In what is believed to be the biggest divorce award in an Irish court, a woman has been awarded £5 million by the High Court as part of a divorce settlement. The judgment, by Mr Justice Lavan, has not yet been published.
The case concerns a man with considerable assets. The wife also worked and the couple have children still in need of support.
The award followed a divorce case that concluded some weeks ago. It represents about a third of the husband's assets after tax. Although this is the biggest such award, it follows a number of other seven-figure awards in "big money" divorce cases, and will form part of the emerging Irish law in this area.
The case is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court and, if so, will give this court the opportunity to lay down guidelines for future divorces where family assets far exceed what is necessary for both parties to maintain a comfortable standard of living.
These issues have been teased out in the English courts for some time, where there has been a shift in emphasis towards a more equal division of assets.
Since divorce legislation came into force in Ireland five years ago, only a handful of cases involving millions of pounds have gone to judgment by the courts, although more are likely to have been settled out of court.
One of the first cases was the McA case, where the total assets were around £10 million and the wife was awarded between £2.5 million and £3 million, including maintenance and pension provision. In a case earlier this year, MK v SK, the wife was awarded a lump sum of £1.5 million and 50 per cent of her husband's income. However, this was successfully appealed to the Supreme Court and has now gone back to the High Court for rehearing.
These cases differ from most family law cases in that issues that arise more commonly in company law, such as the discovery of assets and the calculation of their future value, feature largely.
Barristers in such cases do not usually specialise in family law, but come from substantial commercial law practices, the most expensive end of the profession.