Maintenance Matters: A Guide to Periodical Payments on Divorce and Dissolution of Civil Partnership

Periodical payments orders occupy that invidious position between, on the one hand, the endemic inequality of wealth so often revealed upon a family's separation and, on the other, the `clean-break' rhetoric of equality and self-sufficiency. This new book provides an accessible, readable and practice-orientated guide to the origins, development, calculation and variation of periodical payments orders in financial remedy proceedings (both upon divorce and dissolution of civil partnerships). The text considers the procedural, statutory and case-law context in which substantive, nominal, secured and unsecured orders for periodical payments are made, quantified, varied, subjected to capitalisation, terminated and enforced. It provides assistance on dealing with clean-break, [non]-extendable term and pension-related orders and tackles complex and related issues such as the impact of cohabitation, remarriage and bankruptcy and the use of Duxbury calculations. The Guide provides analysis of, and commentary on, case authorities and, wherever possible, draws together consistent threads of judicial opinion and guidance. Each chapter also provides a summary of the main points of relevant practice and theory to offer a user-friendly manual for any reader interested in, advising on, pursuing or responding to a claim for a periodical payments order at any stage before or after the instigation of legal proceedings. MAINTENANCE MATTERS: The Guide to Periodical Payments upon Divorce and Dissolution of Civil Partnerships is an invaluable guide for the practitioner at court or in the office. It is essential reading for solicitors, barristers, mediators, accountants, self-represented litigants and financial advisors alike.

How to use The Guide The historical perspective: maintenance, alimony and periodical payments from medieval England to modern-day proposals for reform A synopsis: the orders and issues Failure to provide reasonable maintenance Maintenance pending suit Maintenance pending suit, costs allowances and orders for payment in respect of legal services Needs, budgets and expenditure: exaggeration and broad-brushes versus evidence and realism The basics of periodical payments orders: absolutes, game rules and forms The quantification of orders for periodical payments Bonus payments and periodical payments Terminating financial dependency: the immediate and deferred clean break and [non]-extendable term orders Orders for nominal periodical payments: justification and transmutability Bankruptcy and periodical payments The impact of remarriage and cohabitation on orders for periodical payments Duxbury calculations: the fable of the `tool' and the `paradox' Orders to provide security for periodical payments Variation, discharge, suspension and revival : quantum and term Capitalisation upon an application to vary a periodical payments order Pension orders and periodical payments: attachment, sharing and interaction Periodical payments for the benefit of a child: school fees, disability expenses, top-up assessments and written agreements Maintenance agreements and MCA 1973, ss 34-35 Enforcement of maintenance orders and arrears within England & Wales Appendix