Following on from our article published in October last year on the topic of “pre-nups” and “post-nups” we thought that it would be useful to provide a brief update. The issue of the “pre-nup” between Mr and Mrs Crossley came before the Court of Appeal in December of last year. The parties had both been married previously, Mrs Crossley, three times and Mr Crossley once. The couple signed a “pre-nup” the crux of which provided that the parties should walk away from the marriage with whatever they brought into it. The marriage lasted all of 14 months before separation. We are still waiting for a full transcript of the judgement so we can’t report in detail until it is published.

However it would seem that the Court of Appeal using robust case management decided that the onus was upon Mrs Crossley to persuade the Court why the “pre-nup” should not, prima facie, be a binding agreement. This does appear therefore to accord with the developing view that, certainly in short marriages, “pre-nups” are gaining more evidential weight.

Posted: February 1st, 2008 under Private Client.
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