James Pirrie and Bradley Williams reflect on the Court of Appeal’s findings in Charman v Charman
Some of the finest minds in matrimonial finance are back at it—struggling over the conundrum of what to do with all that money.
In The legal dig (NLJ, 16 March 2007, pp 382–84) we endeavoured to sketch the outline of the landscape that had developed since White v White [2001] 1 All ER 1, [2000] 3 WLR 1571. A few weeks later, on 4 April 2007, Mr Justice Charles handed down his judgment in H v H [2007] EWHC 459 (Fam), [2007] All ER (D) 88 (Apr) and we identified the straws this appeared to throw in the air to help us assess the direction in which the courts are now blowing (NLJ, 4 May 2007, pp 627–28). Hardly had that touched our desks then the gale that is Charman v Charman [2007] EWCA Civ 503, [2007] All ER (D) 425 (May) was upon us on 24 May.
THE FACTS
Mr and Mrs Charman separated in November 2003 after 30 years of marriage. They had two adult