We acted for wife, who had been married to her husband for less than two years by the time they separated and had not lived with him for that entire time. Wife had no assets and could not work owing to an injury she had sustained. The husband owned a house which did not have much equity in it and worked.
Negotiations did not lead to a settlement as the husband argued that the wife was entitled to nothing as they had not been married for very long. We therefore issued court proceedings and argued the wife’s case based on her financial need for housing. The husband during the financial disclosure process was clearly not being entirely forthcoming with information and still argued at court that the wife was entitled to nothing. However, he later changed his mind after the judge agreed with the wife’s case.
The wife’s case was in fact so strong that the husband agreed to a settlement at the second hearing, which saved our client the cost of a contested final hearing. The husband agreed to pay the wife enough money to pay a deposit on a property, pay the rent for six months and furnish the property fully. This was a great relief to our client, who had been entirely dependent of her friends before that.