general financial settlement and consent order questions

[sallysm]

I have some questions about your experiences with divorce financial settlement and consent orders. I have read a lot online, from legal sites and mumsnet experiences, but its a minefield. So would value any input any of you might have on my questions below. Thanks in advance.

Firstly, if you want a financial consent order, but want to keep costs to an absolute minimum, and processing time speedy, and ensure a high chance the order will be accepted by court, then is the following a way to achieve this?

1. Agree together on what you feel is a fair split of assets (I think we can do this, neither can or wants to afford arguing)
2. Get a solicitor, acting for you both, to review the agreement (Q: Is a solicitor capable of recommending changes that they believe would make it fair by a court? Or does this need to be a 'barrister review' instead?)
3. Get a solicitor to draft the consent order (Q: Has anyone tried drafting one themselves?)
4. Submit consent order to court
5. Personally give any clarifications to court, if requested (Q: Does solicitor need to give the clarifications?)

Secondly, I'm confused what happens if court rejects the consent court order. Do they:

a) make recommendations about what they would consider fair, and ask you both if you'd be happy to change the agreement based on the recommendations given?
b) say which part they don't think is fair, but not make any recommendations, and leave it to you to resubmit a revision for consideration.
c) make and carry out their own recommendations without your permission, signing it off (scary!)

Thirdly, a few related questions:

i) Form E - does the court need this, or may they ask for it? Or is this just for a solicitor to look at?
ii) If you've been separated for say, 2 years, do/should parties account for what they've spent their personal savings on across the 2 years, or only account for activity within the 12 months leading up to completing Form E/financial agreement?
iii) Should each party detail their reasonable needs and living costs, or is this ONLY if you both agree that one should pay spousal maintenance? (ie, if SM is not part of the agreement, should these details still be mentioned somewhere)

Will try to answer as much as i can

1. it is always best to agree and what you feel is a fair split - this will then go on a consent order
2. you can either get a solicitor to act for you or do it online (if you agree then it is really straight forward and more cost effective, there are online websites that draft consent orders for you). You will not need a barrister unless you cannot agree then rather than a consent order you apply for ancillary relief where it will go to court and a decision is made for you both.
3. You cannot draft a consent order yourself - however you can either get a solicitor to do one for a fixed price or again if you agree get one online for cheaper with a clean break order
4. you will need to submit this to court with forms - there is a £50 fee (may have changed) along with the cost of the consent order (this may all be included as one cost depending who you use)
5. there are forms to fill out before you send the consent order - everything can be clarified here as to how you came to your decision - there is a section on the form that asks to breakdown your current wages, debts, assets such as cars and pensions, house etc. this will then give you both a total.

you need to send a couple of copies and keep a signed copy of the forms and consent order each.

the judge will then receive the consent order and either sign it off or reject it or ask for clarification.

a) if clarification is asked for they may just ask a question and you answer it or provide evidence then re-submit in which case it should then go through
b) if it is rejected i am unsure if they will make recommendations - i know they advise what they need if further clarification needed. It will be up to yourselves to come to a fair agreement or via a solicitor - if you are using one they will usually say whether they think the agreement will be accepted or rejected.
c) no it will always either be accepted, ask for further information or rejected. the only time it will get signed off as above is if it went to court and a decision needed to be made for you both - but this would require a hearing with you both present.

i) you don't necessarily need a form E - again this is dependant on how much assets there are and how everything is being split, a solicitor or court may ask for it, but if it is an open and shut split it isn't always needed.
ii) when you fill the forms it asks what current assets you have in savings, house, car, pension, wage and debts etc.
iii) this should be covered by the form a statement of information to a financial remedy - on this form it asks marriage dates, any children, how you reached your agreement, it asks any net income, child support etc - there is a notes section you can add any extra information. If someone is asking for SM this needs to be on the form and consent order as it needs to detail how much the SM will be and for how long.

I think only one of you can get your solicitor to draft the consent order up.
Then my advice is the other one gets a different solicitor for minimum time to talk though the implications at high level. Not into detail of whether it is fair , more about do you understand what you’re singing and do you think your and your partners assets on D81 are correct.
That way both parties can be shown to have taken independent legal advice and it will go through courts more easily.
Absolutely as Shibby says, you can get away with minimum possible time and expense by just getting solicitor to write up your version into legal language. We paid about £600 for it including the costs by solicitor to post it into the court web site correctly. Ex paid about £220 for his solicitor to review contents with him. You just need to be really really clear with solicitors about what you want them to do and no more.
When you set out n layman’s terms your consent order agreement, before you take to solicitor, you need to go through form E to make sure you list and value all assets. Then fill in D81 , this is needed by courts to review your consent order . The solicitor has to submit this with the legal wording drafted consent order which then gets sealed. There’s space in D81 to write in any explanations for things that might look a little odd in terms of what you’ve agreed. Also ensure you read through the criteria the courts would using to make a financial settlement if you had to go that way- there are about 10 criteria so make sure whatever you agree meets those criteria or explain why somewhere on D81
Make sure whoever raises the petition on line for divorce ticks the box to say you want the court to make a financial agreement- I found that confusing, as you don’t if you are going down cosentmorder route. But apparently it flags to the court early on that you’ll need a consent order sealed at the minimum.

