16 February 2021
Thousands of divorcing couples could face post-Brexit jurisdictional issues, a family lawyer has warned.
About one in three UK divorces involves a foreign element: for example, where one spouse is from abroad. Previously, jurisdiction was decided by who filed the court papers first. Now, the courts will decide.
Andrew Watson, partner at Osbornes Law, said: ‘A number of factors will be taken into account, such as where people live, where they lived together and where the children go to school or spend their holidays, so deciding where a divorce should take place isn’t that simple.
‘This is going to create further disputes between couples at a time where there are plenty of disputes anyway and this could well lead to a flood of litigation. There is the potential for this to get quite messy.’
