England stands out as most generous country for divorcing spouses
Divorcing spouses in England are more likely to receive generous maintenance payments over a longer period than in 13 other countries because judges can take more factors into account, according to research. A study by law firm Withers examined spousal maintenance payments in jurisdictions in Europe, the US, South Africa and New Zealand and concluded that England and Wales stood out because of the broad range of issues the judge could take into consideration.
London has gained a reputation for being the divorce capital of the world in recent years after a series of generous awards to ex-wives. These have included ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, who was ordered to pay Heather Mills £24.3m after four years of marriage, and the £48m awarded to Beverley Charman, former wife of John Charman, the insurance magnate. In the most recent high-profile case, Michelle Youngwas last month awarded a £20m lump sum after divorcing her husband Scot Young, a one-time fixer for Russian oligarchs. In the bitter dispute, he had claimed he was penniless and could not afford to pay anything. She alleged he was worth millions. In another case in August, an unnamed Russian businessman, identified as M, was ordered to pay £38m to his ex-wife and transfer UK properties to her. The complex case involved tracing the husband’s assets across the world. The judge, Mrs Justice Eleanor King, described the litigation as "a fantastic charade, with the husband a shady puppet master in the background", and said that those representing the wife "have crossed and recrossed the globe in an attempt to trace the husband’s assets, every penny of which has been acquired during the course of the marriage". Court orders were obtained in Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands and Seychelles, after which the husband was "one step ahead", transferring assets across the Caribbean Sea to Belize and eventually using a Panamanian intermediary. The English courts have also shown themselves willing to be tough against those who refuse to obey court orders to disclose documents during proceedings, or to pay up.Mr Young was jailed for contempt of court for failure to comply with court orders. Suzanne Kingston, partner at Withers, said the discretion of judges most frequently came into play in England when the amount and duration of maintenance payments to divorcing spouses was decided. This compared with other countries where awards were often more formula-based The German court often uses official guidelines, notably the Düsseldorf table, which provides certainty in maintenance calculations. Although many jurisdictions gave judges discretion to make awards, Withers found that England and Wales stood out for the broad judicial discretion they applied to all aspects of each case. In some countries, notably Cyprus, Germany and Switzerland, the term for maintenance can be strictly limited. Some jurisdictions still use the concept of "fault-based divorce" and include factors such as adultery, unreasonable behaviour or desertion as grounds to refuse a claim for maintenance. Ms Kingston said: "France maintains this as a discretionary point but Malta considers it an important question when considering maintenance awards." The study found that Malta remained one of the few jurisdictions in which conduct of the divorcing parties was genuinely taken into account; the right to maintenance is forfeited if the recipient "caused the breakdown of the marriage for reasons of adultery, cruelty or grievous injury or desertion for two years or more without good cause". In France, the court also had discretion to refuse to award spousal support in cases of fault-based divorce, the study noted. Catherine Thomas, lawyer for law firm Vardags, who represented Ms Young, said the English courts did not distinguish between the breadwinner and the homemaker in a longstanding marriage – making London an attractive place for divorcing wives. She said: "There is a wide discretion and judges here will look at individual factors and cases. This can sometimes make the decisions less easy to predict and can lead to more litigation." She added that the complexity of many international divorce cases and spouses with assets around the world in various tax havens had led to an influx of City lawyers into family law. "Family law used to be seen as quite soft and less intellectually demanding than corporate law, but now it has attracted City lawyers who use their skills in family law and that is seen as quite normal."