Last updated on March 7th, 2017 at 11:56 am

Gohil v Gohil

Mrs Gohil was originally awarded £270,000 and a car in 2004. She made it clear that she thought that her ex-husband had not fully disclosed his wealth at the time, but was unable to prove it. After he was subsequently convicted of money laundering, Mrs Gohil was successful in having the original order set aside, but Mr Gohil appealed and the appeal was upheld by the Court of Appeal, which meant that the original settlement could not be re-visited. Mrs Gohil appealed to the Supreme Court.

Sharland v Sharland

In Mrs Sharland’s case, she accepted a lump sum of just over £10m.  At the time she believe it represented half of the value of her ex-husbands assets (primarily made up of about 2/3 of the value of his shares in a company called Appsense). She then found out that Mr Sharland was involved in negotiations to sell Appsense for substantially more than he had valued it when disclosing his assets. Mrs Sharland asked for the order to be set aside. The judge agreed that Mr Sharland had been dishonest, but by the time of the hearing, Appsense had not been sold, and a sale did not look likely. The judge declined to set the order aside saying he would not have made ‘substantially different’ order. The Court of Appeal agreed with the judge’s decision and Mrs Sharland took the case to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court unanimously allowed the womens’ appeals and both cases are now likely to return to the High Court.

Bradie Pell, family law solicitor

Early legal advice offers protection from misrepresentation of assets

Family law solicitor, Bradie Pell, says “Unfortunately it’s not unusual for ex-spouses to misrepresent their true value in a bid to reduce the settlement – perhaps because they don’t think that all of their assets should form part of the pot to be shared. Its therefore vital that proper legal advice is sought at an early stage so that lawyers who are experienced in dealing with financial settlements can help to ensure that the financial disclosure looks reasonable and fair. However, the Supreme Court’s ruling today could open the gates for those who already feel they have been cheated by their ex spouses who have not been honest about their assets.”

For advice and assistance on getting the financial settlement you deserve, contact our family law experts now. You can also read more about financial settlements here.