Landing Lawyers Larry and Avon Successfully Represented British Client in Divorce Litigation in China, Securing Dismissal of Wife’s Counterclaim

Lawyers Larry Zhou and Avon Zhao from Landing (Shenzhen) Law Office received a consultation from a Dubai client. The client had registered his marriage with a Chinese woman in Yunnan, China, but the couple has been separated since 2013—with the client residing and working in Dubai on a long-term basis, while the wife has been living in Thailand permanently and only returning to her hometown in China occasionally with no fixed schedule. After years of separation, the client made the decision to divorce and put forward relevant claims to the wife.

Initially, the wife explicitly refused to agree to the divorce and demanded economic compensation from the client, intending to continue receiving spousal support through the marital relationship. Nevertheless, the two parties subsequently reached a consensus on the divorce matters and signed a divorce agreement.

Upon accepting the mandate, our lawyers first guided the client to complete the notarization and authentication procedures for the relevant documents at his place of residence in Dubai. Due to the lack of effective communication between the client and the wife over the years, all the mobile phone numbers previously provided by the wife had become invalid.

To confirm whether the wife has a habitual residence in China, thereby accurately determining the competent court for the case, promoting the Chinese court to accept the case in accordance with the law, and properly resolving the subsequent difficulty of serving legal documents, our lawyers simultaneously launched an investigation into key information such as the wife's residence and household registration place.

After the case was filed with the court, as anticipated, a problem arose where the court was unable to contact the wife, resulting in difficulties in serving the litigation documents. Our lawyers immediately took proactive steps to submit the relevant information about the wife in their possession to the court, and ultimately assisted the court in successfully serving the summons and other litigation documents to the wife through electronic service methods such as WeChat.

However, unexpected circumstances arose on the day of the trial:

1. Although the wife consented to the divorce in court, she denied having signed the divorce agreement and explicitly refused to recognize all the provisions regarding property division contained therein;

   
   

2. The wife alleged that the husband had committed faults during the duration of the marital relationship and accordingly claimed economic compensation.

   
   

In view of the fact that our lawyers had conducted in-depth communications with the client on multiple occasions in advance and had a thorough understanding of the key facts and disputed issues during the couple's marriage, even though the wife raised the aforementioned unfavorable claims against the client at short notice, our lawyers still achieved favorable results through professional operations such as targeted court responses and supplementary submission of key evidence. Ultimately, the court rendered a judgment in accordance with the law, granting the divorce and rejecting the wife's claim for economic compensation.

This case focused on core disputed issues including cross-border marriage, long-term separation, and divorce-related economic compensation. Leveraging their solid professional foundation in family law practice, extensive experience in handling cross-border cases, and proficient litigation skills, the lawyers of our firm successfully achieved the client's core litigation objectives and fully safeguarded his legitimate rights and interests.

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