Family Law

ANDREW MEEHAN, Senior Solicitor, Mills & Reeve

The appeal against the Court of Appeal's decision in Radmacher v Granatino [2009] EWCA Civ 649, [2009] 2 FLR 1181 is due to be heard, as at the time of writing, by the Supreme Court towards the end of March 2010. Not only will the decision represent the highest profile ancillary relief case to be heard by the Supreme Court so far since replacing the House of Lords but the decision will also generate vast interest by virtue of its topic alone, namely the enforceability of pre-marital agreements.

Readers of Family Law will be familiar with the background facts of the Radmacher case itself, set out in the first instance decision of Baron J, reported as NG v KR (Prenuptial Contract) [2008] EWHC 1532 (Fam), [2009] 1 FLR 1478 and in the Court of Appeal's decision. Both decisions were reviewed in detail in 'Analyse This: Radmacher v Granatino' [2009] Fam Law 816 and commented on in a number of articles since then including 'Pre-Nuptial Agreements: For Better or for Worse?' by R George, P Harris and J Herring [2009] Fam Law 934 and by E Hitchings in 'From Pre-Nups to Post-Nups: Dealing with Marital Property Agreements' [2009] Fam Law 1066 being notable examples.

The purpose of this article is to consider, in advance of the hearing before the Supreme Court, some of the practical issues raised by the Court of Appeal's decision and the particular issues on which guidance from the Supreme Court in its decision would be helpful to practitioners and to clients.

To read the rest of this article, see March [2010] Family Law journal.

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