Owens: evidence matters

Tini Owens remains married, albeit reluctantly, to her husband, Hugh, after the Supreme Court refused her appeal last week. Although her high-profile case has boosted calls for divorce law reform, however, solicitor and NLJ columnist David Burrows thinks Mrs Owens might have had her decree nisi by now if her case had been handled differently. He writes that ‘in the course of the judgments of Lord Wilson and Lady Hale, disturbing elements of the way the case had been put before the court below emerged’. In this week’s NLJ, Burrows investigates whether all the relevant evidence was heard.