James quoted in both The Financial Times and The Times, February 2014

With the forthcoming Law Commission report, due 27th February, expected to make proposals to limit lifetime maintenance payments, James Pirrie was quoted by The Financial Times in its article of 9th February “Law Commission report likely to endorse prenuptial agreements”.

In noting that there was already a regional variation in maintenance with some courts outside London, such as Manchester, giving more time-limited orders, James said: “There has been an expectation that women are able to move more quickly towards financial independence”. He cautioned, however, that even if attempts were made to limit maintenance, it would be very difficult for men with existing maintenance orders to apply back to the courts to vary them.

In an article which appeared in The Times on 17th February “Privatised divorces promise to be quick, cheap and legally watertight” the decision of S v S was examined, a ruling on an arbitration case in which James Pirrie acted for one of the parties. James was quoted by The Times as saying: “Anyone involved in family law should welcome this judgment, which highlights the many advantages of arbitration and builds confidence that an arbitrator’s award will help in resolving a dispute. In this case (S v S) the matter was resolved within eight weeks from the signing of the agreement to arbitrate to the issue of the award, anonymity has been retained, and the costs to both parties are a fraction of what they might otherwise have been”. He went on to say that the proposed rules could mean that cases are “fast-tracked” in future.