Jessica May

Successful representation for the client in complex divorce and financial proceedings

The client’s husband had left the family home in August 2016 to cohabit with his former childhood sweetheart. The parties had attended Mediation in May 2017 and reached agreement on terms of settlement. However in the course of divorce settlement proceedings, the client’s husband sought to claim a greater share of the equity in the family home on the basis that the client could rehouse herself and the child of the family with income that she held for her mother – effectively, the latter’s life savings for funding her care and maintenance in retirement. Peters May built a strong and detailed case to rebut the husband’s claim, built on contemporaneous evidence between the client and her mother to establish that the funds were beneficially owned by the client’s mother and as such, the client was unable to rely on these funds in order to meet her rehousing needs. The case was dropped by the client’s husband and a consent order was agreed. Once that issue had been clarified, the parties reached a settlement in their divorce, which resulted in the client receiving 100% of the house and a global maintenance order until the child of the family finished secondary education.