Advice please: friend wants to divorce british husband based in Arab Emirates

[finecheese]

Hi there,
I don't come on here very often but I just thought somebody may be able to help me. A friend has lived with her british husband in Abu Dhabi for the past 3 years. He works for an Arabic company. She has decided to file for divorce since she found out about an affair he's been having for the past 6 months.
To what extent would he be protected by Arabic law? (which I imagine doesn't work in women's favour), and if this means that she leaves the marriage with very little, is there anything she can do to get round this?
Thankyou very much for any light you can shed on this.

You are correct, her interests are unlikely to well served divorcing over there. As long as she is domiciled in the UK your friend can apply to divorce here. IF she was born here and hasn't indicated she won't be returning (sorry, double negative) then she will still have domiciliary status here.

She would be well advised to seek legal advice from a solicitor who is experienced in dealing with ex pat divorces because there are special rules regarding serving papers abroad. It's first past the post as to which country's courts will have jurisdiction.

I'd echo what STIDW says. She can file over here on the basis that both of them are domiciled, though not habitually resident, in England and Wales. The English court has jurisdiction therefore to process the petition and any financial proceedings, although it would be sensible for both of them to get English lawyers to try to negotiate a settlement here.

Are their assets mainly in England? If substantial assets in AE then they will need advice from foreign lawyers as well.

Either or both of them should appoint specialist family lawyers by looking at www.resolution.org.uk. I think there's a section there for specialists with extra knowledge of foreign law.

Agree also that service can be a problem. I've literally had to serve papers without any proper address rather than third coconut tree after the crossroads sort of thing, in Malawi.

Thanks so much for your reply. In fact she has come back to the UK already and is going to try and divorce him here which as you point out seems to be the best way forward for her. I will pass on your advice re. the specialist solicitor. Thanks again.

Or if your friend happens to domiciled in Scotland rather than England she can find a specialist lawyer through the Law Society of Scotland or the Scottish Family Law Association ;)

Alternatively the publishing firm, Chambers, has an independent guide to lawyers.