Family law ;Ancillary relief: ;What is fair?By David Burrows, David Burrows, Bristol ;In the week that the New Statesman reported that the man does better out of divorce an article under the headline Divorce your husband and watch him get rich (30 October 2000 p8) the House of Lords handed down speeches which considered how to make the outcome of ancillary relief applications fair: White v White [2000] 3 WLR 1571. ;The first point to dispose of is: does White only apply to big-money cases? The assets in the case were over 4.5m. That is more money than most people have and certainly was more than the parties required for their reasonable needs. However, it seems clear form the speech of Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead that he intended that much of what he said would apply to all ancillary relief cases. ;Mr and Mrs White had farmed in partnership. At the time of their separation after a 33-year marriage (with two independent children) they were jointly worth around 4.6 million (including pension provision). This included a farm which the couple farmed in partnership worth around 3.5m. ;Mr White had a share in a farm owned separately from the partnership and worth around 1.25m. The Court of Appeal had awarded Mrs White 1.5m, around half the partnership property. Despite what it said about equal division, the House of Lords upheld this decision on the basis that it could not find a basis for interfering with the exercise of discretion of the court below. ; ; ;