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If you cannot come to an agreement about
financial issues, it may be that the only way that you can resolve
these, if you are separating and are married, is to divorce or
judicially separate.
If there are divorce proceedings, or judicial
separation proceedings, or indeed civil partnership dissolution
proceedings, then the Court can be asked to make orders about money
when agreements cannot be reached. It does not matter who asks the
Court to make orders about money.
The current Court fee is £240.00.
When an application to the Court is
made, the Court will fix or “list” a hearing date. This
hearing is usually in 2 or 3 months time, sometimes a
bit longer. The Court will ask that certain documents be
prepared before specified dates before the hearing.
This is to make sure that everyone is ready for the
hearing, and is not un-prepared. The documents that the
Court asks you and your spouse to prepare include a
pre-printed form called a Financial Statement, or Form
E. Forms E are exchanged before the Court hearing
date. They give detailed financial information about
the money that you have, and the money you would like.
The first hearing is called a
First Appointment. If there are some issues that need
clarifying from the Forms E, or valuations of properties
or businesses need to be obtained, the District Judge
will order that these issues be dealt with in a
specified time. The District Judge will then list a
second hearing, a month or so after the first, called a
Financial Dispute Resolution Hearing or “FDR”. The
first hearing may last no more than a few minutes.
The FDR hearing may be much longer,
and you will be asked to attend Court early to give time
to try and reach an agreement. The District Judge will
be told what the issues are, and how far you are each
apart in terms of negotiations, and may give an
indication as to what he/she feels is right.
Negotiations are sometimes lengthy. If no agreement is
reached, the District Judge will list your case for a
third hearing when evidence will need to be given by you
and your husband/wife.
If an agreement is reached, this will
be put into a formal Court Order. Once an agreement is
reached at Court, you cannot change your mind. .
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