
Elizabeth Bowden
Published: 03/04/2024 10:37
Elizabeth Bowden is a barrister at College Chambers. She specialises in financial remedies, including TOLATA matters. Elizabeth particularly enjoys cases that overlap family / civil / Court of Protection. She is passionate about helping people find solutions.
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DSD v MJW (Costs of MPS) [2025] EWFC 119 (B)24 April 2025
DDJ David Hodson. Proportionality and maintenance pending suit (MPS), a cautionary tale. In this case the DDJ concluded that the game was very much not worth the candle, and the application turned out to be very costly for the applicant wife.
- Cases
- Interim Relief
- Maintenance Pending Suit
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Kathryn Elizabeth Norman v Michael Ian Norman [2025] EWFC 107 (B)17 April 2025
District Judge Veal. Alleged material non-disclosure, W’s totally without merit application issued in October 2024 after seven rounds of litigation including W’s D50K application, settled by agreement, made when she knew about H’s alleged non-disclosure. W ordered to pay costs on indemnity basis. Warning given regarding the use of websites leading to jigsaw identification and thereby breaching FPR 9.46(3).
- Cases
- Disclosure
- Costs
- Consent Orders
- Setting Aside Orders (Including Barder Applications)
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TO v GA (Financial Remedies: Deferred Sale) [2024] EWFC 405 (B)12 November 2024
Deputy District Judge Harrop publishes a judgment as a good example of the decisions district judges have to make in ‘everyday’ financial remedy cases.
- Cases
- Housing Need
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Monisha Mahtani v Vivek Hariram Mahtani [2025] EWFC 3516 January 2025
James Ewins KC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge. A difficult case where the respondent husband failed to attend any hearing or make any disclosure. All the court could do was draw inferences to prevent a ‘cheat’s charter’ in the face of W’s quasi-sharing claim. W asserted H had significant assets but had no fixed or agreed values. The final hearing proceeded in H’s absence, with no evidence from H.
- Cases
- Conduct
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T v T and Others (Disregard for Procedural Rules, Adjournment) [2025] EWFC 14 (B)29 January 2025
Recorder Chandler KC was forced to adjourn a three-day hearing in the face of W’s legal aid solicitors failing to comply with the Family Court’s procedures. The judge made it clear that where a legally represented applicant failed to comply with the Family Procedure Rules, practice directions and the Statement of Efficient Conduct relevant to preparing a case for a hearing, it was likely there would be costs consequences.
- Cases
- Costs
- Bundles
- Efficient Conduct
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On v On [2024] EWFC 37911 December 2024
HHJ Booth (now retired), sitting as a High Court judge, considered whether the duty of full and frank disclosure ends at the arbitration hearing, the judgment, and also whether the arbitral award should be treated as a ‘judgment’. Held: the duty of full and frank disclosure continued until the final disposition of the claims by the court.
- Cases
- Dishonesty
- arbitration
- Disclosure
- Fraud
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WX v HX [2023] EWFC 279 (B)21 December 2023
Mr Recorder Day’s judgment in a case involving complex procedural history, intervenors, non-disclosure and a ‘fragile’ business valuation. Of note is Recorder Day’s inclusion of his earlier decision to refuse a Hadkinson order. The judgment sets out the law of financial remedies clearly and succinctly: it should be mandatory reading for pupils/trainees.
- Cases
- Hadkinson Orders
- Disclosure
- Costs
- Business Valuation
- Valuations
- Intervenors
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B v B [2024] EWFC 311 (B)13 August 2024
District Judge Dinan-Hayward significantly departed from equality in the wife’s favour, where the applicant husband did not attend the final hearing, failed to engage with his own application and failed to undertake proper disclosure.
- Cases
- Disclosure
- Non-Compliance
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LI v FT (Maintenance Pending Suit) [2024] EWFC 342 (B)19 July 2024
DDJ Harrop. Decision on costs after an MPS application with no clear winner. The court was dismayed by what had been incurred in legal fees contesting the MPS application. W incurred £27,000 in a little over a month and H nearly £12,000. The sums could have paid for the disputed holiday nearly twice over or, as the husband points out, met a term’s school fees. The MPS costs were the context of W having already incurred £100,000 in legal fees up to the FDA, and H’s £26,000.
- Cases
- Maintenance Pending Suit
- Costs
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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