Guide to Getting a Financial Consent Order
In this blog, our London Family Law Solicitors explain the steps to getting an agreed financial consent order.
If you need help negotiating a financial settlement or obtaining an agreed order, our Divorce Solicitors in London can assist you.
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Call the expert London Family Lawyers at OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or complete our online enquiry form.
Appointments are available for phone, Zoom or Skype consultations or at our offices in London.
Our lawyers speak Arabic, Armenian, Farsi, French/Mauritian Creole, Spanish, Tamil Tagalog/Ilonggo, Urdu/Punjabi.
The next steps after you reach a financial agreement with your ex
Anyone who reaches a financial agreement with their estranged or divorced ex needs a financial consent order. That’s the case whether you have negotiated your agreement directly with your spouse, through Family Law Solicitors, using family mediation or other means.
There are several steps in the financial consent order process:
- If you have negotiated the financial deal directly with your ex or through family mediation you should speak to a Divorce Solicitor to check that the agreement is fair to you and if the court can order what you have agreed
- Ask your Family Law Solicitors to prepare the draft financial consent order
- Your solicitors will review the draft order with you. Some of the clauses will be complicated and contain legalese. You will need to understand if you are getting a clean break or a deferred clean break order and what that means. Your Divorce Lawyers will explain anything you don’t understand and they will make any changes required
- Your Divorce Solicitor will send the draft financial consent order to your spouse or their lawyer and ask them to agree on the wording of the proposed order
- You will be asked to sign a financial statement of information prepared on your behalf to summarise your financial and personal situation. The judge must have this form from both you and your ex before the court will approve your agreed order
- Your Family Law Solicitors will review your ex’s financial statement and check the contents with you. For example, you may want to pull out of the agreement if you agreed to no spousal maintenance because your ex said they earned £50,000 a year but their financial statement says they earned £150,000 in the last 12 months
- Your spouse or their lawyer sends back the draft order with any suggested changes to the wording. Any amendments to the order are discussed with you and any changes are finalised
- The order is sent to any third party for agreement. For example, if there is an intervenor or if you have agreed to the making of a pension sharing order and the pension administrator needs to check the order
- The signed order, financial statement of information/s and court fee are sent to the family court and a judge is asked to approve the order
- The judge raises any queries about the order. This is normally done by letter or email from the court to the Family Law Solicitors. It is rare for a judge to ask for a court hearing
- Your Family Lawyer receives the sealed order from the court and sends a copy to you and any relevant people, such as a pension administrator or your Conveyancing Solicitor
- Your Divorce Solicitor works with you to implement the order. For example, you may have undertaken to close a joint bank account, resign from your employment with your spouse’s company, transfer the family home into your ex’s name or may need to set up a standing order to pay your monthly spousal maintenance
In some situations, these steps may vary slightly. For example, you may get the draft financial consent order from your spouse’s solicitors or the amendments to the order may be sent at the same time as the financial statement of information or the lawyers or court may say you need to file one statement of information rather than two containing your respective details.
Will the court make the financial consent order I have asked for?
It is hard for Family Lawyers to tell you that a judge will grant your order without any queries as some judges may ask questions about the fairness of the financial settlement or the wording of a specific clause and others won't.
If you have been married for 30 years and you are getting roughly half the disclosed assets the judge is likely to think that is fair but they may raise a query about the wording of the order as they may prefer a clause to be phrased differently. Every judge has their way of doing things so lawyers can't give 100% guarantees that orders will be granted without query. That’s partially because they can't ask for a specific judge (whose drafting preferences they know) to process all the financial consent orders they send to the court for approval.
There are times when a Divorce Lawyer can forewarn you that a court may question the order. For example, if based on the information in the financial statement of information/s, you are only getting 10% of the disclosed assets after a 30-year marriage. In those circumstances, the court should ask questions about the fairness of the financial settlement unless your lawyers explain how the agreement has been reached when asking the court to make the agreed financial consent order. For example, 10% is enough to rehouse you and meet your needs and your ex inherited most of their wealth after you separated from them or most of their money came from a personal injury settlement that your ex-spouse needs for their single-floor accommodation or to meet the costs of their disability.
Do I need a Family Lawyer to write my financial consent order for me?
It is best to get specialist family law legal advice on your proposed financial settlement and the wording of the order. That’s because the order is an important legal document that could protect the equity in any property bought by you in the future or your pension, potential inheritance or income from future claims for a pension sharing order or spousal maintenance. Don’t be swayed into thinking that because your pension isn’t worth a lot now or that as you are renting you don’t need a financial court order or that it isn’t worth taking specialist legal advice on the wording of it.
If you think about it, you would probably not attempt to buy a house and do the legal paperwork without the help of a Conveyancing Solicitor. Divorce proceedings and financial consent orders are no different. Your Divorce Lawyer will be looking to protect your interests now and, in the future, when you may have bought a house and paid years of contributions into your pension. That’s why negotiating a clean break and getting the right wording in your court order is so important.
Online and London Family Law Solicitors
Call the expert London Family Lawyers at OTS Solicitors for help with your financial settlement and court order. Call us on 0203 959 9123 or complete our online enquiry form.
Appointments are available for phone, Zoom or Skype consultations or at our offices in London.
Our lawyers speak Arabic, Armenian, Farsi, French/Mauritian Creole, Spanish, Tamil Tagalog/Ilonggo, Urdu/Punjabi.
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