The parties had fought and had decided their financial relief following the divorce. The revenue now applied for disclosure of the transcripts so as to settle a tax dispute with the husband.
Held: The application failed: ‘Paraphrasing the law is always risky but I think the effect of it can be shortly stated thus. As a general rule documents and other evidence produced in ancillary relief proceedings (now called financial remedy proceedings) are not disclosable to third parties outside the proceedings save that exceptionally and rarely and for very good reason they can be disclosed with the leave of the court. The fact that the evidence may be relevant or useful is not by itself a good enough reason to undermine the rule.
No one would seriously argue with the proposition that it is in the public interest for the right amount of tax to be paid by taxpayers. Further there is no doubt that the documents sought in this case would be relevant to the proceedings before the First Tier Tribunal Tax Chamber and, for obvious reasons might well be of assistance to them.’ No exceptional reasons applied here to justify a departure from that rule.
‘If, of course the husband himself wishes to rely upon documents/evidence he produced during the hearing in front of me he may have leave to do so but in that event all relevant material must be produced to the Tribunal not just highlights he selects which support his case.’
Judges:
Coleridge J
Citations:
[2012] EWHC 1448 (Fam), [2012] WLR(D) 165, [2012] 2 FLR 1119
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – V v W FC 2-Dec-2020
FDR Appointment Must Remain Confidential
XYZ had been appointed to value a family company within financial relief proceedings, but on seeking payment of their fees, and facing a counterclaim alleging negligence, they sought disclosure of the transcript of the Financial Dispute Resolution . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Family, Taxes Management, Litigation Practice
Updated: 08 May 2022; Ref: scu.460531