Agreements and 'Otobo Plus' in Ancillary Relief Law: SEL v AAL

MIRANDA FISHER Partner and JAMES RIBY Assistant Solicitor Charles Russell LLP

At the beginning of the last decade the House of Lords decided the landmark case of White v White [2001] 1 AC 596 [2000] 2 FLR 981. In the years immediately following the decision in White the reported cases focused primarily on the application of the principle of equality in ancillary relief law. More recently the spotlight has moved to agreements which have now become the focus of reported family law cases. The judgment of Mrs Justice Eleanor King in SEL v AAL [2008] EWHC 3658 (Fam) (unreported) 21 November 2008 is another in this line of cases demonstrating the increasing regard of the family courts for agreements. At the time of writing the decision of the Supreme Court in Radmacher v Granatino [2009] EWCA Civ 649 [2009] 2 FLR 1181 on the status of premarital agreements in ancillary relief law is awaited and will mark the beginning of a new decade in English family law.

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