Nicholas Mostyn

Sir Nicholas Anthony Joseph Ghislain Mostyn (born 13 July 1957 in Lagos, Nigeria), styled The Hon. Mr Justice Mostyn, is a retired British High Court judge, assigned to the Family Division.

The son of a British American Tobacco executive from North Wales, Mostyn was born in Nigeria, and grew up there and in Venezuela and El Salvador.

After his parents divorced, he was educated at Ampleforth College alongside Edward Stourton where they won the Observer Mace debating prize.

He then studied law at the University of Bristol.

Mostyn was called to the bar in 1980, initially undertaking beginner’s family work such as County Court domestic violence cases.

The basis of the CSA is that child maintenance will be done by administrative assessment by a bureaucrat by reference to a formula – that was introduced in 1993.

It did not work!

They then had another act of Parliament to try and sort it out in 1995.

It did not work!

Labour came in, full of good intentions, 'We're going to sort this out, it's going to be brilliant'.

He took silk in 1997.

Mostyn became an assistant recorder in 1997, and both a recorder and a deputy High Court judge (in the Family Division) in 2000.

In 2000/01 he was on the losing side of the husband in the White v White case, where the judge ruled that "there should be no bias in favour of the money-earner and against the home-maker and the child-carer."

Mostyn was professionally successful in a number of notable cases including that of the wife of footballer Ray Parlour, and in the 1,000 day marriage case on behalf of the wife of a leading City of London fund manager where no children where involved.

Some journalists used the nickname "Mr Payout."

At the height of his earnings, he is said to have received £500 an hour, a high figure only in family work, where earnings do not match those in some other areas.

He was retained by Fiona Shackleton in Paul McCartney's divorce case against Heather Mills.

Like other barristers Mostyn undertook pro bono cases where he thought there was an important issue of law involved, such as issues arising from the functions of the Child Support Agency:

I think the performance of the CSA has been the greatest failure of public administration in the history of this country.

The figures are simply mind-boggling.

In its history, it has assessed about £8bn in child maintenance, and managed to collect about £4bn at a cost of £3bn.

You might as well just pay them out of taxes.

And the government's proposed reforms of the CSA are hopeless.

Act of Parliament in 2000 – total failure!

So if I was given a free bill in Parliament, it would be that.

Abolish the CSA.

He was appointed as a High Court judge on 20 April 2010, on the retirement of Mr Justice Bennett.

He was knighted on 11 May 2010.

In 2015, Mostyn was removed from a case after he failed to follow a relevant ruling of the Supreme Court concerning rights of disabled people (namely that they have the same right to “physical liberty” as non-disabled people).

This was the second such occurrence.

His last sitting was 28th July 2023 and he officially retired on 14th December 2023.

Mostyn labels himself "Catholic, Welsh and Wagnerian", enjoys smoking, hunting, windsurfing and skiing; and follows ("generally despairingly") Southampton F.C. and the England cricket team.

He has Parkinson's and is one of the founder members of the Movers and Shakers podcast.