Divorce rules face overhaul to reduce lawyers’ cut
Plan to reform 50-year-old laws would avoid costly court battles that can be detrimental to children
LAWS on splitting wealth between divorced couples will be rewritten to make it easier to avoid costly legal bills.
Current arrangements have been criticised as costly and unpredictable, with spouses often turning to expensive litigation because of a lack of clear guidance on how wealth should be split.
The Government is commissioning a thorough review of the 50-year-old Matrimonial Causes Act.
Lord Christopher Bellamy, the justice minister, told the House of Lords that he plans to ask the Law Commission to examine if the Act needs updating.
He said: “The Government are in close consultation with the Law Commission, which we consider the most appropriate body to carry out that review. These matters will be considered fully in a forthcoming review, hopefully by the Law Commission.
“The Government think that the Law Commission is best placed to investigate all these matters, establish what the existing law and practice is and where the problems lie, and make comparative studies of various other jurisdictions, including Australia and elsewhere, as has already been mentioned.”
The English legal system tends to split the combined wealth of divorcing spouses equally even if one partner is the breadwinner, in contrast to many other European countries, where financial awards are far less generous and maintenance is only given for a limited number of years.
Under the current law, spouses can spend thousands of pounds on fees because legal aid is no longer available for most types of family law, and the drawn-out court battles can be detrimental to children.
The system has seen London become a top legal destination for wealthy ex-wives seeking a divorce, drawn by the generosity of financial awards given by the capital’s courts.
Baroness Shackleton, a peer and leading divorce lawyer whose clients have included the King and Paul McCartney, said in the House of Lords this month that the law relied “entirely on finance and the discretion of judges” and was “hopelessly” outmoded.
She added: “The guidelines are 50 years out of date.”
After a key 2010 ruling in the Supreme Court involving Katrin Radmacher, a German paper industry heiress, prenuptial agreements specifying how assets are to be divided when the marriage ends are now recognised.
However, legal experts believe these contracts should be put on to a more formal, statutory footing and enshrined in law.
They also highlight regional variations, with London courts tending to award more generously, while many outside the capital prefer to give “timelimited” maintenance to financially weaker spouses.