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Needs Must! Family Justice Council provides guidance for financial orders in needs cases
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'The law relating to financial orders is inherently unclear. It is not possible to discern from the statute what the law requires although the courts and family lawyers administer the law with confidence.'
Suffix this paragraph with the word 'Discuss' and you have the makings of a particularly knotty and nightmarish finals question. The observation was in fact made by the Law Commission at para 2.56 of its February 2014 report
Law Com No 343 Matrimonial Property Needs and Agreements ('LC343')).
Financial needs are 'an issue of central importance in most divorces' (LC343 para 1.22). But how are a divorcing spouse’s needs to be assessed? At what level should needs be met? For how long should provision for needs be made in a financial order? How important or how possible is a transition to independence following a divorce? Given the divergences of approach among the judiciary to answering these questions the Family Justice Council has just published (1 July 2016) the excellent '
Guidance for the judiciary on financial needs on divorce' ('the Guidance').
The Guidance was published following the identification by the...
Read the full article here.
