In the absence of any children from a marriage, divorcing
couples are generally awarded roughly equal shares of the
matrimonial assets, subject to their needs. However, the courts
have recently ruled in a case where the wife argued that
"because this was a short marriage he (i.e. her husband)
should not get half of the matrimonial pot".
After a judge initially ruled that the husband was entitled to
half the matrimonial assets, having subtracted, in the wife's
favour, pre-acquired assets of £1.45m, the Court of Appeal
ruled that the original £2,725,000 award should be
reduced to £2 million.
This change to a previously "sacred" principle of
divorce law will almost certainly cause greater argument and
dispute between some divorcing couples and therefore increase their
legal costs. Mr and Mrs Sharp's marriage had lasted four years,
together with 18 months of cohabitation, during which time they had
no children and kept their finances separate, except for
