Senior judge calls for tighter rules on dealing with overseas divorces

Thu 15 Jul 2010

A leading judge has said the amount of time the High Court spends dealing with divorce cases involving foreign nationals should be allocated more strictly.

According to Lord Justice Thorpe, the primary responsibility of the 17 family law judges in the High Court is to do justice domestically.

However, he said there have been a number of cases recently involving people with only a "slender connection" to British jurisdiction.

Lord Justice Thorpe said the wealth of these parties has led to "disproportionate demands" being placed upon the UK's family justice system.

Therefore, he has suggested that a more "stringent allocation" of judicial time be implemented, as family law judges in the High Court already "operate under great pressure of work".

He was speaking after the Russian multimillionaire Ilva Golubovich and his former wife Elena took a dispute regarding their divorce to the Court of Appeal.

The case was heard in both London and Moscow and led to the couple running up legal costs of more than GBP 2 million.

Jacqueline Major, a solicitor at Winckworth Sherwood, commented: "'Forum Shopping' is the relatively recent occurrence where divorcing parties, usually wealthy ones, race to start proceedings in the country where they feel they will get the best outcome, particularly in relation to finances.

"England has the reputation of being the best country in the world for divorcing wives, with high capital awards and generous maintenance payments set by cases in recent years.

"This has led to a rash of recent dashes to court to establish English Law over that of another country that may not be so generous - with the opposite number dashing to the court of a different country where financial provision may be more limited.

"As Thorpe LJ rightly states, our judges are here for our nationals and many of these Forum Shoppers have no real connection with England and Wales, other than owning a property or being here from time to time.

"Where to start proceedings requires careful consideration at the outset, it is a matter that experienced practitioners raise at the first interview with a client.

"It is usually good practice to follow a protocol before issuing proceedings, for example to try to agree the best forum with the opposite side.

"But there will be cases where there will be an immediate need to issue proceedings without recourse to the other side and the issue of forum and a possible race to start in the 'best' place may commence."