A Crackdown on the way for ‘Can’t pay, Won’t Pay’ in Divorce
Are the government about to reform enforcement measures for family financial orders?
The Law Commission has previously published a report recommending various proposals aimed at making it easier to enforce family financial orders. The summary of the Law Commission report can be found here.
The aim of the recommendations is to make the enforcement of family financial Orders more effective, more accessible and fairer. The report highlights that enforcement measures are an important of law but are often somewhat overlooked.
It has been estimated that approximately £15-£20 million of payments that have been ordered by the Court currently remains unpaid. Non-compliance with Orders can cause significant difficulties for the person that is owed the money. The Law Commission’s proposals are primarily aimed at those who can pay, but choose not to do so by making it harder to avoid compliance.
The Justice Minister Lucy Frazer has now recently written to the Law Commission to confirm that the government shares the Law Commission’s concerns about the current enforcement system for family financial orders addressing that more should be done. She has also requested that officials should work with the senior family judiciary, Family Procedure Rule Committee and HM Courts & Tribunals Service for a more ‘clear and comprehensive procedural framework for enforcement which is easier for litigants in person and practitioners to navigate’ by considering changes to court rules. This would appear to be a positive step for reform of this area of law.
Although this is definitely a step in the right direction, the demands on parliamentary time and issue of complexity of this area of law remain and we are left wondering when and how any reforms will be put in place.
An area of the recommendations made by the Law Commission that we feel that would most likely assist with enforcement of Order is the suggested introduction of what the Law Commission refer to as “coercive orders” i.e. orders designed to apply pressure to make a payment. This would require a change in the law but the suggestion made is that the Courts should be able to disqualify a non-payer from driving or prevent them travelling outside of the country until they pay up what has been ordered. If this was introduced we feel that it would have a significant impact on parties who can pay but choose not to so.
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Family Law
PLancaster@LawBlacks.com
0113 227 9285
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Paul Lancaster
