This question was answered by the Court of Appeal this month. When you reach a financial agreement with your spouse, you are likely to want this agreement to be converted into a binding court order, so that both parties will be held to its terms in the future. To obtain a binding court order, you…
If your children are attending privately paying schools, and you are negotiating a financial settlement on divorce, there will need to be a decision reached on how these fees are going to be paid. In a recent financial case before the High Court*, two children attended fee paying schools, costing a total of £27,828 per…
The answer to this question depends on the type of case which is heard by the court. If you are making an application in relation to children, the court will allocate your case to an appropriate level of judge when it is issued. The first hearing of a children case is called a FHDRA (First…
A Xydhias agreement is an agreement reached between you and your spouse in relation to your financial arrangements on divorce, which is not yet a court order, but which you have been bound to. What happens if you and your spouse have reached an agreement, but one of you subsequently changes your mind about the…
The issue of how to deal with parents who are raising children together but are unable to communicate or spend time with each other has been dealt with in a recent case* in Cambridge. The case deals with two boys, aged 7 and 5, who live with their mother, and spend alternate weekends with their…
We are often asked whether a spouse’s bad behaviour will make any difference to a financial settlement during divorce. A case* recently came before the Family Court in which it had to decide whether the Husband’s excessive spending should result in an add-back. In this context an” add back” is when a court nominally add…
The Supreme Court has today given judgment on the case of Wyatt v Vince, involving a wife and husband divorced 22 years ago. In the intervening years, the Husband has made many millions of pounds in his green energy wind farm business. The Wife now seeks a payment of £1.9 million from him. The Court…
The issue of determining how long spousal maintenance should be paid for was examined by the Court of Appeal recently. The Husband in the case is 59, and an equine surgeon. The Wife, aged 51, cares for the children, and had not worked outside of the home since she was 35. The original financial deal in…
There is no one answer to this question. In a recent High Court case*, we have been reminded that there are many “swirling considerations” which come to bear on determining what the correct level of spousal maintenance should be and which “cannot” be pressed into a formula which provides an answer. At the centre of the…
A separation agreement is a document entered into by separating spouses. A separation agreement is crafted to the particular circumstances of each separating couple, but it will usually deal with a division of the financial pot. A separation agreement is not the same as a final financial order, as it is not approved by the…
