The words ‘Goddard-Watts’ may cause a feeling of déjà vu for financial remedy practitioners. After their separation and divorce (in 2009 and 2010, respectively) the parties settled by consent the financial relief claims arising from their divorce in 2010. Subsequently, it was found on two separate occasions that the husband

It was made clear by the Court of Appeal in Miller v Miller [2005] EWCA Civ 984, [2006] 1 FLR 151 that none of the pre-White v White [2000] UKHL 54, [2000] 2 FLR 981 so-called short marriage cases[[1]] had survived the change in judicial approach that White heralded.

I started writing expert witness reports around 2005 and, right from the start, a regular question was, ‘Should we seek equality of income or equality of capital?’ Letters of Instruction regularly ask the expert to calculate ‘The pension sharing order required to achieve (i) equality of income and (ii) in

This article deals with two points. The first relates to the publication of the new pension sharing order (PSO) template at paragraph number 95 in the Standard Family Orders suite. The second relates to the issue of short marriages in the context of pensions on divorce. The new Standard Family

Introduction Across the globe, the composition of families is changing. No longer is marriage the definitive means for defining a family; we have seen the growth of other formalised relationship statuses such as registered partnerships and civil unions. The family outside marriage has now become a statistical reality and something

Introduction Over the past decade, a number of cases have come before the Family Court involving property portfolios. These cases have ranged from the seminal case of Prest v Petrodel Resources Ltd & Ors [2013] UKSC 34 through to the case of ND (By her Litigation Friend) v GD [2021]

The concept of compensation in financial remedy proceedings has, since its inception in 2006, been a divisive principle. On the one hand, it is a principle that underpins the very reason that the justice system exists: to compel restitution; on the other hand, it can be seen to be a

Readers will probably have heard by now of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Many of you will have experimented with it, or one of the other available generative artificial intelligence (AI) models such as Microsoft’s Bing. If you have not yet utilised any of these new technologies, you will very likely

Karin Walker (Law Brief Publishing, 2023) This is a concise and informative book aimed at family law practitioners with little or no experience in out-of-court dispute resolution methods. The guide is divided into two sections, with the first section focusing on essential considerations such as new divorce legislation, client expectations

Oh, I’ve got good news and bad news, girls. The good news is your dates are here… After several issues worth of useful content, here I am again. This time I’ve abandoned all caution and decided to focus on the last thing you might consider about your set-up

The last 12 months has seen substantial changes in the mortgage market, the products that are available and adjustments to the way in which lenders assess affordability for mortgages. It has been widely reported that the interest rates on mortgages are currently at their highest level for 14 years, with

When Australian legislators introduced a statutory presumption that both parents should have a meaningful relationship with their child, applications to Australian family courts increased as parties thought their cases were the exceptions to the presumption. Sometimes, therefore, introducing greater certainty does not reduce litigation, but has the opposite effect. Given

HD v WB [2023] EWFC 2 (Peel J) Pre-nuptial agreement challenged by husband on the basis that he did not understand its implications and that it would not meet his needs. Husband was successful on this second contention. He received a needs-based award, albeit only 4% of overall liquid assets.