Family proceedings
Re AI M [2021] EWHC 303 (Fam), [2021] All ER (D) 112 (Jan)
The Family Division allowed the mother’s application for an additional legal services funding order of £643,000, in relation to an appeal which was listed to be heard in the Court of Appeal, Civil Division, concerning an earlier ruling, in proceedings concerning two children, on the question of whether the court had jurisdiction to investigate the acts of the state of the UAE and or Dubai. The court considered that, in circumstances where it had already determined that, irrespective of the assets the mother undoubtedly had at her disposal, the father should be funding her legal fees on an ongoing basis during the currency of the proceedings, it could see no distinction which would justify limiting its jurisdiction, so as to exclude funding of an appeal process. Further, the court held that it was either irrelevant, or certainly not determinative, that the Court of Appeal had a security for costs mechanism available to it, and that the father was willing to co-operate by making a secured costs payment
