Disputing a Prenuptial Agreement

An important factor in divorce break up is wealth acquired before the marriage and wealth and savings earned since.  Judges certainly take prenuptials into account.  That is the law, but in all cases the needs of the children will come first.

Have a look at the Government statistics by clicking here:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/index.html

The Leading German heiress case was  Radmacher CA 13 July 2009

http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed36874

Brief Facts

The parties were both foreign nationals, the wife German and the husband French, who had signed a pre-nuptial agreement valid under German law but then divorced in the UK. In the High Court Baron J had awarded the husband £5.6m even though the pre-nuptial agreement had stated that neither party would seek maintenance from the other in the event of divorce. The wife therefore appealed.

Giving the lead judgment Thorpe LJ allowed the wife’s appeal broadly on the grounds that Baron J had not given sufficient weight to the existence of agreement in her initial award, though still providing the husband with some housing and other funds to reflect the shared residence of the couple’s children. At paragraph 53 of the judgment he also made the following statement

“In future cases broadly in line with the present case on the facts, the judge should give due weight to the marital property regime into which the parties freely entered. This is not to apply foreign law, nor is it to give effect to a contract foreign to English tradition. It is, in my judgment, a legitimate exercise of the very wide discretion that is conferred on the judges to achieve fairness between the parties to the ancillary relief proceedings. ”

Take expert legal advice at an early stage.

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