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COVID & divorce: in sickness & in health…

29 April 2021 / Jenny Duggan
Issue: 7930 / Categories: Features , Family , Divorce , Covid-19
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Could COVID-19 set aside your divorce settlement? Jenny Duggan explores the possibilities
  • In the recent case of FRB v DCA [2020] EWHC 3696, the court held that the COVID-19 pandemic was not an unforeseeable event which entitled a husband to set aside the final financial remedy order made on his divorce.
  • This article examines the decision and considers whether the COVID-19 pandemic might be grounds for setting aside a financial remedy order if the situation is different to that in FRB v DCA.

A little over a year ago, Britain faced its first lockdown. The world pressed pause, and no one was quite sure what would happen next. This was no exception for couples who had reached a financial settlement in their divorce shortly before the pandemic took hold.

A final financial remedy order sets out the financial agreement reached between a divorcing couple. It represents the end of financial negotiations, and provides the finality most people need to move forward. For this

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NEWS
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The Asian International Arbitration Centre’s sweeping reforms through its AIAC Suite of Rules 2026, unveiled at Asia ADR Week, are under examination in this week's NLJ by John (Ching Jack) Choi of Gresham Legal
In this week's issue of NLJ, Yasseen Gailani and Alexander Martin of Quinn Emanuel report on the High Court’s decision in Skatteforvaltningen (SKAT) v Solo Capital Partners LLP & Ors [2025], where Denmark’s tax authority failed to recover £1.4bn in disputed dividend tax refunds
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