…please just draw up the paperwork!

This is rarely appropriate.  Couples often agree on financial arrangements without realising that what they’ve agreed is not satisfactory and is nowhere near what the court would order if it was left to the court to make the decision.  Often both spouses have quite innocently and understandably made assumptions, for example that the assets should be divided equally.  There are many situations in which the assets are not divided equally.

More sinister is the situation in which the husband (let us say) has taken advice from a solicitor and knows that he would get a lot less than half but keeps quiet about it and lets his wife go on assuming that there will be an equal division – which may mean selling the house when actually the wife would normally get to keep it, at least until the children have grown up.

A good family law solicitor will insist on full financial disclosure being exchanged and then advise his client on the best settlement they should be trying to achieve.  A lazy family law solicitor will say “OK, send me the papers and I’ll draw up the agreement”.  Your financial future is at stake.  Which type of solicitor should you go to…..?