Judge's despair at rise in divorce tourism

14 July 2010

A top judge has lambasted the "wasteful" use of the English family courts by foreign couples filing for divorce.

Lord Justice Thorpe hit out at a young Russian tycoon while granting his appeal in the Royal Courts of Justice yesterday.

“They embarked upon a crude race, pitting one jurisdiction against the other and avoiding any judicial appraisal of where the balance of fairness and convenience lay,” said Thorpe LJ of the couple battling it out in the Court of Appeal’s Golubovich v Golubovich [2010] EWCA Civ 180.

When the Kensington-based couple split, they each lodged separate divorce proceedings with courts in the two different countries.

Wife Elena, 26, hoped for a more lucrative settlement from the English courts than the Russian judgment which her wealthy husband Ilya, 24, sought.

“In these sagas it is commonly seen that one sharp manoeuvre provokes an even worse response,” said Thorpe LJ, adding: “I question whether there should not be a more stringent allocation of judicial time to cases such as this where the parties have slender connection with our jurisdiction and where the extent of their financial resources permits disproportionate demands on our family justice system.”

The “extraordinarily rich” husband had obtained two decrees in Moscow to end the marriage, the court heard. The first was rejected by London as a forgery and the second was dismissed as being too late.

But in yesterday’s unanimous Court of Appeal judgment, the decision was overturned in the husband’s favour and the second Russian divorce was deemed legitimate.

All three judges accepted that the couple were entitled to have their divorce settled in England but Thorpe LJ questioned whether the race between them to have it heard in the court of their preference was a drain on the legal system.

“The benefit of cross-border judicial collaboration in children’s cases is now universally recognised,” said Thorpe LJ. “There is every reason to extend this innovation into all areas of international family law.”