Maintenance Pending Suit and the Costs Allowance

David Salter Addleshaw Goddard Leeds Manchester and London. The gradual erosion of public funding over a number of years has left an increasing number of applicants for ancillary relief looking for alternative avenues of funding. Over the course of the past ten years the principle that a costs allowance may be made as a part of maintenance pending suit became established in the lower courts but the issue was not fully considered by the Court of Appeal until the 2004 case of Moses-Taiga v Taiga [2005] EWCA Civ 1013 [2006] 1 FLR 1074. Three criteria were identified which must be fulfilled before the court could construe s 22 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 to extend to maintenance pending suit including an element to fund legal costs and the requirement was added that in any event the case must be exceptional before the court would exercise its jurisdiction.

Back in the lower courts the Moses-Taiga v Taiga criteria and the exceptional circumstances test battled against differing interpretations and cases. Complex factual situations brought with them complex questions. Are all big money cases exceptional? If the three...

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