The Times was not alone in suggesting that divorce Courts in the south of England seem to favour wives more than Courts in the north of the country.
By "favour" I think they mean give bigger awards when dealing with a financial settlement after a divorce, which is often referred to as a divorce settlement.
Do they favour wives in the south? Let's have a look at the views.
Many men would say that divorce Courts favour wives in every part of the country! But I do not think they do. And I think it is wholly wrong to suggest that wives are favoured in divorce settlements in any part of the country, at least intentionally.
Because the person who has most of the finances in their name normally ends up paying to the other person more than they feel they should, they feel the other person is favoured. The person with most of the finances is normally the husband, even these days! So, I do not think it is a gender issue at all just an issue of needs, the distribution of wealth and housing costs in various parts of the country that has an effect.
I suppose that divorce lawyers and Judges who only work in one part of the country might get dangerously used to the type of housing and finances normally found in that area and lawyers must work hard to avoid that problem.
I asked our team of divorce solicitors about this and I am told that they all regularly deal with cases in all parts of the country ranging from people struggling to "make ends meet" to cases involving many millions. We do not detect any regional bias.
Andrew Woolley
Divorce Solicitor