The breakdown of your marriage can leave you anxious and uncertain about the future; Where will you live? How will you pay the bills? What will happen when you want to retire?

Here are some important facts we feel you may need to know about:

• The reason for the breakdown of your marriage will usually not affect how financial matters are resolved. Therefore, if you divorce for a “fault” based reason of “adultery” or “unreasonable behaviour”, your spouse will not be penalised. This is because the “conduct” of one spouse will only be relevant in exceptional circumstances.
• The legal principles which apply when financial matters on divorce are resolved, are not straight forward. This is because all of the circumstances of your case must be taken into account and every family is different.
• The legal principles which will be applied by a judge in court include, identifying what is “matrimonial property”, and the starting point of “equality”.
• However, the best outcome is usually one which is resolved away from court, when you retain control over what happens and avoid high legal fees, rather than have a judge tell you what to do after a long legal process and an costly final hearing in court.
• Whilst some divorcing couples can calmly discuss future financial arrangements and reach an agreement between themselves, this is often easier said than done. However, even if you have a serious disagreement, there are still several options to try in order to avoid an expensive court battle, which include the Collaborative Family Law process and Family Mediation
• Non-legal help – when planning for your future, you might benefit from advice and guidance from other local professionals who are better trained and experienced to provide specialist financial or personal help than lawyers. See our useful links for more information.
• Financial Agreement – when an out of court agreement is reached, this should be recorded in a legally binding agreement. We can help you prepare the agreement and also take steps to ensure its smooth implementation, providing you with financial certainty and security for the future.

Contact the Family Team on 01202 875646 for a free telephone consultation about your circumstances and to ask any questions.