| Abstract: | Should domestic abuse, rightly condemned so often by the family courts, be a factor in the financial outcome on relationship breakdown? If so, how should it be taken into account? As a pure factor of economic loss? As part of either negative contribution by one or the greater positive contribution by the other? Only if exceptional violence? Or as part of society's condemnation of domestic abuse? What difference is there between abuse which has a direct financial impact, for example, on future earning or needs and abuse which has no obvious outward financial impact? If there were to be any compensatory element, how does this fit in with other quantum factors? This article looks at developments on this issue in a number of countries, to share lessons learned, consider some of the problems of introducing abuse as a quantum factor, and start to consider a jurisprudence on when it is and is not appropriate as a factor, with a view to encouraging a wider debate. |
