Dictionary of Financial Remedies (2024)

• Dictionary of Financial Remedies
• Copyright
• Foreword to the eleventh edition
• Introduction to the 2024 edition
• Add-Backs
• Adjournment of Capital Claims
• Agreements
• Appeals
• Arbitration
• Bankruptcy
• Bonuses
• Bundles
• Chattels
• Child Maintenance
• Child Support
• Children Act 1989 Schedule 1 Applications
• Civil Partnerships
• Civil Restraint Orders
• Clean Breaks and Term Maintenance
• Cohabitation of Recipient of Spousal Maintenance
• Committal Applications and Judgment Summonses
• Companies
• Compensation Principle
• Conduct
• Consent Orders
• Contingent Assets and Liabilities
• Costs
• Criminal Confiscation and Restraint Orders
• Death of a Party
• Debts and Loans
• Delay
• Disclosure
• Disclosure from Third Parties
• Divorce Orders
• Domestic Abuse
• Duration of the Marriage
• Duxbury Capitalisation
• Efficient Conduct
• Enforcement
• Executory Orders
• Experts
• Farms and Country Estates
• FDRs
• Financial Remedies Court (FRC)
• First Appointments
• Foreign Assets
• Freezing Injunctions
• Hadkinson Orders
• Housing Need
• Imerman and Hildebrand
• Impaired Life Expectancy
• Inflation
• Interest
• Interim Relief
• International Enforcement
• Joinder of Third Parties
• Jurisdiction
• Legal Services Payment Orders
• Life Expectancy
• Maintenance Pending Suit
• Matrimonial and Non-Matrimonial Property
• Mesher Orders and Deferred Charges
• Needs
• Overseas Divorce and the 1984 Act
• Pensions on Divorce
• Personal Injury Awards
• Privilege
• Publicity and Confidentiality
• Release from Undertakings
• Remote Hearings
• Sale of Property
• Setting Aside Orders (Including Barder Applications)
• Setting Aside Transactions
• Sharing Principle
• Special Contribution
• Spousal Maintenance (Quantum)
• Standard Family Orders
• State Pensions
• Stockpiling Orders
• Striking Out Applications
• Tax
• TLATA Claims
• Trusts
• Valuations
• Variation Applications
• Variation of Settlements

It is a considerable honour to have been asked to write the foreword for the eleventh edition of this indispensable book, which is a firm fixture on my desk and, I suspect, the desks and bookshelves of many judges and practitioners alike.

I am conscious that the foreword to the tenth edition was penned by the incomparable Mr Justice Mostyn, approximately 6 months before his last sitting day. He has amused many (including himself) with his statistical analysis of judicial mentions in the book. It would, I think, be remiss of me not to continue this hallowed tradition. Inevitably, Sir Nicholas continues to reign supreme. Counting from the top, the mentions in the narrative text and footnotes are: Mostyn J – 159, Peel J – 33, Moor J – 30, Roberts J – 22, Sir Jonathan Cohen – 21, HHJ Hess – 20, Francis J – 8.

Mining data further, I can only uncover one instance of Mostyn J being criticised by a higher court in the past year. In Cazalet v Abu-Zalaf [2023] EWCA Civ 1065 he was admonished by the Court of Appeal for his over reliance on extra-judicial comments on witness demeanour made by Lord Leggatt to the At A Glance conference in 2022. Given that he is now retired, it is probable (but not impossible) that the lengthy list of charge sheets laid against his judgments has now come to an end.

By way of counterbalance, the Supreme Court decision in Unger v Ul-Hasan (Deceased) [2023] UKSC 22, which is given the space it deserves in this edition under the new title Death of a Party, contains encomia of praise about his intellectual prowess and clarity of expression. In so doing, the Supreme Court dismissed the leapfrog appeal certified by Mostyn J against his own first instance decision, albeit for different reasons. One might say that Mostyn J was simultaneously right and wrong.

I have studied the categories in this edition with considerable interest. I did wonder whether the entry on Efficient Conduct might have included references to judicial pronouncements on this all-important foundation stone for proper case management. I have been surprised to encounter practitioners who have not heard of either of the Efficiency Statements (one for cases at High Court level, and one for cases below High Court level), and continue to be perplexed by those counsel (happily a small minority) who routinely, and knowingly, disregard the efficiency provisions. But that apart, the Dictionary is, as always, an impeccable source of accessible material.

I commend the authors for the space given to the important subject of Publicity and Confidentiality. The entry sets out the way in which this issue has developed, due in no small part to a series of judgments by Mostyn J who has challenged the long-held orthodoxy that financial remedies are private and confidential, reportable only with permission of the court.

In Tsvetkov v Khayrova [2023] EWFC 130 I said this at [116]:

‘All that said, whether the starting point is as per the long established practice (i.e. non reportability unless the judge orders otherwise) or as per the thesis of Mostyn J (ability to report unless prohibited by the court), if the court is considering whether to permit or prohibit (as the case may be) reporting, it will need to carry out the Re S balancing exercise.’

The Farquhar Group, in its latest incarnation, reported on this very issue in April 2023. Wisely, the group did not give an opinion on the law as to reportability. Rather, it made recommendations as to how that balancing exercise might ordinarily be carried out, whatever the legal starting point. This, in my view, is a helpful step forward, and the pilot scheme promulgated by the President in December 2023 will go some way to giving clarity to practitioners and judges alike. Lest it be thought that all judges are bound to follow the guidance slavishly, the President makes clear at paragraph 28 that:

‘It is open to a judge in any particular case to depart from this guidance to the extent considered appropriate, in accordance with the law and the particular circumstances of the case.’

No praise is too high for this book, and the industry of the authors. It is part of a series of ‘Dictionaries’ which contribute greatly to a better understanding of the principles of law and procedure underpinning financial remedies and related topics. I am delighted to be able, publicly, to commend it unreservedly.

The Honourable Mr Justice Peel

January 2024

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