Setting aside consent order

S v S (FD NLJ 15 March)

In September 2000 a consent order was made in respect of the wife’s claim for ancillary relief under which, in exchange for a clean break, she received the former matrimonial home free of mortgage and a lump sum. A month later, the House of Lords delivered speeches in White v White [2001] 1 All ER 1 effecting a major change in the law relating to ancillary relief applications in big money claims, such as the present one, under which the wife would have been very likely to have received more capital after a long marriage than she had under the consent order. The wife applied to set the order aside.