Tracking the assets

“Tycoon who told his ex-wife she would end up stacking shelves is ordered to pay her £12.5 million”, read the Daily Mail headline last week.

The tycoon in question was Andrew John Williams, aged 56, an entrepreneur from South Wales. His wife Abigail Laura Williams, aged 59, was seeking financial provision from him at the end of their 30-year marriage.

But it was not an easy claim to decide, despite a four-day High Court hearing. In a 45-page judgment, Mr Justice Moor said he could not rely on a word Mr Williams had said in the witness box. “He can only be described as an extraordinary, completely unreliable, at times entertaining but, overall, entirely unsatisfactory witness,” the judge concluded.

David Lister with his client Abigail Williams outside the High Court

It’s unusual for cases like this to be reported. It’s even more unusual for one of the parties — in this case, Abigail Williams, to allow her solicitor to talk about the challenges involved in tracking down her husband’s assets. But David Lister, a highly experienced senior partner at the London law firm Vardags, agreed to be interviewed for my podcast A Lawyer Talks.

Although there was no suggestion of domestic abuse in this case, we also discussed the proposal I reported last week that courts might order higher payments from former partners who refuse to disclose their assets or otherwise fail to co-operate with the courts.