What is the court's approach when making spousal maintenance?

Hegarty's new Family Law Solicitor Pavinder Khela looks at spousal maintenance. 

Q. I read about a recent case where a former model won a large maintenance sum after divorce. What is the court’s approach when making spousal maintenance orders? A: Juffali v Juffali is the case you refer to, where a former model was awarded £53.3 million for housing and capitalised maintenance based on her current and future needs. During their marriage they enjoyed an extremely lavish lifestyle, the Husband later divorced his Wife under Islamic Law without her knowledge and went on to remarry. Whilst the Judge decided the wife’s initial budget to be inflated and unnecessary in meeting her reasonable needs of ‘£1m a year for clothes, £40,000 for fur coats, £109,000 for haute couture dresses and £21,000 for shoes,’ the maintenance sum awarded enabled a transition from the marital standard of living to the Applicant wife being self-sufficient, which is the current approach taken by the courts when considering spousal maintenance applications. Pavinder Khela is an established Family Solicitor and an expert in all aspects of Family Law. If you would like advice on any aspect of divorce or spousal maintenance please contact Pavinder on 01780 750 956 or by email at pavinder.khela@hegarty.co.uk. 

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