Eagerly awaited Family Law decision from the Supreme Court

Mrs Sharland and Mrs Gohil have been successful in their applications to the Supreme Court. Both women claimed that their husbands had been dishonest during the financial disclosure process and this lead to an unfair financial settlement. It would perhaps seem right to any member of the public that no one should be allowed to benefit from fraud and deceit, as the Husbands in this case had tried to do. The eagerly awaited family law decision came from the Supreme Court.

‘Fraud unravels all’

These have been described as landmark judgments for the way in which it highlights the options open to those who feel that their divorce settlement was wrong due to the other person’s failure to make full and frank disclosure of their assets.

Henry Venables from the team at Maguire Family Law spoke earlier on Radio 5 Live about the impact that this decision will have moving forward. A clip of Henry’s interview can be viewed on our YouTube channel here.

As Henry highlighted, even prior to this judgment, there was a route open to spouses in Mrs Sharland or Mrs Gohil’s position to refer matters back to court. However, these cases bring this issue to the public’s attention and, importantly, set out guidance on what procedure should be followed.

Anyone wishing to revisit their financial settlement because of material non disclosure by the other person should take specialist family law advice before commencing any legal action. People in that position will need to consider carefully what impact further litigation would have on them, in terms of the stress, potential costs and uncertainty.

Here at Maguire Family Law we will continue to advise clients going through the first part of their divorce on the important of full and frank financial disclosure. Both parties should put their cards on the table, face up, as part of their ongoing duty to the court and to each other to be open and honest about their finances.

For specialist family law advice call Maguire Family Law for a consultation: +44 (0)1625 544650 or email: henry.venables@family-law.co.uk