Urgent Need for Divorce Law Reforms

A spate of high profile divorce cases have hit the headlines recently with maintenance being the main agenda. 

Much debate has surrounded the issue of maintenance paid to ex-wives (and in a few cases ex-husbands). Many of the divorce cases have involved huge sums of money, colourful personalities and great back stories, such as green energy giant, multi-millionaire Dale Vince.  Dale Vince recently went to court to argue with his ex-wife Kathleen Wyatt about why he should pay her maintenance some 30 years after their divorce. Whilst the facts of these cases are often not directly relevant to everyday divorce clients we believe we need to look at the uncertainty caused by the current system for divorcing couples with average incomes.  The Family Court in England and Wales has the flexibility to tailor financial awards in divorce cases to individual circumstances.  Whilst this can be helpful, the lack of certainty surrounding the level and timescale for payments of maintenance to ex-partners means that no one entering the divorce courts  has certainty about what their financial outcome will be.  This is only highlighted by the recent spate of cases.

Need for change

In our view the Dale Vince case and others like it illustrate the need for change to divorce law as set out in the Resolution Manifesto.  Resolution (of which all of the Pinney Talfourd team are members) wants reform to create greater certainty around financial outcome in divorce.  This will in our view make reaching an agreement easier and we believe we will be able to more realistically manage client expectation.

Please contact us on 01708 229 444 for more information or visit the Family, Divorce, Children and Relationships page to find out more about our services.