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Liverpool law firm welcomes fairer divorce proceedings

Local law firm, Maxwell Hodge has welcomed the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in favour of Mrs Prest, which will lead to fairer divisions of assets in divorce.

The ruling in the Prest v Petrodel case means that people will no longer be able to evade making fair payouts to their partners by hiding assets within company structures.

The Supreme Court went out of its way to make a fair decision on the case and took a bold step to rule against a husband who had failed to disclose accurate documents to or provide the relevant information.

Michael Pratt, a lawyer at Maxwell Hodge said: “The Supreme Court has made a bold decision and we welcome this. People should not deliberately hide assets in businesses and corporate structures to protect themselves in future should they have a divorce. I believe in this case fairness has been achieved, and justice has been done. The ‘dishonest’ husband has not got away with keeping assets from his wife.”

He added: “This landmark ruling will be widely welcomed by those representing wives who have been frustrated by unanswered questions over ownership of matrimonial assets. It will have many consequences for those who invest assets in corporate structures prior to a divorce with a view to putting those assets out of harm’s way.

There are also concerns this ruling will lead to companies and their assets being vulnerable in divorce cases, with businesses possibly put at risk of collapse, following the divorce of a major investor in the firm.

According to Michael though this isn’t the case.

“In the Prest vs Petrodel case the assets were deemed to be held by the companies on trust for the husband, so the court had power over them, rather than being purely company assets. The Court of Appeal has also already confirmed that it is not within the matrimonial court’s powers to transfer legitimate company assets to the wife Mrs Prest.”

Michael said: “Unless there are exceptional circumstances amounting to fraud or evasion, the matrimonial courts cannot transfer company assets to a spouse. So all in all the ruling should be welcome by all apart from those who have purposely attempted to defraud a spouse from a fair distribution of the marital assets.”

Maxwell Hodge is one of the region’s leading law firms, comprising eight offices across Merseyside with a city centre office in the heart of Liverpool’s business district. Contact them on 0800 6946 660 or e-mail info@maxweb.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Dan Minchin .