Divorce: Maintaining your Trust in Jersey

Timothy Hanson and Mark Renouf Partners Hanson Renouf Jersey and Associate Members of No 5 Chambers Birmingham.

In recent years there appear to have been a growing number of divorce cases where an offshore trust has appeared all too conspicuously on an English court's radar and have either been dealt with or threatened by a variety of orders under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. Two such cases Charalambous v Charalambous [2004] EWCA Civ 1030 [2004] 2 FLR 1093 and Minwalla v Minwalla and DM Investments SA Midfield Management SA and CI Law Trustees Ltd [2004] EWHC 2823 (Fam) [2005] 1 FLR 771 have highlighted issues relevant to trusts in the Bailiwick of Jersey being the largest of the Channel Islands. As will be appreciated from these cases Jersey enjoys its own legal system and there will as a consequence be a number of issues that arise when a Jersey trust is involved in such ancillary relief proceedings. This article examines the differing approaches of the English and Jersey courts in such circumstances and further looks at...

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