
Time marches on, especially for ex-couples waiting for financial remedies proceedings. This creates difficulties
In this week’s NLJ, Catherine Doherty Montanaro, associate in the family law team at Penningtons Manches Cooper, notes that couples are likely to have been separated for many months, if not years, by the time their financial remedies application is considered by a judge
Montanaro writes that, while it is established law that assets built up during marriage are to be shared equally, ‘the treatment of assets amassed, and income earned, during any period of separation is less certain. Murkier still is the issue of deferred consideration, particularly insofar as it relates to an asset which is referable to the marital partnership, but receipt of which is dependent upon conditions to be fulfilled by one spouse post-separation, without contribution from the other.’
The author looks at relevant case law across a range of situations.