Abu Dhabi residents' wealth leads to skyrocketing divorce settlements
Abu Dhabi: Home to some epic wealth, and increasingly, some epic divorce settlements.
An American woman, ending her UK marriage in Abu Dhabi Civil Family Court this month, was awarded more than 100 million dirhams ($27.2 million) in one of the largest such payments ever made to a female expat in the Gulf, The National reported.
Recent changes to the UAE's courts are bringing in the exes. Abu Dhabi Civil Family Court has handled more than 1,000 divorce cases involving expats since it opened less than five years ago. Non-Emirati lawyers are now allowed to represent clients, attracting a new crop of family law firms. Another draw: Divorces in Abu Dhabi take, on average, less than a month to be finalized. By comparison, such proceedings take at least six months in California.
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