In a pretty bad day at the office for most of the family lawyers involved, His Honour Judge Hess made it crystal clear in the robust judgment he delivered last week in the case of T v T that much of the litigation was fuelled by a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of a final salary pension scheme, and worse, by a fundamental misunderstanding of the applicable law .

Having been actively involved in the preparation of the weighty Pensions Advisory Group Report, His Honour Judge Hess was particularly well placed to hear this case, and to address the issues that led to such significant legal bills for the parties. 

There will sadly always be cases where parties are given advice and will litigate anyway.  In this case, advice was either wrong or based on out of date information.  It underlines the perils of 'nihilistic' litigation (a term coined by another family judge in the last few weeks).  

In this case, dialogue and a more constructive approach could surely have saved this couple years of litigation and hundreds of thousand of pounds of legal fees.  It also serves as a useful reminder of the importance of consulting a financial adviser in these cases to make sure that both the legal and financial planning aspects of pension sharing are properly covered off.