Sandra Davis on the Implications of Imerman

A right to privacy or a cheat's charter?

In 177 carefully crafted paragraphs the Court of Appeal yesterday rewrote the rules of engagement in matrimonial finance cases.

The Court of Appeal's analysis in Imerman of the development of the law of confidentiality and its application across all Divisions including the Family Division is unimpeachable. 

Self-help is no longer much if any help. Indeed it hasn't been (so we are told at paragraph 117 of the judgment) since 1267. Rather the privacy of an individual even of a degenerate non-discloser is paramount.

And yet the Master of the Rolls Lord Justice Moses and Lord Justice Munby were they said "very much alive" to the fact that many determined spouses "are dishonestly hiding their assets with a view to avoiding their responsibilities". 

What then are the consequences for the spouses of (potential) non-disclosers?    

Rather than being able to root around the family home...

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