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30 April 2021
Issue: 7930 / Categories: Legal News , Divorce , Covid-19 , Family
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NLJ this week: Could COVID-19 set aside your divorce settlement?

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Can your client cancel their divorce settlement because of the pandemic? Writing in NLJ this week, Jenny Duggan, senior associate, Stewarts, addresses this intriguing question in the context of a recent family court case.

In the case, FRB v DCA, the court held the pandemic was not an unforeseeable event which entitled the husband to set aside the financial remedy order made on his divorce. But, if the situation were different, could it be?

In this fascinating article, Duggan studies the case and explores the potential. Could the pandemic, for example, amount to a Barder event? If you and your client believe this is so then act quickly, she advises. If not, there are alternative options.

‘Indeed,’ she writes, ‘this may be the last pandemic that has the chance of being a Barder event, as it will be less arguable to claim that pandemics are unforeseen or unforeseeable in the future’.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Dual-qualified partner joins as head of commercial property department

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Firm announces appointment of next chair

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Director joins corporate team from the US

NEWS
What safeguards apply when trust corporations are appointed as deputy by the Court of Protection? 
Disputing parties are expected to take part in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), where this is suitable for their case. At what point, however, does refusing to participate cross the threshold of ‘unreasonable’ and attract adverse costs consequences?
When it comes to free legal advice, demand massively outweighs supply. 'Millions of people are excluded from access to justice as they don’t have anywhere to turn for free advice—or don’t know that they can ask for help,' Bhavini Bhatt, development director at the Access to Justice Foundation, writes in this week's NLJ
When an ex-couple is deciding who gets what in the divorce or civil partnership dissolution, when is it appropriate for a third party to intervene? David Burrows, NLJ columnist and solicitor advocate, considers this thorny issue in this week’s NLJ
NLJ's latest Charities Appeals Supplement has been published in this week’s issue
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