The consent order Is only reviewed after the decree Nisi - courts won’t look at it till then, and is then sealed(approved and made legal) at decree final. If you’re going for quickie blame divorce they will turn it around really really quickly and you’ll get both documents at time you get decree final.
I’ve put links to some really good website on this board over last few weeks….adviCe now, mediate and start with the Gov.com site which actually takes you through process well and you can print out all forms you need and both look at them and draft down your answers ready for when you go on line .
Our total costs came in at just under £1800, I don’t think we could have done it cheaper. That included all court costs and all both our solicitors costs.
I’d avoid using solicitor to review your outline agreement UNLESS you aren’t sure whether what you are agreeing to is fair. It will start to rack up costs very quickly (£140+vat per hour) . Read . Read some more. Think about long term as well as short term e.g. pensions as well as immediate needs. But if any doubts whether it is fair then for goodness sake involve a solicitor. Not a barrister.
Can’t answer other questions as I petitioned divorce quickly on unreasonable behaviour ….from what I understand it is your financial position at seperation point but not sure if that is legal seperation or some other definition. You may need to pay 30 mins of solicitor time to answer these last 2 questions for you. Keep cost down by clearly stating your question. Don’t get caught into chatter and random questions/explanation. Time your calls to ensure you get charged just for the time you’ve used.

Thank you Shibby and May, I've read your detailed replies and really appreciate the time you took to write them. Lots of valuable insight there from you both. Much appreciated.

I'm slightly confused about timeliness of a decree nisi and consent order, on a divorce timeline. Is the following correct, if everything was going smoothly?

eg:

1 April - Apply for decree nisi

Mid April - Receive a pronouncement date (minimum 6 weeks + 1 day after you applied)

Mid to End May - Decree nisi issued.

Solicitor can now immediately submit request for consent order (If court thinks its fair, they can approve within 1 month (or 6?).)

...or is it the case that after applying for a decree nisi, it takes several months to get a pronouncement date, and the date will be 6 weeks after you get the letter? Totalling over 3 months from when you apply for the Nisi?

First one is correct but it depends on the workload of the court you are applying for. In our case at Bury it took 1 month for them to process and send it to the legal team and 1 to 2 months for them to send the letter. The letter to pronounce nisi was set for a couple weeks from receipt of letter. Obviously this could be much quicker depending on their workload, as soon as nisi is pronounced consent order can be filed so it will usually be signed and ready to go.

Thanks Shibby. And, if applicable - how long did your consent order take to be approved?

(and was this within the last year?)

I'm not the best person to ask if I'm honest. When we applied for ours it was the height of covid and the judges were working from home so only collecting every so often. The judge also sent it back asking something. So it took us 7 months, most normal ones won't take that long, it can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months usually, again it depends on the court, it took a month and a half to be queried if that helps. So had it been accepted a month and a half.

Thanks - that was still very helpful

My consent Order (approved last week) took 3 weeks to be sealed by the Court.

Thanks Twiddletoes, another point of reference. Useful to know. Sounds like things have speeded up a bit.

Consent order isn’t looked at until after decree nisi. It is normally submitted by solicitor you had draft it in the few days prior to the nisi hearing so court have all forms ready. Only Once nisi given the court will look at consent order, but they will probably only work on it a few days ahead of final. If you have submitted forms in good time there isn’t really a reason why court would not seal at same time as absolute. Eg 40 something days later. Ours was done at same time last year.
I guess delays will happen where court is not satisfied with the split and agreement and wants clarification or worse case asks for adjustments. But if you’ve done you’re homework and explained any abnormalities in terms of their fair split criteria it is less likely to be challenged and delayed. If your solicitor only submits just at time you apply for absolute then again it will probably be delayed. Get solicitor to draft and send in docs asap after nisi ready for the court to do the absolute

Thanks May, will do. Don't want there to be any unnecessary hold ups.

I did read somewhere that even a draft consent order ( ? ) is legally binding, but couldn't find much on that .

No a consent order is not legally binding until signed and stamped by the judge/courts.

Hi Ladies,

When is the earliest that Form A 'notification to proceed with financial order' can be submitted, after petitioning for divorce? Can it be submitted before Decree Nisi is granted?

Also, if you agree with your Ex, and just want a consent order, there is no need to involve anything with a MAIM assessment right?

And you don't need a 'first appointment' with the court if you're in agreement and applying for a consent order.

Thanks

@sallysm you submit as soon as nisi is announced, you can't submit before. If consent order you just cross out the miam section.

You need a consent order, form a and d81 I believe.

Thanks @Shibby585