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 took the opportunity to provide some useful guidance on the...

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