Divorce and Money

If you are divorcing, you will need to deal with your finances. It is essential to have a binding court order in place, even if you are able to come to an agreement over how the money will be dealt between both parties.

Divorce alone does not end your financial obligations to each other. Without a court order, it would be open to your former spouse to come back to you to make a claim long into the future.

We work with clients to put the right financial settlement in place, giving them the security they need for the future. We have a high level of experience in dealing with assets on divorce, including in complex or high-value cases.

We always try to resolve matters by negotiation and agreement wherever possible, avoiding the need for litigation. The Head of our Family Team is a collaboratively trained lawyer with substantial expertise in helping clients deal with matters amicably. This is faster and more cost-effective than court and can also help prevent conflict.

Services

• Advice on divorce and separation, including international divorce
• Advice on finances in divorce, including overseas assets
• Applying for divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership
• Drafting a consent order to be sealed by the court
• Financial disclosure
• Guidance through mediation or other financial dispute resolution such as collaborative law to try and reach an agreement
• Jurisdictional disputes
• Negotiating a divorce financial settlement
• Responding to a divorce petition
• Application to the court for financial orders, including:
  • Lump sum order
  • Maintenance order
  • Pension sharing orders
  • Property adjustment order

Divorce

If you have been married for a year or more it is open to you to start divorce proceedings by applying to the court. You simply need to state within your application that your relationship has irretrievably broken down.

There is no requirement to give any reason for this anymore and there are not generally any grounds on which a divorce application can be contested.

You will need to wait for a twenty-week cooling-off period before the court will issue a conditional order for divorce. Six weeks after this, you can apply for a final order, meaning your marriage will formally be ended.

Before you apply for a divorce you are usually advised to deal with other issues such as property, finances and arrangements for children, if you have any.

Financial order

A financial order will set out how your assets will be dealt with on your divorce. If the court is asked to decide, it will try to divide everything fairly between you and your former partner. Points it will consider include:

• The financial resources available, to include property, income and earning capacity
• Both of your financial needs, obligations and responsibilities, both now and in the future
• The standard of living you enjoyed during the marriage
• Your ages
• Any disabilities
• Contributions made by you each during the marriage