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Many people going through divorce and the associated financial remedy proceedings believe if they discover financial documents belonging to their spouse, such as a bank statement or business papers, they are entitled to use them at court. After all, if the documents reveal hidden assets, surely justice demands that they be used? Confidential documents The reality is more complicated. The law on using a spouse’s documents in divorce proceedings changed significantly in 2010 f

Cryptocurrency still carries an air of mystery. It is often assumed to be invisible, untraceable, or somehow beyond the reach of the Court. Bitcoin need not stay hidden None of that is true. In England and Wales, the court’s approach to cryptocurrency is legally orthodox. What is new is not the law, but the practical difficulty created by disclosure, valuation and enforcement. Crypto is ‘property’ The Court does not treat cryptocurrency as a novelty asset class. It is treated

Reporter This time last year, the Transparency Pilot in Financial Remedy Proceedings was rolled out nationwide across all courts in England and Wales. It has since been extended to 29 January 2027 , with a view to becoming permanent (subject to consultation). The pilot allows accredited journalists and authorised legal bloggers to attend and report on most financial remedy hearings, subject to a “Transparency Order” made by the judge. Importantly, Financial Dispute Resolution

When couples divorce, attention naturally gravitates towards the family home and immediate cash needs. Pensions, by contrast, are often pushed to the margins of negotiations. That approach is increasingly difficult to justify. As the Pension Advisory Group’s Guide to the Treatment of Pensions on Divorce (Second Edition, 2024) makes clear, pensions are frequently the most valuable asset after the home (and sometimes the most important source of long) term financial security.

Every January since a Daily Telegraph article in January 2008, headlines across the board proclaim the arrival of “Divorce Day”, usually described as the first working Monday of the year and the busiest day for family lawyers. The story suggests a dramatic surge in couples rushing to end their marriages after the festive season. It is a familiar narrative. It is also misleading. While January does bring an increase in enquiries to family law practices, the idea of a single da

The Supreme Court’s decision in Standish v Standish [2025] UKSC 26 is one of the most significant family law judgments in recent years. It provides important clarification on when assets acquired before marriage (and later transferred between spouses) will be treated as matrimonial property and therefore subject to equal sharing on divorce. At the heart of the case was the concept of “matrimonialisation” : the circumstances in which non-matrimonial property can become matrim