Chair's Column (Spring 2024)

The Financial Remedies Journal now enters its third year, and this edition is fizzing with interesting comments and ideas.

• Journal

• HHJ Edward Hess | Chair of the Editorial Board

!13/03/2024 07:00

Businesses in Financial Remedy Claims

'Business' is a term that covers a multitude of different structures. The most common are limited companies (whether public or private), partnerships and sole traders. The courts will treat different businesses in different ways.

• Journal

• Sharing Principle
• Business
• Companies
• Business Assets
• Financial Remedies
• Expert Evidence
• Case Management
• Business Valuation
• Valuations

• Duncan Brooks KC

!13/03/2024 07:00

Fair Shares and the Financial Reality of the ‘Everyday’ Divorce

The Fair Shares research study provides the first nationally representative picture of the financial arrangements made by divorcing couples in England and Wales.

• Journal

• divorce

• Emma Hitchings
• Caroline Bryson
• Professor Gillian Douglas

!13/03/2024 07:00

Potanin v Potanina – the Supreme Court Decision

On 31 January 2024 the Supreme Court handed down the much-awaited judgment in Potanina v Potanin [2024] UKSC 3. These proceedings relate to financial claims which can be brought in England for financial provision after an overseas divorce.

• Journal

• Overseas Divorce and the 1984 Act

• Michael Allum

!13/03/2024 07:00

Financial Dispute Revolution? The Family Procedure (Amendment No 2) Rules 2023

There was a time when an unwritten rule seemed to provide that a marriage could only be described as long once the parties had celebrated their china anniversary and entered a third decade together, but times change, and so eventually do some rules.

• Journal

• Family Procedure Rules

• Nicholas Allen KC
• Rhys Taylor | Vice Chair of the Editorial Board & Journal Editor
• Andrew Day

!26/01/2024 08:00

Non-matrimonial Assets – The New ‘Conduct’?

In the recent decision of RN v DA [2023] EWFC 255, the court was faced with an application by a wife to rescind a decree nisi that had been pronounced in 2012. The husband, conversely, had applied for the decree to be made absolute.

• Journal

• Decree Nisi/Decree Final
• Rescission of Divorce Decree

• Laura Moys

!13/03/2024 07:00

Financial Remedy Proceedings Transparency Reporting Pilot: Launch date 29 January 2024

Those who have appeared in Children Act cases in Leeds, Cardiff or Carlisle in the last 12 months will have encountered the transparency pilot scheme established in those courts in January 2023. The essence of the Financial Remedies Court reporting pilot is the same.

• Journal

• Transparency
• Publicity and Confidentiality

• Samantha Hillas KC

!13/03/2024 07:00

Groundhog Day Again: A Response to The Transparency Reporting Pilot for Financial Remedy Proceedings

Sir James Munby writes about The Transparency Reporting Pilot for Financial Remedy Proceedings.

• Journal

• Transparency
• Publicity and Confidentiality

• Sir James Munby

!26/01/2024 08:00

‘What’s In a Name?’ Anonymising Financial Remedy Judgments

How engrained is the practice of anonymisation in financial remedy judgments? What rationale was given in those cases for naming the parties or anonymisation? What is the author's view of the legal issues in relation to anonymity? How will these issues pan out?

• Journal

• Anonymity

• Alexander Chandler KC

!13/03/2024 07:00

Maintenance for a Disabled Adult Child: A Case of Legal Blogging

Given the announcement of a new Financial Remedies Court reporting pilot, Polly Morgan discusses the process of legal blogging: the rules around accessing the hearing, the practicalities of reporting, the framework for controlling what can be reported, and the drafting of a reporting restriction order.

• Journal

• Transparency
• Publicity and Confidentiality
• Maintenance

• Polly Morgan | Case Editor

!13/03/2024 07:00

Xydhias, 25 Years On – What Exactly IS a Xydhias Agreement?

Practitioners will be familiar with the oft quoted phrase that ‘the court is not a rubber stamp’ (Kelley v Corston [1998] 1 FLR 986). The court must continue to exercise its discretion under s 25 MCA 1973 even when presented with an agreement between parties.

• Journal

• FDRs
• Agreements
• Negotiations
• Xydhias
• Consent Orders

• Daniel Mutton
• Shannon Knight

!13/03/2024 07:00

Costs

Readers of this publication will be familiar with the expressions of horror over costs in financial remedy proceedings from the High Court bench in recent years, culminating in adjectives like ‘nihilistic’ and ‘apocalyptic’. Mostyn J proclaimed that ‘something must be done’. Joseph Rainer offers a suggestion.

