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miln@mmlaw.co.uk
I know, I know! I’ve said it over and over again – bring out the repetometer – but if you’re getting divorced you should always get full financial disclosure before negotiating a financial settlement. If you’ve got no money and I tell you I’ve got two £5 notes and I offer you one of them,
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Divorcing couples often assume that the house will have to be sold. They also often assume that the proceeds of sale will be divided equally. Neither is necessarily the case. If the house is not particularly large or expensive, and if there are children, there may not be a sale until the children have finished
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If you’re thinking of getting divorced, you’re told that mediation is a sensible, constructive and inexpensive alternative to a court battle. Who could possibly disagree with that? Nobody, of course. It’s just that the alternative to mediation is not a court battle. Most divorcing couples sort out their financial arrangements by direct discussion between themselves or by
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Wrong. When there is a divorce, most disputes about children or about money are settled by the couple talking to each other (which costs nothing) or by negotiating between solicitors (which costs money, but not usually a fortune). Only a tiny minority of problems are resolved by the couple fighting it out in court (which
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A conversation with friends over the Christmas break brought home to me the risks you take if you get divorced without taking specialist legal advice. Amongst other things, my friends and their child (the person getting divorced) were unaware of: the factors that have to be present before a financial agreement can be binding,
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When your solicitor says something like “if you take this to final hearing it is likely to cost you another £10,000”, he is talking about the total costs involved: his own costs and the costs involved in instructing a barrister. The figure includes all preparation work, correspondence, meetings, conferences and court attendances. Is this stating
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Some couples get divorced but don’t sort out financial and property matters straight away. In a few cases they leave it till several years later. There is no requirement to deal with financial and property matters at the time of the divorce – the only rule is that the court isn’t allowed to make a
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Don’t assume that your spouse will continue to offer something that they have included in their latest offer. Just because this latest offer includes, say, a clean break, it doesn’t mean that if you go back with a counter offer your spouse’s next offer after that will still include a clean break – it may
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“But we’re agreed on the divorce and the financial arrangements so we don’t need separate solicitors”. Yes, you do. If you are getting divorced there is an intrinsic conflict of interest and you each need to take advice separately. Sometimes what seems the obvious thing to do, for example sell the house and divide the
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If a spouse is receiving maintenance payments for herself (as opposed to for her children) those payments stop automatically if she remarries.