Divorce - Financial Remedy Order

[Kerryive]

Hello, I have just been told that my partner should do a clean break when applying for his divorce. We have sent in the petition but not had the acknowledgement of service back yet. I want to do this but firstly can we apply for this ourselves or do we need to get a solicitor involved? I myself have already been divorced so have my consent order and forms to go by and my friend is also a paralegal and said she will help. When can he apply for the financial remedy when the decree nisi comes back? Would it be too late by time he has the absolute? Also we had to apply to Bury St Edmunds Divorce Centre do we send all the forms back to them for the financial order too or do we sent that to our local court? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Firstly, a consent order can only come about if there is an agreement between your partner and the other party in respect of the matrimonial finances .

Your partner will need to have a family law solicitor draw up the consent order - a consent order is a legally binding order that is enforceable should one party breach any of the terms/clauses. Please do not attempt to do this yourself, either by using your own CO as a template or by using a paralegal. A court won't accept a "DIY" consent order. You can get a fixed fee solicitor drafted consent order from Wikivorce from just £159, so it doesn't need to cost £thousands. There is a free helpline number on their website. By using either an online service (make sure that the provider uses solicitors btw, cos not all of them do!) or a local solicitor, they will take care of submitting it to the other side for them to sign and then submitting it to court.

The consent order can't be submitted to court until after the Decree Nisi has been pronounced, so if there's an agreement between the parties, no is as good a time as any to start sorting out the consent order being drawn up.

It wouldn't be too late to get a consent order after the Absolute, but generally it is best to get the CO before applying for the Absolute (or both at the same time if there is a desperate need for the absolute).