Charlotte Sanders: Arbitration in family cases – the way forward?

The President of the Family Division Sir James Munby has endorsed the use of arbitration in financial remedy cases. Ruling in the case of S v S (Financial Remedies: Arbitral Award) [2014] EWHC 7 (Fam) [2014] 2 FLR (forthcoming) Sir James Munby commented that where parties have entered into arbitration and have bound themselves to accept an award through arbitration it should be regarded as a ‘single magnetic factor of determinative importance'.

In S v S the husband and wife had been married for 26 years and had one child together who was 18 at the date of judgment. They had assets of between £1.5 and £2m. The parties appointed an arbitrator and a final award was made only 8 weeks from the couple signing the agreement to arbitrate.  Although Sir James Munby did not comment on the specifics of the award he...

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