Divorced in Scotland, now in England

My wife and her ex separated (7 years ago) and divorced (4 years ago) in Scotland. They entered into a Minute of Agreement regarding contact and maintenance of their 3 children who are resident with us. Four years ago we moved to England and 3 years ago he started working as an expat (now living in the US). Last year he went to the County Court (in England) to vary contact arrangements and was given a court order which supersedes the Minute of Agreement. My wife has begun an action to review maintenance and for Ancillary Relief and his legal team have disclosed (apparently accidentally) that he now earns 4 1/2 time what he earned at the last review. His legal team are now claiming that the English County Court has no jurisdiction over a Minute of Agreement and my wife should go to the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

So, the questions are :

Can an English court override a Minute of Agreement (and surely this would then nullify his existing contact order)?

My wife is bringing the case herself (we can't afford to pay a solicitor and don't qualify for Legal Aid), where can we find precedent that might support her case?

Given that the maintenance rules are the same in both jurisdictions, isn't this just a matter of convenience (forum non conveniens) and so his argument is irrelevant?

No.

Proceedings about childnre follow the childnre around, and the correct court is normally that of the jurisdiction where the childnre live, and the specific court closest to them. If the childnre had, by the time he made his application, become habitually resident in England then the county court was the correct forum, and in any event, had your wife wished to raise objections to jurisdiction she would haev neded to do so at the start of those proceedings.


Divorce law is slightly different in England and in Scotland and it sounds as though your wife is seeking to enforce or vary and order made in Scotland. It may well be that the scottish court is the more appropriate forum. I would suggst that she contact the solicitor who acted for her in Scotland for some initial advice, and they are liky to have come across similar issues in the past.

Thanks, TBagpuss. The maintenance and Ancillary Relief is for the children, not my wife - I wasn't clear enough in my original post, so it's not the divorce that's being revisited, just child maintenance.

From your post, though it is clear that the court should be the one here, in England, which is as we suspected. We just have to provide the case law to demonstrate it!