ANCILLARY RELIEF: Case 'updated attitude of courts' towards achieving a fair division of assets.

Law lords in landmark divorce ruling on relief to stave off financial inequality.

Family practitioners were this week coming to terms with what one solicitor called 'the most dramatic decision on ancillary relief to come out of the House of Lords in 30 years'.

In what solicitors have described as a landmark ruling, financial arrangements on divorce will, in future, start from the standpoint of creating a 'yardstick of equality of division' rather than traditionally looking at financial need.

In White v White, the couple divorced after more than 30 years of marriage, during which they worked in partnership running two farms.

In excess of what was deemed by the Court of Appeal to be her financial needs, Mrs White sought one of the farms upon divorce.

In his leading judgment, Lord Nicholls said that 'as a general guide', only 'good reason' would be sufficient for judges to depart from the concept of equality.

However, he pulled back from introducing any 'presumption of equal division'.

Lord Nicholls was critical of any approach to dividing assets which would allow discrimination to 'creep in by the back door'.

He said the 'mere absence' of financial need could not, by itself, be sufficient reason to leave one party, usually the husband, with the bulk of the assets.

He ruled that inherited money should be treated as any other asset in cases where financial needs could not otherwise be met.

David Hodson, chairman of the Solicitors Family Law Association's ancillary relief committee, queried how far the principle of equality would go in ancillary relief claims where smaller sums were in issue.

Peter Watson-Lee, chairman of the Law Society's family law committee, said 'need' may no longer be the determining factor, even in cases where finances were tight.

Ian Airey of London-based Payne Hicks Beach, which represented Mrs White, said the case helped in 'updating the attitude of the courts' towards a fair division of assets.Sue Allen