Financial Remedies Journal – 2025 Issue 2 | Summer
Issue 2 of 2025 was published in June 2025.
Download the whole Journal as a PDF (for free) below.
All articles in the Journal are also available individually.
In this issue
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- Journal
!30/06/2025 06:00
Chair’s Column
HHJ Edward Hess, Chair of the Editorial Board, considers transparency, pensions on divorce, musicians going through divorces and the young financial remedies barrister.
- Journal
!30/06/2025 06:00
Class Legal Financial Remedies Awards 2025
Ten years ago, Class Legal staged its inaugural financial remedies conference, the At A Glance Conference. Retitled this year as the Financial Remedies Conference, it remains the finest such conference in the calendar. This year’s, to be held on 16 October 2025 at Pullman London St Pancras, promises to be possibly the best yet with a stellar array of contributors.
- Journal
!20/06/2025 12:30
Foreign Property Regimes and English Matrimonial Finance: Parity or Particularity?
Since the landmark decision in Radmacher v Granatino [2010] UKSC 42, [2011] 1 AC 534, English law has recognised the legitimacy of pre-nuptial agreements. As family life becomes increasingly international, the courts regularly encounter a wide variety of agreements, including those signed abroad.
- Journal
- Pre-Nuptial Agreements
- Foreign Marital Property Regimes
- Agreements
- Nuptial Agreements
- Autonomy
!30/06/2025 06:00
‘Feral, Unprincipled and Unnecessarily Expensive’ – A Guide to Intervenor Claims
Intervenor claims take us – family lawyers – out of our comfort zone. As financial remedy (FR) specialists we are used to dealing with discretion and grey areas: the assessment of housing and income need, where to draw the line between marital and non-marital assets, how to reflect pre-marital contributions. The proverbial bad day in court may produce an outcome at the bottom end of a bracket but it generally won’t mean the entire claim is dismissed.
- Journal
- Intervenors
!30/06/2025 06:00
Adverse Inferences: The Court’s Approach to Valuing Overseas Assets Without Disclosure
This article will consider the court’s approach to adverse inferences in cases where there has been no, minimal or seriously deficient disclosure from one party, particularly in relation to overseas assets. Valuing overseas properties and businesses can be particularly challenging where there has been no engagement and/or no disclosure by the party in control of the overseas asset and the other party has little information about the asset.
- Journal
- Non-Disclosure
- Overseas Assets
- Adverse Inferences
- Valuations
!30/06/2025 06:00
Re-multiplied Propagation
In this article Sir Nicholas Mostyn refers to those financial remedy cases heard in private to which s 12 Administration of Justice Act 1960 does not apply as mainstream financial remedy cases. As is well-known, s 12 imposes an automatic restriction on publishing the details of any financial remedy case which is mainly about child maintenance. The great majority of financial remedy cases are not protected by s 12.
- Journal
- Transparency
- Privacy
- Reporting
!28/05/2025 10:00
Is Duxbury Dead?
The Spring 2025 issue of this journal led off with the eagerly awaited, 21-page Final Report of the Duxbury Working Party. As one would expect from its distinguished authors, the report is engaging, well written and skilfully argued, but Peter Duckworth here explains his reasons for thinking that its conclusion – that we need to go on using the Duxbury model – is wrong.
- Journal
- Duxbury Capitalisation
!30/06/2025 06:00
What’s in a WhatsApp: Can a WhatsApp Message Transfer a Property?
The decision of Deputy Insolvency and Company Courts Judge Frith (the judge) in Reid-Roberts and Burke v Mei-Lin and Gudmundsson [2024] EWHC 759 (Ch) is one of the first published cases since the decision of the Court of Appeal in Hudson v Hathway [2022] EWCA Civ 1648, [2023] KB 345 to deal with what constitutes a disposition of a beneficial interest in land by means of signed writing.
