High Court judge 'dismisses overseas divorce claim'

04 June 2010



A High Court judge had ruled that a couple will not be able to pursue divorce proceedings in the UK on the basis that neither of them has citizenship in the country. An American woman had attempted to divorce her husband in London, despite neither of them currently living in the city, the Times reports.

Lucy Theis QC ruled that the city where the couple reside would be the more appropriate place to carry out the divorce. "Having considered the competing considerations as to which forum is more appropriate, I have come to the very clear decision that it is New York," she is reported as saying.

This has come as a relief to many family lawyers, the paper claimed, as the UK was fast becoming known as the "divorce capital of the world". Neither party had any intention of returning to England once the divorce settlement had been reached, the judge stated, while it would prove a logistical nightmare for the lawyers involved.

Petrova Caldecourt, associate in the family law team, comments: "With the growth of opportunities for people to move to other jurisdictions for both work and personal reasons, this makes it more likely that people will seek to instigate divorce proceedings in the jurisdiction most favourable to them. It is therefore important that individuals are not able to exploit these opportunities and proceedings are commenced in the appropriate jurisdiction.

"If this couple had been given the opportunity to divorce here, the decision would have had the potential to open the floodgates for those not domiciled or habitually resident in England or Wales to use our legal system"

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Posted by Petrova Caldecourt

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