Managing proceedings online

The digitalisation programme set out by HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) aims to increase the efficiency of family proceedings. Amendments have been made, and continue to be made to the Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010) to provide that certain applications and proceedings are to proceed by electronic means, ie online rather than on paper.

See Practice Note: Online family proceedings toolkit which brings together various resources and documents associated with the HMCTS online system and online proceedings, including signposting to provisions in the FPR 2010, pilot schemes that are in operation in the Family Court, Lexis+® UK Practice Notes and HMCTS guidance available to assist practitioners dealing with proceedings online.

Online divorce procedure

FPR 2010, PD 41A (Proceedings by electronic means: certain proceedings for a matrimonial order) came into effect on 6 April 2020 and sets out the procedure by which, in the circumstances provided for in the Practice Direction, an application for a divorce may proceed by electronic means. FPR 2010, PD 41A sets out the modifications that are made to the FPR 2010 when the application is made via the online service.

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Monumental Supreme Court decision on matrimonialisation and sharing principle (Standish v Standish)

Family analysis: The Supreme Court’s much-anticipated judgment confirms unequivocally that the sharing principle does not apply to non-matrimonial property. Sharing of matrimonial property will usually be 50:50, though there may be a departure from equal division where justified. Non-matrimonial property typically has either a pre-marital origin, or, where it is received during the currency of the marriage, an external source (eg an inheritance). Title to an asset is expressly not determinative as to whether that asset is or is not matrimonial. Though non-matrimonial property may become matrimonial (ie ‘matrimonialisation’) this will depend on how the parties have been dealing with the asset and whether, over time, they have been treating that asset as shared between them. The concept of matrimonialisation is to be applied neither ‘widely’ nor ‘narrowly’ (contrary to what the Court of Appeal had held)—again, the enquiry should focus on how the parties have dealt with the asset. Where an asset is transferred from one spouse to another with the intention to save tax (as had occurred in the case), this will not normally show that the asset is being treated as shared. The Supreme Court ultimately upheld the decision to dismiss the wife’s appeal, though it did not wholly agree with the Court of Appeal’s reasoning. Pursuant to that decision (made on the sharing basis) the wife would be provided with circa £25m of the total assets figure of circa £132.6m, being half of the matrimonial assets figure of £50.48m. David Wilkinson, solicitor at Slater Heelis, considers the judgment.

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