It has recently been reported in the Daily Mail that the actress Parminder Nagra, known for her roles in the American hospital drama series ER and Bend it Like Beckham, is now faced with bitter Divorce proceedings from her estranged husband and photographer, James Stenson. As it can be seen from the article, Parminder has been accused of hiding assets, which can be a common allegation in Divorce and Financial Proceedings. In cases I have dealt with, such allegations have been made mostly by the wife as the husband has been the main breadwinner and the wife has not usually ever been involved with the finances within the marriage. There is however an on-going duty to the court to provide full and frank financial disclosure which forms part of good conduct during the course of the proceedings. If a party swears on oath that they do not have certain bank accounts or savings policies but then later in the proceedings it comes to light that they do, then they could be held in contempt of court. The article also goes on to say that the couple were only married for 3 years and there are no Children of the marriage. When dividing the matrimonial assets, the court in this instance would say this is a short marriage and so case law states that the parties should be put back into the position they were in prior to the marriage. Therefore if one party had significant assets prior to the marriage then there could be an argument that they should not be included in the overall settlement and that only that which has accumulated during the marriage should be divided. However, the article also says that they were partners for 6 years prior to the marriage. Therefore if they were Cohabiting and almost living as a married couple during those years and sharing their finances, then the court could actually take into consideration those pre-marital years in the overall financial settlement bringing the total number of years to 9 and so the case law as previously stated would fall away. It would be interesting to see how the courts in England and Wales would approach this case and what the outcome would be.
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