Costs

Pre-Nuptial Agreement Drafting: Is the Profession Earning ‘an Honest Shilling’?

Pre-Nuptial Agreement Drafting: Is the Profession Earning ‘an Honest Shilling’?

Introduction In the same year when the Law Commission published its report Matrimonial Property, Needs and Agreements and recommended that there be ‘statutory confirmation of the contractual validity of marital agreements’ (1.32), Coleridge J, in his address at the 2014 Family Law Conference stated: ‘I am convinced that the

J v H [2022] EWFC 133

Judgment date: 09 November 2022 https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewfc/2022/133 Peel J. H’s application for a freezing injunction. Reference to Mostyn J’s guidance from UL v BK and the importance of compliance with the pre-requisites set out in that case. H’s initial application was

Someone! Do Something About Costs! The Single Lawyer Solution

Someone! Do Something About Costs! The Single Lawyer Solution

In an appendix to his judgment in the ruinous case of KSO v MJO & Ors [2008] EWHC 3031 (Fam), in which the parties managed to expend all but about 28% of the net assets in costs, Munby J returned us to Dickens’ excoriating passage in Bleak House:[[1]] ‘“For

Family Law – Not the Poor Relation

Family Law – Not the Poor Relation

Paper delivered (remotely from France) by Hon Mr Justice Mostyn to the 19th National Family Law Conference, Adelaide, South Australia, on Tuesday 16 August 2022. 1⁠. My proposition is that family law is not the poor relation when it comes to resolving complex financial issues between adults who happen to

Security for Costs in Family Proceedings

Security for Costs in Family Proceedings

In MG v AR [2021] EWHC 3063 (Fam), Mostyn J made an order providing security for costs. Such orders are more frequently made in civil proceedings, where ‘costs follow the event’ and costs orders are made in favour of the successful party. An application for security for costs is an

W v H (Financial Remedies: Pensions) [2021] EWFC 63

Judgment date: 14 September 2021 https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/OJ/2021/B63.html Recorder Salter. Modest assets. Case involved pensions, third-party property, excessive litigation costs and jurisdiction of the court to make an order for child maintenance where the care of a child was shared equally between

Costs Orders and Childrens’ Cases

Costs Orders and Childrens’ Cases

Children’s cases in family practice, rarely generate awards for costs. A quarter of a century ago, Hale J (as she then was) explained why the practice of letting each party bear their own costs had developed, in the Court of Appeal decision of R v R (Costs: Child Case)