Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Open the editor’s digest for free
FT editor Rula Khalaf picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The wealthy are used to choosing private health care and private education, but now private divorce is an option.
Thanks to excruciating delays waiting for court appointments and unsolicited notices after they are found, couples in the UK are turning to private mediation in large numbers – in some cases in the hundreds of millions – to help them sort out the details of their divorce, lawyers say. Pounds at risk.
The process takes place in a private place and is more streamlined than a court, normally presided over by a senior lawyer or a retired judge. The result is binding.
“The court system is completely overburdened and more is coming,” said solicitor Rebecca Cockcroft of Fladgate.
According to the Institute of Family Law Arbitrators, there were 130 mediations involving financial settlements for divorce in 2023, up from 89 in mid-December 2024. Barrister James Roberts Casey, chairman of the Family Law Lawyers Association, has predicted that this number will increase from the current 1% of divorces to around 1% by April 2024 due to a change in the Courts Act, which means parties will have to try to reach a settlement. First out of court.
London has earned the reputation of the “divorce capital” of the world. The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, reached a 550 million pound settlement with Princess Haya bint Al Hussein at the High Court in 2018. They have gained a great reputation in the media and their lawyers.
The benefits of going private are attractive to anyone who can pay, but especially to the wealthy: speed, privacy and arbitrage choice.
Private client lawyers have been complaining about the current state of the court system. Lawyers say the number of days that High Court family judges sit before high-priced divorce cases has seen little change since 2011, but the amount of time allocated to resolving high-cost disputes has dropped.
“It’s a good four months if you put out a financial application. . . “For your first appointment,” Cockcroft said, then “a few months” for a hearing to negotiate a settlement and “a lot more” for the final hearing.
Lawyer Alexis Campbell Casey, head of the council unit at 29 Bedford Row, said divorce in court could take up to two years, but arbitration could take six months.
As well as the obvious emotional benefits of a quick resolution, it can also be done cheaply: although you’ll need to pay for mediation as well as your lawyers, Campbell estimates that a court divorce can “easily” cost £100,000-£100,000. 2 million By expediting the process, arbitration reduces the chances of legal letters, protracted disputes, and costly property appraisals.
A greater push for judicial transparency means that disputes over money and relationships in the family courts are now more accessible to the press and the public – the kind of attention most wealthy families prefer to avoid.
“Ninety-nine percent of my clients don’t want to think that anyone can walk in and hear what’s going on in their divorce,” says attorney Jane Kerr, a partner at Kingsley Napley. “(Arbitration) is completely private and no one can enter unless invited.”
Although the choice of the arbitrator must be agreed upon by both parties, many affluent couples may fear that their spouse has chosen what is in their best interests. Adoption of arbitration has been slower than some expected, Keir said, perhaps in part because it lacks the glamor of the court system. It is also an unknown option.
Campbell, who serves as a judge and arbitrator, said the workload was much less on the latter than on the former. But according to Arbiter, “They gave me my full attention. . . It is an immeasurably improved system.
The government has been encouraging forms of “out-of-court dispute resolution” such as arbitration to ease the burden on the court system.
The UK Ministry of Justice has said the government wants to promote arbitration to “save people and businesses the time, cost and stress of court battles”.
