A Judicial Safari Tour of Ancillary Relief: J v J - Family Law journal

ASHLEY MURRAY Barrister Oriel Chambers Liverpool

There are certain challenges each of us should attempt in our lifetime and for most these involve a parachute jump a mountain climb etc. Akin to these in the legal world would be reading from first page to last a judgment of Charles J. One of his most recent is J v J [2010] EWHC 2654 (Fam) which covers 114 pages more than 50 of which consist of the most detailed review of the current issues in ancillary relief law to be found outside any legal textbook. Little wonder then that in one of his latest reported judgments in N v N (Ancillary Relief) [2010] EWHC 717 (Fam) [2010] 2 FLR (forthcoming) he comments (at para [17[) that ‘Neither side argued that my analysis and approach in . . . [J v J] . . . was wrong'. To be fair of course counsel in N v N had clearly from the nature of their submissions digested the judge's earlier discourse. However for the busy practitioner elsewhere there have to be different priorities and...

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