
Blog
Vince v Vince: Every Cloud Has a Green Lining
On Friday, 17 January 2024, Mr Justice Cusworth handed down the judgment of *Vince v Vince* [2024] EWFC 389 (Fam), which addresses a number of pertinent issues concerning business valuations, arguments over the duration of the marital partnership and whether pre- or post-marital endeavour warrants a departure from the sharing principle. This article aims to summarise the main points and issues raised by both parties, together with some helpful guidance provided by Cusworth J.
- Blog
- Expert Business Valuations
- Marital-Partnership
- Pre and Post-Marital Endeavour
!26/03/2025 07:00
Pre-Nuptial Agreements: an ‘Oven-Ready’ Solution to a Pressing Problem? A House of Lords Debate
Late last month, Baroness Deech brought a motion in the House of Lords, ‘That this House takes note of the law relating to prenuptial agreements’. The debate came against the backdrop of Baroness Deech having (of course) long pursued financial remedies reform through her Divorce (Financial Provision) Bill.
- Blog
- Pre-Nuptial Agreements
!13/03/2025 16:45
Stamp Duty Land Tax and Divorce
This is sometimes the forgotten tax on divorce. Maybe this is fair enough as there is a pretty clear exemption in tax law that states that stamp duty land tax (SDLT) will not apply to transfers pursuant to divorce.
- Blog
- Stamp Duty
- Tax
- Land
!10/02/2025 23:53
What to Do Where One Spouse Will Not Co-operate with a Court-Ordered Sale?
The recently reported case of WZ v HZ [2024] EWFC 407 (B) (1 May 2024) provides guidance on how to manage the common occurrence of one spouse holding out in the family home despite an order for sale.
- Blog
- Sale of Property
!06/02/2025 08:00
Post-Separation Income: Has Rossi Survived Waggott and Standish?
In Rossi v Rossi [2007] 1 FLR 790 Nicholas Mostyn QC adopted a formulaic approach in relation to ‘a post-separation bonus or other earned income’. He stated that ‘[a]lthough there is an element of arbitrariness’ he would not allow a post-separation bonus to be classed as non-matrimonial ‘unless it related to a period which commenced at least 12 months after the separation’.
- Blog
- Post-Separation Accrual
!05/02/2025 11:51
ST v AR [2025] EWFC 4
The Husband is 70. The Wife is 51. They have a 9-year-old daughter. They cohabited from February 2003 and in early 2012 separated due to the wife’s affair. In August 2012 – c.9 months later – they reunited. They married on 8 October 2012. The wife applied for divorce in May 2023. They therefore had nearly 20 years together, albeit not seamless cohabitation.
- Blog
- Matrimonial and Non-Matrimonial Property
- Matrimonialisation
- Needs
!29/01/2025 09:27
Of Dogs and Divorce
Of dogs and divorce: why treating pets as chattels is an anachronism.
- Blog
- divorce
!28/01/2025 10:02
James Turner KC (1952–2025): An Obituary
James Turner KC, who has died aged 72, was a titan of the bar. In an increasingly specialised legal world, he had a uniquely broad practice for a family barrister: financial remedies, child abduction, divorce, crime, judicial review, medical disciplinary work and administrative law.
- Blog
- Journal
- Obituaries
!24/01/2025 10:42
Ma v Roux: Yes, You Can Strike Out a Set Aside Application
This is a response to the FRJ blog post by Nicholas Allen KC and Philip Tait, ‘Ma v Roux: Can You Strike Out a Set Aside Application?’ (25 September 2024), which posed the question as to whether the court is empowered to strike out an application to set aside a financial remedy order. In that article the authors carefully set out the background to this issue.
- Blog
- Striking Out Applications
- Setting Aside Orders (Including Barder Applications)
!08/01/2025 13:21
The Lord Chancellor v 79 Divorced Couples: A Pirate’s Tale
At the end of term, the High Court handed down judgment in a challenging case, whose solution lay in the application of a much-forgotten 53-year-old judgment of the ‘pirate-like’ Sir Jocelyn Simon P to seemingly irresolvable issues caused by errors in the digitalisation of the divorce process.
- Blog
- divorce
!06/01/2025 11:03