Obtain Financial Order

Step1:Apply For Ancillary Relief Step2:Financial Disclosure Step3:Negotiation Step4:Obtain Financial Order

Step 4

In over 90% of cases a deal is reached at or before the FDR and is written up as a Consent Order. A small minority of cases proceed to a final hearing where the court hears arguments from both sides before imposing a settlement in a Court Order.

Overview:

Cases conclude in one of two ways:

1. Through negotiation a deal is agreed.
The agreed terms need to be written up as a Consent Order. The Consent Order has to be approved by a court judge. The judge will agree the order if he considers it to be reasonably fair. They may propose some changes - for example they might insist on adding a nominal spousal maintenance clause in what was a clean break agreement to act as a safety net.

2. In the absence of a negotiated deal, the court has no option but to impose a deal.
Those cases where a deal cannot be negotiated proceed to a Final Hearing. This is a longer hearing (lasting 1 or more days) where the two sides present the arguments to the judge, and the judge, on the basis of these arguments and the law, makes a final decision on the case. The Final Hearing involves considerable costs if the two sides are legally represented by solicitors/barristers. As well as cost, a further disadvantage of this outcome is that the two parties do not have as much freedom to shape the agreement. They have to accept the judges ruling.

Process:

Consent Order

The process for achieving a consent order is as follows:

1) The parties need to reach agreement through some form of negotiation (see previous step).

2) This agreement then needs to be written up (by a legally trained person, so a solicitor or paralegal) as a Consent Order.

3) The two parties then review the written order and may ask for amendments/additional clauses. Once both sides are happy then the document can be signed.

4) The consent order is then submitted to the court for a judge to approve it.

5) As long as the judge is happy that the Consent Order represents a fair deal for both parties then it is approved and comes into effect.

Imposed Financial Order

1) At the end of a Final Hearing the judge drafts a financial order and reads out the order to the two parties.

2) Within a couple of days the order is written up by the court staff and a copy provided to each party.

3) It is common to include a clause that allows the parties to apply to the court for amendments to the timing and implementation of the order. For example the order lay stipulate that the family home is to be sold within 3 months, but the two parties may agree to extend this time limit.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Useful resources for this step:

Useful Links for Negotiation

Sample Of A Court Order

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