Reasonable or not? Time for the Supreme Court to decide…

The Solicitors Journal reports this afternoon that the expected appeal has now been lodged in the Supreme Court on behalf of Mrs Tini Owens. Chairman of the FLBA and Counsel for the long-suffering Mrs Owens, Philip Marshall QC is now putting matters into the hands of the country’s highest court.

Widely covered by the media, this case has brought into sharp relief the anachronistic state of the current divorce law in this country. With a vast proportion of family lawyers, judiciary, legal academics and of course would-be divorcees alike calling for a move to no-fault divorce, this may finally be an opportunity, as Philip Marshall says “to review the old case law and find a workable solution which is both intellectually honest and better reflects modern thinking and social attitudes”.

One very definitely to watch…

Mrs Tini Owens has filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking to appeal a ruling that left her ‘trapped in a loveless marriage’.

Last month, Mrs Owens was refused a divorce from her husband by the Court of Appeal after failing to prove he had behaved in a manner that would render her living with him unreasonable in accordance with the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973.

The president of the family division, found that the judge at first instance, Judge Robin Tolson QC, had correctly applied the law. However, judges expressed their concern with the current law and absence of ‘no-fault’ divorce.

Munby P questioned whether parties should be able to dissolve a marriage without state intervention and said that the current procedures were ‘based on hypocrisy and lack of intellectual honesty’.