Ayesha Vardag wrote for the Daily Telegraph criticising a judge’s decision to reduce the payment made to a divorcing woman because she was already in a new relationship. Ayesha lambasted the decision, saying that it “sent a ringing message: women should avoid dating before their divorce goes through, as any new man might be seen to offer them financial security. Essentially, a woman will be ’looked after’ by whichever man they’re in a relationship with.”
She went on to say “Mr Justice Mostyn has changed the whole basis upon which claiming wives are to be assessed. Now, according to this judgment, it’s going to be all about your prospects for finding someone else to pay your bills and house you. I don’t mean actually living with someone, or actually having any one contribute to you financially - that’s already taken into account in a needs award. It’s about your prospects alone.”
Ayesha criticised this decision for both its financial and emotional impact, launching a broadside on the judge’s decision, suggesting that the next step would be “The old common law rule that it’s not right to assess the attractiveness of a woman to determine her marriage prospects will have to go. Beautiful, charming women should get less from their ex-husbands because of their likelihood to be able to pick up another guy with a large cheque book. While ‘spinsters’ will get compensation in hard cash to spend, presumably, on knitting patterns and pedigree cats.”
She concluded that the decisions was “a return to Victorian times and it has no place in our modern justice system”.
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