The family courts are increasingly ready to impose costs orders as a result of poor behaviour or misleading evidence, say Stowe Family Law senior associates Siobhan Vegh and Natalie Nero, and solicitor Rebecca Sutton. Writing in this week’s NLJ, Vegh, Nero and Sutton talk us through a recent example, the divorce and financial remedies case, NW v BH.
The authors, who represented the applicant wife in the case, highlight that, in April 2024, updates to the Family Procedure Rules 2010 aimed at emphasising the importance of non-court dispute resolution (NCDR) ‘also introduced new court powers when it comes to cost sanctions, both for failure to engage in NCDR, but—importantly for this discussion—for litigation misconduct’.
Consequently, family practitioners need to be on guard, especially in more acrimonious disputes, that clients with hurt feelings don’t end up hurting their pockets.RELATED ARTICLES
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