We acted for A, an individual with British citizenship who had moved with his family to The Caribbean and had been resident there for several years. He and his wife had assets in both The Caribbean and England, and his wife was the beneficiary of a large dynastic family trust based in England, with English trustees.
We were first contacted by A’s Caribbean lawyer with a view to providing advice as to jurisdiction considerations relevant to his divorce. His marriage had broken down, and he had concluded that divorce was appropriate, but he was unsure whether it was best for him to proceed in England or The Caribbean. The advice became urgent when A established that his wife may also be taking advice as to issuing divorce proceedings. We quickly established that the outcome for A was likely to be far more preferable in the English courts than it would be in the Caribbean court, in particular owing to the English courts’ approach to disclosure considerations and trust assets. We therefore urgently issued a divorce application on A’s behalf. We liaised with A’s Caribbean lawyer to arrange service of the divorce application on A’s wife. The English divorce was processed prior to A’s wife having made any application of her own in either country, and as such, she agreed to accept the jurisdiction of the English courts, rather than to seek to pursue an overseas divorce and engage in an expensive and time-consuming jurisdiction dispute.
We issued a financial application in the English courts so as to put a financial timetable in place, taking into account A’s priority which was to finalise matters between him and his wife as soon as possible. With that in mind, we also arranged negotiation meetings with his wife’s English solicitors, and we liaised with A’s Caribbean lawyer to ensure that any settlement reached would work in both jurisdictions, including dealing with potential tax consequences and taking advice from accountants as to the position in both jurisdictions.
We were ultimately able to reach a negotiated financial settlement for A without the need for attendance at any court hearings. A’s financial settlement included provision for the sale and division of the sale proceeds of a property in The Caribbean as well as the payment of a significant lump sum to him. Again, we liaised with A’s Caribbean lawyer to ensure that the terms of the final order were enforceable in both jurisdictions, so as to provide him with maximum protection. We also liaised with the foreign lawyer to address considerations regarding his children, who were resident in The Caribbean, meaning that any issues regarding the child arrangements would be dealt with by the court in that jurisdiction. We incorporated helpful provisions within the English court documents to seek to protect A’s position regarding the children in the event that foreign proceedings were issued in due course.
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