Family lawyers group Resolution has called for more support for victims of domestic abuse seeking to resolve their finances on divorce
Its report, ‘Domestic abuse in financial remedy proceedings’, launched this week, found 80% of more than 500 family justice professionals felt the court does not sufficiently take domestic abuse into account in financial remedies cases. 90% said there was insufficient access to legal aid.
Family lawyers highlighted the problem of ongoing abuse, often economic abuse, from the point couples separate until court orders are enacted.
Olivia Piercy, co-chair of Resolution’s economic abuse working party, said: ‘Withholding funds, hiding assets, delaying, bullying, and breaching court orders have been persistent problems that professionals must grapple with. However, it is only following recent developments, we have come to understand that these behaviours are post-separation domestic abuse.’
