Bad Behaviour During a Marriage May Result in a Reduced Divorce Settlement

23 Mar 2026

The court has to have regard to a list of factors when determining a financial settlement on divorce. These are factors such as contributions, health issues and needs. The factor that has recently ranked lowest on the list is what is termed “conduct” by the court. This is usually only taken into account if it would be “inequitable” to disregard it. The advice has always been that the bar is very high and due to the costs of raising it people have naturally been wary of so doing. This has often resulted in people who have been subject to domestic abuse and coercive control not bringing it into the financial proceedings. There has been concern expressed by the judiciary that to focus overly on conduct would divert the courts focus from the assessment of finances. This approach ties in with the no fault divorce which drew away from allegations of who was to blame for the breakdown in the marriage.

However, there has been concern from within the profession that the move away from fault also drove a move away from considering conduct and its real impact. With the growth in understanding the impact of abuse including economic abuse, there may be a move away from this approach. There have been two recent cases where the judge cut a divorce pay-out for “deplorable” conduct by spouses.

In one case the wife homed in on a vulnerable man whose spouse was dying of cancer. She fed him lies as to the fact she was a judge and had high level friendships in the judiciary and political world. They then married and she subsequently subjected the husband to coercive controlling behaviour and verbal, emotional and physical abuse. Her claim was reduced by 40% due to her conduct. The judge said the statutory test that conduct must be such that it is inequitable to disregard simply meant “behaviour that should be taken into account if it was unfair to ignore it”.

In a separate case the same judge cut the husband’s award by more than £4 million as the judge found the husband had taken significant sums of money from the joint accounts that had been entirely funded by the wife and used them for personal items and for his business investments which he then tried to claim were his separate property and non-matrimonial. He also tried to cause distress to the wife by funding private enquiry agents in the hope she would drop her case.

This is a good thing for those affected and does reflect societal understanding as to the effect and impact of abuse, and paves the way for a new approach and a reinterpretation of the law which reflects societal changes over domestic abuse. It however must be treated with some caution as each judge has wide discretion and these cases involved very large matrimonial pots. In smaller value claims then needs will still be more likely to dominate the decision behind the awards made. It does leave uncertainty in what is a widely discretionary legal system which can be unpredictable. It is a complex area of law and if you are affected you should take specialist family law advice.

Please contact Head of Family and Partner Rebecca Silcock for any family law advice you may need using the details below.