis being placed on MCA 1973 s 25A (and s 28(1A)), particularly in the judgments of Mostyn J.
- Blog
- Wells Sharing
- Clean Breaks and Term Maintenance
!08/11/2024 17:00
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Open Offers: Achieving More or Seeking Less
The obligation on parties to negotiate openly and reasonably within financial remedy proceedings – and the consequences of not doing so – are well known. They were perhaps set out most clearly in OG v AG [2021] 1 FLR 1105 per Mostyn J.
- Blog
- Open Offers
- Negotiations
!04/11/2024 09:19
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The Autumn 2024 Budget: A Summary of the Key Reforms for Financial Remedy Practitioners
In the Autumn Budget 2024 Rachel Reeves, our first female Chancellor of the Exchequer, set out arguably the biggest tax changes for a generation, set to raise taxes by £41bn by 2029/30 and said to be part of the Government’s plan to revitalise Britain. This article summarises the key reforms of the Budget, highlighting those which may be of particular relevance to financial remedy practitioners and their clients.
- Blog
!01/11/2024 14:58
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No Special Favours: Litigants in Person and the Financial Remedies Court
Although not impacted in the same way as private law children proceedings by the restrictions on access to justice brought about the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, which came into force on 1 April 2013, there are many parties who represent themselves in financial remedy proceedings, sometimes due to cost and sometimes by choice.
- Blog
- Litigants in Person
!23/10/2024 10:35
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GH v GH – FDRs Are Not to Be Dispensed With
If ever there were any doubts as to the importance of the FDR appointment and the parties’ attendance at one, then Mr Justice Peel has unequivocally put those doubts to rest in his judgment in GH v GH [2024] EWHC 2547 (Fam).
- Blog
- FDRs
!21/10/2024 22:38
Latest cases
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JL v NN [2024] EWHC 148925 April 2024
Williams J allowed W’s appeal on the basis that the judge failed to explicitly evaluate critical evidence and reach clear conclusions. Williams J confirmed that the civil standard of proof for fraud and dishonesty in the Financial Remedies Court is subject to the same balance of probabilities standard as any other factual issue, even if fraud issues should not be pleaded without an evidential basis.
- Cases
- Dishonesty
- Burden Of Proof
- Housing Need
- Fraud
- Appeals
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Abigail Laura Williams v Andrew John Williams [2024] EWFC 2756 August 2024
Final order of Moor J in financial remedy proceedings involving a husband who had continually breached court orders, failed to attend hearings, and provided unreliable and ‘demonstrably untrue’ evidence.
- Cases
- Non-Disclosure
- Adverse Inferences
- Freezing Injunctions
- Conduct
- Legal Services Payment Orders
- Disclosure from Third Parties
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Mainwaring v Bailey [2024] EWHC 2614 (Fam)16 October 2024
Henke J ordered the husband to pay the wife’s costs assessed on a standard basis following his ‘hopeless appeal’. In response to the husband’s plea that he should be treated as a litigant-in-person and he did not understand the Family Procedure Rules, Henke J was emphatic that litigants in person are expected to comply with the procedural rules as much as represented parties.
- Cases
- Costs
- Appeals
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FC v WC [2024] EWFC 29121 October 2024
HHJ Vincent sitting as a s 9 Deputy High Court Judge. The parties entered a French form of civil partnership when living in France. After returning to live in England in 2022, they were informed that their dissolution was not capable of recognition under s 235(1) CPA 2004 as at the commencement of their dissolution neither party to the dissolution was a French national and was not resident or domiciled in France.
- Cases
- Experts
- Civil Partnerships
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Lloyd Dorian Williams v Gerwyn Lloyd Williams & Ors [2024] EWCA Civ 421 February 2024
King, Asplin, and Nugee LJJ. Family farm. No dispute that applicant/appellant and his parents acquired the property on trust for themselves as equal co-owners. Absent express declaration, did they hold as joint tenants or tenants in common?
- Cases
- TLATA Applications
- Survivorship (Right Of)