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31 May 2007
Issue: 7275 / Categories: Legal News , Divorce , Family
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Calls for reform after latest big money divorce ruling

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Family lawyers have backed calls by the Court of Appeal for a change in divorce laws following its judgment last week in Charman v Charman.

John Charman lost his bid to reduce on appeal the largest financial award on divorce in English legal history. He was ordered to pay his wife £48m from his estimated fortune of £131m.

James Freeman, solicitor at Speechly Bircham LLP, says that to succeed, Mr Charman had to at least dent one of two bastions of the law in this area.
“One is that all resources available to the parties…should be taken into account. The other is that…where there is more wealth around than the parties actually need, the approach is ‘50/50 or why not?’,” he says.
Simon Beccle, family law partner at Payne Hicks Beach, says: ”The judgment confirms that special contribution is still a reason for departing from an equal division of the assets in ‘big money’ cases and may give some comfort to wealthy spouses.”

Apart from the “special contribution” argument, Mr

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