Funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the project addresses significant evidence-gaps regarding financial remedies law with the aim of informing future reform and policy developments.
The law governing this issue is 50 years old and was framed in a time when divorce was still largely based on ‘fault’, comparatively few mothers worked outside the home and child-care after divorce was rarely shared. Weekly or monthly ‘maintenance’ was seen as the main mechanism for supporting ex-wives and child support was an afterthought. Much has changed since then, both in society’s attitudes and the way families operate and there have been calls to reform the law to bring it up to date.
Around 100,000 couples divorce annually in England and Wales, and the financial arrangements they make can affect both their day-to-day income and the future financial stability of themselves and their children for many years to come.
There is little detailed information about the kinds of financial arrangements couples currently make when they divorce, or the relative effects of different arrangements. What is known from large-scale statistical surveys is that divorce and separation still have differential negative impacts on women and children compared to men and that resultant financial hardship and economic and housing insecurity are associated with poorer outcomes for children.
Fair Shares aims to fill this knowledge gap to help shape the law by researching the financial and property arrangements that divorcing couples make, how they come to these arrangements and how they cope with the post-divorce set-up. The research will provide essential data to inform current debates on how the law should be reformed, and will offer practical guidance to legal advisers, advice and support providers so that the financial needs of families can be better met in future.
The study will be led by Professor Emma Hitchings in partnership with Caroline Bryson and Dr Susan Purdon (Bryson Purdon Social Research LLP) and Professor Gillian Douglas (Professor Emerita at King’s College London).
Professor Emma Hitchings, Professor of Family Law at the University of Bristol Law School, said: “Divorce is a life-changing financial event for families. It has short and long-term financial consequences for the parties with respect to their income, property division and pensions. Although the larger money divorce cases which go through the courts generate a substantial amount of attention in the press, what happens in relation to the finances and property of the majority of the divorcing population is something that academics and policy-makers know very little about. This large-scale study of financial settlements on divorce aims to fill that gap and generate a picture of what happens across the divorcing population.”
Read more in the research team’s new Law School Legal Research Blog on the project and the evidence gap it seeks to bridge: ‘Fair Shares? Sorting out money and property on divorce – how do couples currently cope?’
Find out more about the project and researchers on our Fair Shares webpage.