"Stark warning" from family court
The Court of Appeal has sent a tough message to anyone thinking of not complying with a disclosure order in a family case.
Ex-husband, David Thursfield failed to convince the Court that a two-year prison sentence for failing to comply with a disclosure order in a matrimonial proceedings case was “manifestly excessive”, in Thursfield v Thursfield [2013] EWCA Civ 840.
The court held the judge had been right to regard the breaches of orders as serious, and to impose 12 months for punitive, and 12 months for coercive, measures.
Lord Justice Lloyd said: “It may be that if the judge had expressed his two year sentence as being entirely punitive, then some exception could have been taken to such a formulation.
“But that was not the judge’s approach…it seems to me that the judge was entitled to regard these breaches as serious and to take into account the fact that Mr Thursfield remained in breach…I see no error in principle and no manifest excess over what was appropriate in that sentence.”
Fiona Turner, family law partner at Irwin Mitchell, in an interview for LexisNexis Current Awareness, said: “the family court is clearly sending out a stark warning to those who deliberately frustrate or prevent a full enquiry into the parties’ resources, which is essential to assess the scope of a fair financial settlement on divorce. The family courts have historically taken a less severe approach, but now indicate that they are getting tougher on persistent and flagrant offenders”.
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