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Presenting financial remedy ‘needs’ cases
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The ‘Sorting out Finances on Divorce’ report published in April 2016 follows a recommendation made by the Law Commission that guidance should be prepared on the meaning of ‘financial needs’ (
para 3.88). Whilst designed with litigants in person in mind it will also provide a useful aide memoire and source of guidance for practising family lawyers and courts alike.
It turns out that needs are as an elusive a concept as fairness. It all depends. They are a ‘very broad concept’. Check out the postcode. The higher the standard of living the more refined the notion of need becomes. Cases with a pot of up to £5m are routinely described by the courts as ‘needs cases’. The needs case is what occupies the family lawyer for most of the time despite what the law reports might have you otherwise believe.
There are certain common building blocks to a needs case often seemingly overlooked in the charge to a final hearing....
Read the full article here.
