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

• Charlotte John
• Anita Mehta

!30/06/2025 06:00

Simon v Simon [2025] EWFC 897 April 2025

Peel J. Cost judgment from Peel J in ‘highly unusual’ financial remedy proceedings, in which a litigation loan provider successfully applied to be joined and to set aside a consent order which prevented them recovering a loan to W.

• Cases

• Conduct
• Costs
• Joinder of Third Parties
• Efficient Conduct
• Consent Orders
• Setting Aside Orders (Including Barder Applications)

• Katherine Luckhurst

Culligan v Culligan [2025] EWFC 114 January 2025

MacDonald J. An equal division of the matrimonial assets following a 40-year marriage, including a Wells share in favour of W.

• Cases

• Wells Sharing
• Conduct
• Companies
• Crypto
• Valuations

• Olivia Currie

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

• Elizabeth Bowden

Financial Remedies – Next Steps on the Road to Reform?

On 18 December 2024 the Law Commission published its Scoping Report on financial remedies on divorce and dissolution. The Scoping Report sets out their findings that the current law does not provide a cohesive framework in which couples going through a divorce can expect fair and sufficiently certain outcomes.

• Journal

• Reform
• Maintenance
• Conduct
• Law Commission
• Pensions
• Nuptial Agreements
• Financial Remedies

• Professor Nick Hopkins
• Professor Thérèse Callus
• Christine Gentry

!18/03/2025 06:00

Principles vs Resources: Conduct and the Law Commission Scoping Report

The Law Commission’s long awaited scoping report on financial remedies was published on 18 December 2024. It concludes that the law relating to financial remedy should be reformed. We asked the Law Commission to clarify whether their concerns in respect of the fairness of the outcomes was restricted to litigants who had experienced domestic abuse in their marriage.

• Journal

• Conduct
• Law Commission

• Samantha Hillas KC
• Anita Mehta
• Olivia Piercy

!18/03/2025 06:00

Domestic Abuse, Nuptial Agreements and Financial Remedies: A Cultural Shift?

As family practitioners will know, the dynamics involved in negotiating nuptial agreements are no less nuanced than those in other parts of our work. There can be power imbalances, cultural clashes and differing perceptions of fairness.

• Journal

• Domestic Abuse
• Conduct
• Nuptial Agreements

• Polly Calver
• Joanne Edwards

!18/03/2025 06:00

Mary-Jane Grace and Ian Douglas Grace [2025] EWFC 37 (B)10 January 2025

HHJ Farquhar. Straightforward financial remedy proceedings continued an additional 2½ years after the agreement at the FDR. Significant litigation misconduct, far beyond acceptable standards, resulting in striking delay and wasted costs orders; criticism also of conduct of W’s solicitor. The judgment provides useful guidance on anonymisation in financial remedy judgments where there is litigation misconduct.

• Cases

• Anonymity and Transparency
• Conduct
• Delay
• Costs
• Litigation Misconduct

• Neive Augustin

Watch | Conduct in Financial Remedy Proceedings7 January 2025

Watch the recording of 'Conduct in Financial Remedy Proceedings' first broadcast on Tuesday 7th January 2025 with speakers Samantha Hillas KC, Nicholas Allen KC (29BR), Nichola Gray KC (1HC), Anita Mehta (4PB), Emma Hitchings (University of Bristol) and Christine Gentry (Law Commission) who analyse the most up to date publications which are set to change the way in which we view conduct in Financial Remedy cases.

• Watch

• Conduct

HKW v CRH [2024] EWFC 358 (B)4 December 2024

DDJ Rose. Final hearing in modest asset case. Court making findings on the validity of H’s purported loans/gifts to the parties’ children. Consideration of the Kimber factors concerning point of cohabitation.

• Cases

• Conduct
• Add-Backs

• Olivia Currie