- Journal
- TLATA
- Electronic Signature
- Property
- Formalities
- Signed Writing
!30/06/2025 06:00
The Approach of the Family Court to Musicians’ Proprietary Interests
In 2001 Bob Dylan wrote ‘I always said you’d be sorry and today could be the day, I might need a good lawyer, Could be your funeral, my trial’. The bard is often right. Where a financial remedy case involves a musician, it is likely that they will hold some form of proprietary interest in the music they have created. This can create a complex position in fact and law.
- Journal
- Musician Divorce Assets
- Divorce and Music Copyright
- Valuation of Music Assets in Divorce
- Financial Remedy Music Rights
!30/06/2025 06:00
Two Heads, Better than One? BR v BR, in Light of BR v BR (No 2) and Vince v Vince
In his judgment in BR v BR [2024] EWFC 11, [2024] 2 FLR 217, Peel J emphasised at [17](i) that ‘[w]herever possible’ the instruction of a single joint expert (SJE) is the ‘default position’ and at [17](ii) that a ‘high degree of justification’ is required for two parties to instruct their own experts.
- Journal
- Family Procedure Rules
- Single Joint Experts
- Experts
- Valuations
!30/06/2025 06:00
Bad Behaviour and Broken Bonds: A Comparison of Conduct in 1973 and 1975 Act Claims
Fifty years ago, the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 was enacted in an expansion of the court’s statutory powers for financial provision on death.
- Journal
- Inheritance Act Applications
- Conduct
- Succession
- Inheritance
!30/06/2025 06:00
‘You Want Me to Do What Now?’ – The Return-to-Work Question and the Quiet Cost of Executive Marriage
She hadn’t written a CV in 20 years. Hadn’t needed to. When her ex’s career took off, they moved every few years. She held everything else together while he earned the money. But ‘everything else’ was a lot. A job that never ended, never paid, and never came with recognition, until now, when it’s being questioned. Because now, as part of the divorce, she’s being asked to outline her ‘return-to-work plan’.
- Journal
- Economic Disparity
- Spousal Maintenance (Quantum)
- 5-Year Career Plan
- Return to Work
!30/06/2025 06:00
Partnering Up: Partnership Law and Financial Remedy Proceedings
The Department for Business & Trade’s most recent Business Population Estimates suggested that there are approximately 356,000 ordinary partnerships currently trading within the United Kingdom, generating a turnover of just under £1 billion. The majority of these are small enterprises involving either no or fewer than ten employees.
- Journal
- Partnerships
- Farms and Country Estates
- Expert Business Valuations
- Financial Accounts
- Business
- Business Assets
- Property
- Business Valuation
!30/06/2025 06:00
Smoke and Mirrors: Shams and Illusory Trusts in Divorce Proceedings
The existence of so-called ‘sham’ or ‘illusory’ trusts in divorce proceedings often leads to complex and intellectually engaging work for family and chancery lawyers. Identifying such trusts can significantly impact the value of the matrimonial pot and the eventual financial distribution. Remedies are typically pursued through interim applications under s 37 Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 and/or s 423 Insolvency Act 1986.
- Journal
- Setting Aside Transactions
- Sham
- Trusts
!30/06/2025 06:00
The Role of Opt-out Agreements in Cohabitation Reform
There is a significant measure of agreement amongst both academics and practitioners that making financial remedies available to cohabiting couples on an opt-in basis will not work.
- Journal
- Opt-Out Agreements
- Cohabitation
- Cohabitation Agreements
- Nuptial Agreements
- Autonomy
!30/06/2025 06:00
The Challenges of Dealing with Overseas Pensions on Divorce
Pension rights that have been accrued in overseas territories by divorcing parties present a number of challenges for practitioners where proceedings take place within this jurisdiction. This article explores some of the pitfalls that might arise and the issues that practitioners need to consider.
- Journal
- Pensions
- PAG
- Overseas
!30/06/2025 06:00
Justice that Heals: Lessons from Singapore’s Family Justice System
In the early 19th century, Britain was importing tea from China and financing the trade by illegally exporting opium (grown in British-controlled India) to China. The British East India Company required a port along the India–China maritime route to support this ‘commerce’ and to counter growing Dutch influence in Southeast Asia.
