How to Write a Consent Order for Divorce?

Our North West divorce solicitors write lots of financial consent orders. This blog explains why you need an order and how we write them.

If you would like our help in negotiating a financial settlement or writing an order then call us for a quote and to arrange a consultation.

For financial consent order advice call our team of specialist divorce lawyers or complete our online enquiry form.

Why you need a financial consent order 

Anyone who is getting divorced, or who got divorced without a financial court order, needs an order. 

That advice applies even if you:

• Don’t own a house
• Signed a prenup or postnup
• Parted amicably and you don’t think your ex would ever come after you for money 
• Split the house sale proceeds when you separated
• Didn’t start your new business or buy your current house until after your divorce 
• Signed a separation agreement 
• Reached an agreement in family mediation 
• Think your ex has more money than you 

If you don’t have a financial court order you risk your ex being able to ask for a financial settlement.  Your former spouse can do that many years after the divorce is finalised. Back in 2000, you may have been married for a few years and think that you are in the clear but your ex could have hit hard times or heard about your success and want a share of your pension or a payoff because they know you have inherited some money.

If you don’t want to be at risk of an unexpected claim you need a financial court order – preferably one that includes a clean break.

What is a clean break financial consent order?

A clean break financial consent order stops any future financial claims. Other types of financial consent orders leave the door partially open so a spouse can ask for maintenance later or can ask the court to swap their spousal maintenance into a pension sharing order. If you are relying on your ex’s solicitor to prepare the consent order because you want to save a bit of money then this may be a false economy as you need to know what your options are and what the clauses mean.

For example, a financial consent order can be a full clean break, partial clean break or leave future claims open. The law is confusing and that’s why most divorcing couples find that they need expert advice to protect their interests.

Even if you didn’t negotiate a clean break order some things can’t be reopened after you have obtained your financial consent order. For example, if you agreed to give your ex-husband £100,000 in consideration for him agreeing to transfer the family home into your name, your ex can’t normally argue after the order has been made that he wants an extra £20,000. The only circumstances where a capital part of a financial consent order can be re-opened is where a former spouse can show there was an element of dishonesty or coercion at the time of the original order. Feeling regretful that you didn’t get a better deal isn’t sufficient for a court to reopen the order.

How to write a financial consent order?

You need to take a lot of care when writing a financial consent order. That’s because once the order is made it is final. The judge won’t agree to you asking to change the order because you did not fully understand what a clause meant.

As family law solicitors we write financial consent orders every week but we are cautious when doing so to check that:

1. The wording in the draft financial consent order is the same as in your negotiated financial settlement. Your financial  deal could be in a solicitor’s letter, minutes of a roundtable meeting or memorandum of agreement made in family mediation 
2. The wording is as clear and simple as possible whilst also following legal precedents. These legal precedents mean it is less likely that your financial consent order wording could be questioned by the judge asked to approve the order or later on. For example, if your order includes spousal maintenance but does not give your ex the ability to apply back to court to extend the time that spousal maintenance is paid for, this must be carefully worded as a deferred clean break  
3. You understand what your financial consent order means and who is responsible for checking its implementation. For example, if you agree to a pension sharing order it must be implemented by the pension administrator. The court will not implement the order for you 
4. The order is capable of being enforced. If you have agreed to receive £100,000 as a lump sum from your ex there needs to be a deadline for payment so you can enforce the order if it isn’t paid. If you are going to receive spousal maintenance the order should say that the money will be paid by standing order to save aggro  
5. You understand the importance of providing accurate information in your financial statement of information. The judge will not approve your agreed financial consent order without you both completing a financial statement of information. This must be on the prescribed form. While the judge won’t be concerned about the pence (you can round down or up the amount you have in savings) the onus is on you to provide accurate information. For example, if you say your family business shareholding is worth £500,000 when you have had an offer for the company that gives your shares a value of £3 m. That level of inaccuracy would leave you exposed to your ex being able to reopen the order as it was made without full and frank financial disclosure. The same would apply if you only mentioned one pension transfer value when you had three pensions at the time of your divorce or if you didn’t mention other relevant financial or personal information
6. The order is future-proofed if that is what you want.  If you have agreed to pay spousal maintenance, do you want to include a clause that says the maintenance is inflation-linked to avoid the need for variation applications? There are other ways you may need to future-proof your order     

Fixed fee financial consent orders

At Evolve Family Law we offer transparent pricing and fixed fees for preparing most financial consent orders. For more information on our fixed fees have a look here.

 For information on financial consent orders or advice on divorce or family law call our team of specialist divorce lawyers or complete our online enquiry form.