Spousal Maintenance Handbook

This is a well-timed contribution to essential family law texts, with spousal maintenance a hot topic at the moment. The Duxbury Working Party reported last November. Duxbury calculations have been a tool for the assessment of lump sums necessary to fairly provide for a clean break in a case where there would otherwise be spousal maintenance. After nearly 40 years of use, it was time to see if any adjustments were needed. Meanwhile, the Law Commission published a scoping report on financial remedies for divorce and dissolution.

The handbook considers quite complicated concepts and makes them easy to understand and apply in practice. Each chapter lists key points, cases, legislation and principles. Littered with procedural tips, this is an excellent know-how guide for the jobbing practitioner. As a query arises, it is easy to dip into the text to find the answer. 

Spousal maintenance tends to be the most controversial aspect of our work: should there be any and, if so, how much and for how long? This causes the most tension and disagreement between our clients. So, it is crucial that all practitioners have the utmost confidence when advising. This book gives them that certainty.

What I like best is that it is mostly written by practitioners who are under 35. That is no disrespect to the older practitioners’ contributions, of course, but it is refreshing to hear from the junior end of the profession. All are rising stars.

Praise must go to the editors (and contributors) Farhana Shahzady and Jack Rundall, who have brought this together so seamlessly. Farhana has the last word commenting on law reform and the negative impact of divorce on female finances.

Even the most seasoned of us (me included) will learn something new or see things slightly differently by reading this book.  

Jo O’Sullivan is an accredited mediator, solicitor neutral, author of (Almost) Anything But Family Court and founder of O’Sullivan Family Law

• Authors of the book: Farhana Shahzady (co-editor), Jack Rundall (co-editor), Mark Ablett, Liz Andrews, Lucy Andrews, Annabel Barrons, Kim Beatson, Katherine Dunseath, Gemma Garratt, Harriet Gibson, Beth Hibbert, Bindu Malkan, Andrew Newbury, Philip Perrins, Victoria Rylatt, Rosa Schofield, Sophie Shardlow, Heather Souter