- Journal
- English Family Law Reform
- Cross-Border Family Law
- Singapore Family Law
- NCDR
- Family Law Reform
- Therapeutic Justice
!30/06/2025 06:00
Flo, FI v DO and the Future: Dogs on Divorce
Meet Flo. She is my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. I know I am biased, but she is beautiful and is a key member of my family. I bought her with my very first pay cheque from my work as a barrister and she has been with me ever since. She is my trusty companion.
- Journal
- Chattels
- divorce
- Pets
- FI v DO
- Dogs
!30/06/2025 06:00
Second Six at the Financial Remedies Bar – A Survival Guide
There is no perfect way to approach being ‘on your feet’ and completing your second six. Your first day in court will inevitably be one of the most exciting but equally terrifying moments of your career. However, through this article, we hope to share our ten top tips: those things we have learned during our (very) short time ‘on our feet’ over the past year that helped us survive and enjoy our second sixes at the financial remedies Bar.
- Journal
- Pupillages
- Preparing For Practice
- Second Six
!30/06/2025 06:00
Money Corner: All A Bit Unnecessary
‘Tax doesn’t have to be taxing’ was the slogan that HMRC used 20 years ago to raise awareness about the system of Self-Assessment, but some of the recent developments around tax and divorce have me scratching my head about this maxim.
- Journal
- Capital Gains Tax
- Money Corner
- Tax
!30/06/2025 06:00
DR Corner: Thinking Outside the Box – Two Different Forms of NCDR
On a number of occasions when sitting, Stephen heard Dr Freda Gardner, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, say in evidence as an expert witness: ‘the issues in this family should never have developed to a point where this litigation became necessary’. Then, one day, they met outside the court environment, and he asked her how she thought that issues in complex family cases might be resolved better.
- Journal
- Working Together
- Psychologist
- NCDR
- DR Corner
- Settlement Meetings
!30/06/2025 06:00
Tech Corner: Miris Reporting – Innovative Technology to Help Solicitors Prepare, Verify and Negotiate Client Housing Needs
This article reviews how solicitors currently fulfil the filing requirements of the 2022 Statement on the Efficient Conduct of Financial Remedy Hearings in the Financial Remedies Court below High Court Judge Level (the Efficiency Statement).
- Journal
- Tech Corner
- Housing Need
- Efficient Conduct
- Borrowing Capacity Material
!21/05/2025 10:00
Book Review: International Family Law Handbook (Resolution, 2025)
The International Family Law Handbook is an indispensable resource for all family practitioners. Written and edited by Resolution’s International Committee, it draws on the experience and expertise of an impressive list of authors including solicitors, barristers, judges and academics, many of whom also either practice or are qualified in other jurisdictions including Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, Switzerland and the UAE.
- Journal
- International Family Law
- Book Review
!30/06/2025 06:00
Important Recent Case Developments (Mid-January 2025 to mid-May 2025)
These are the noteworthy case-law developments since the last issue went to press in January 2025.
- Journal
!30/06/2025 06:00
The Summary of the Summaries (Summer 2025)
Summaries of recent cases including FI v DO [2024] EWFC 384 (B) (final hearing in financial remedy case involving which party should keep the family dog, a golden retriever puppy), XY v XX [2024] EWFC 387 (B) (application brought by H to set aside on the basis of a ‘mutual mistake’ of the parties which presented the court with inaccurate computational figures) and Vince v Vince [2024] EWFC 389.
- Journal
!30/06/2025 06:00
Interview with Steve McCrone, the Senior Clerk at 1 Hare Court
The Editorial Board of FRJ wanted to hear from a family law clerk. By universal acclaim, Steve McCrone was agreed as ‘the senior man’ having been clerking for nearly 35 years and so the invitation fell to him (other senior clerks are available).
- Journal
- Interview
- Family Clerk
- Financial Remedies
!30/06/2025 06:00
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