In a second update on financial settlements, David Burrows focuses on couples’ agreements & issues a plea for change
- How are agreements between couples, married or unmarried, dealt with?
- Admissions against interest & the without prejudice rule.
- Procedure: constructing an agreement or a court order recording terms.
In ‘Settlement matters’ it was explained that a married or civil partnership couple could claim to be victims of the dilatoriness of rule-makers. For 55 years rule-makers have had statutory powers to enable such couples to ask the family courts to uphold any agreement between them many weeks prior to any finalisation of their dissolution application.
The contrast for the position of the cohabitant couple who are unmarried or not in a civil partnership is clear. Unmarried couples are treated, in a sense, as adults who can reach their own agreement which the civil (ie not family) courts will uphold in contract or equity terms, and in a way which is not always the case with family courts judges. This
