Crimes against the Person: Divorce Settlements

The Government is determined that the family courts should be places of safety and fairness. We recognise that serious offences, including domestic abuse, can have profound and long-lasting effects on victim-survivors’ financial security.

Assets owned by a married couple can be distributed by the family court following an application for divorce. The legislation that governs this is the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. This legislation sets out that, when making financial orders, the court must consider all the circumstances of the case, with the first consideration being the welfare of any child of the family. The legislation also sets out a list of factors the court should consider. One of these is the conduct of each of the parties, if the court considers it would be unfair to disregard it.

Case law has established that conduct must be “gross and obvious” and have a financial consequence, in order to be considered by the court. Whether a serious crime might meet the threshold to be taken into account by the court when it makes its financial orders will depend on the facts of the particular case. The family court may either make its own finding of fact about alleged conduct prior to any conviction or consider any relevant conviction as evidence of “conduct”.

The Government is considering the protections offered by this legislation to vulnerable spouses, including victims of crime. On 5 June it published its consultation, “A Fairer End to Relationships”. This proposes reforming the law of financial remedies on divorce and asks a range of questions about how misconduct should be taken into account in financial proceedings. The consultation closes on 14 August and is available here: A fairer end to relationships - GOV.UK