All Change For Maintenance
Whilst it’s accepted that Spousal Maintenance can and often is essential if one spouse turns off the tap inexplicably the much wider question of long term maintenance is back in focus again.
A husband who had prepared an original settlement back in 2002 is now going back to the Supreme Court to fight a Court of Appeal decision that he should have to have the original deal reopened and pay his wife more money because she had effectively wasted a great deal of her original lump sum from 15 years ago.
The matter is likely to be heard in 2018 so it is worth following that in order to see what happens.
In an age of increased calls for independence it seems strange that it is seriously being advocated by the Court of Appeal that a Maintenance Order first approved in 2002 should be extended not just for a term of years but for life! That does seem rather strange. So too does the question of revisiting a settlement which was supposed to be an end of the matter in 2002. Obviously whilst there are arguments both ways it remains to be seen how the matter will be resolved once it reaches the highest British Court.