• Journal

• Joe Rainer

!13/03/2024 07:00

Historical Business Valuations and the Goldilocks Principle: Not Too Much or Too Little but Just the Right Amount of Hindsight

This article compares the attitude taken to the use of hindsight in the commercial courts with that in the family courts.

• Journal

• Business Valuation

• Roger Isaacs

!13/03/2024 07:00

Securing Property Situated Outside the Jurisdiction of England and Wales for the Benefit of Minor Children

Readers may not be familiar with an issue that has occasionally troubled the courts: the exercise of parental responsibility by a parent of a minor child to secure for the child’s benefit property, assets or income to which the child is entitled and which is situated outside the court’s jurisdiction in a foreign land.

• Journal

• Overseas Assets
• Property

• Helen Brander

!13/03/2024 07:00

Qualified Legal Representatives in Financial Remedy Proceedings

The recent decision in AXA v BYB (QLR Financial Remedies) [2023] EWFC 251 (B) is the first time in which a qualified legal representative was appointed and used in a financial remedies final hearing at the Central Family Court.

• Journal

• Qualified Legal Representative

• Adrian Barnett-Thoung-Holland
• Alice Thornton

!13/03/2024 07:00

Armed Forces Pension Schemes (AFPS)

Armed Forces pensions are among some of the most complex pensions that practitioners can be faced with when dealing with divorce and financial settlements. This guide to some of the issues is written for practitioners to consider when faced with such pensions.

• Journal

• Pensions on Divorce

• Mark Hood

!13/03/2024 07:00

Cohabitation – The Case For and Against Reform

Divorce law, in principle at least, seems pretty sensible. You keep what you brought into the marriage and share what you gained. So why shouldn’t the same or similar rights and responsibilities apply to cohabiting couples who have shared a life together?

• Journal

• Cohabitation

• Graeme Fraser
• Harry Benson

!13/03/2024 07:00

DR Corner: Fair Shares – Mediation Under the Microscope

1 November 2023 saw the launch of the Fair Shares report, which presents the results of the first fully representative study of the arrangements families make on separation and divorce.

• Journal

• Mediation
• DR Corner

• Joanne Edwards
• Polly Calver

!13/03/2024 07:00

Tech Corner: Twenty Simple Excel Tips for Financial Remedy Practitioners

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program for presenting formatted numbers and for performing calculations on them. It also offers basic text-editing for labelling and for explaining any figures and calculations.

• Journal

• Tech Corner

• Gwynfor Evans

!13/03/2024 07:00

Money Corner: Financial Planning for Non-UK Resident Beneficiaries of Pension Shares

Once a pension sharing order is obtained from the courts in England and Wales, the division of pension assets between UK residents is usually straightforward. For non-UK resident beneficiaries, a myriad of challenges emerges, ranging from accessibility and tax considerations to investment decisions and currency risks.

• Journal

• Pensions on Divorce
• Money Corner

• Philip Teague

!13/03/2024 07:00

Book Review: Cohabitation and Trusts of Land

Graeme Fraser reviews the fourth edition of Cohabitation and Trusts of Land, by Elizabeth Darlington and Laura Heaton.

• Journal

• Cohabitation
• Book Review

• Graeme Fraser

!13/03/2024 07:00

Financial Remedies Case Round-Up (Mid-September 2023 to mid-January 2024)

The judgments published within the autumn period fall sharply at each end of the spectrum of wealth. A number of cases involving significant assets have involved arguments around post-separation accrual.

• Journal

• Post-Separation Accrual

• Polly Morgan | Case Editor

!13/03/2024 07:00

The Summary of the Summaries (Spring 2024)

Summaries of recent cases including Simon v Simon & Integro Funding Limited [2023] EWCA Civ 1048, Ditchfield v Ditchfield (Appeal) [2023] EWHC 2303 (Fam), Cazalet v Abu-Zalaf [2023] EWCA Civ 1065 and Xanthopoulos v Rakshina [2023] EWFC 158.

• Journal

• Liam Kelly

!13/03/2024 07:00

A Crib Sheet for those New to Financial Remedies Practice

By way of an extract from Polly Morgan's Family Law (OUP, 2nd edn, 2024), we present an aide memoire of the relevant principles and practicalities for the new financial remedies practitioner.

• Journal

• Financial Remedies

• Polly Morgan | Case Editor

!13/03/2024 07:00

Interview with Hilary Woodward

Rhys Taylor interviews Hilary Woodward, a former solicitor and mediator, academic and the about to retire CEO of the Pension Advisory Group.

• Journal

• Pensions on Divorce
• Interview

• Rhys Taylor | Vice Chair of the Editorial Board & Journal Editor
• Hilary Woodward

!13/03/2024 07:00