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02 May 2019 / Amy Fox
Issue: 7838 / Categories: Features , Family , Arbitration , ADR
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To arbitrate or not to arbitrate?

What if you advise your client to pursue arbitration, only for them to receive an unfavourable result? Amy Fox weighs up the pros & cons of arbitration in family cases

  • Even though the options available to challenge an arbitral award are extremely limited, there are nonetheless many advantages to the arbitration route in family cases.

The recent case B C v BG [2019] EWFC 7, [2019] All ER (D) 142 (Jan) concerned an application by a wife for a judicial decision order that an arbitral award should not be made into a court order. The wife’s application asserted that:

  • there were fundamental and material errors in the arbitrator’s application of the law;
  • the law was applied unfairly;
  • there were various supervening events (including that the level of the maintenance award meant the wife could not obtain a mortgage and that the award did not meet the wife’s and the children’s needs); and
  • that the husband had failed to provide proper financial disclosure /had misled
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MOVERS & SHAKERS

42BR Barristers—4 Brick Court

42BR Barristers—4 Brick Court

42BR Barristers to be joined by leading family law set, 4 Brick Court, this summer

Winckworth Sherwood—Rubianka Winspear

Winckworth Sherwood—Rubianka Winspear

Real estate and construction energy offering boosted by partner hire

Gateley Legal—Daniel Walsh

Gateley Legal—Daniel Walsh

Firm bolsters real estate team with partner hire in Birmingham

NEWS
A wave of housing and procedural reforms is set to test the limits of tribunal capacity. In his latest Civil Way column for NLJ this week, Stephen Gold charts sweeping change as the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 begins biting
Plans to reduce jury trials risk missing the real problem in the criminal justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, David Wolchover of Ridgeway Chambers argues the crown court backlog is fuelled not by juries but weak cases slipping through a flawed ‘50%’ prosecution test
Emerging technologies may soon transform how courts determine truth in deeply personal disputes. In this week's NLJ, Madhavi Kabra of 1 Hare Court and Harry Lambert of Outer Temple Chambers explore how neurotechnology could reshape family law
A controversial protest case has reignited debate over the limits of free expression. In NLJ this week, Nicholas Dobson examines a Quran-burning incident testing public order law
The courts have drawn a firm line under attempts to extend arbitration appeals. Writing in NLJ this week, Masood Ahmed of the University of Leicester highlights that if the High Court refuses permission under s 68 of the Arbitration Act 1996, that is the end
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