Settlement Mediation
Divorce mediation is about negotiating a financial settlement. It ensures that both parties understand the marital finances and reach agreement on how the marital assets and debts will be divided. Child arrangements can also be included in the discussions if necessary.
One negotiator working for both parties rather than a solicitor each. Fixed fees quoted before you start. The outcome is a written agreement covering property, savings, pensions, debts and maintenance, ready to be made into a consent order.
Consent Order
A divorce application in itself does not deal with how the assets and debts of a marriage are going to be split between you. Divorce deals with the dissolution of the marriage but does not deal with the financial settlement or break your financial ties to each other.
To achieve that financial severance you need a financial 'consent order'. The application cannot be made until you have the first part of your divorce, now called the 'Conditional Order' and previously the 'Decree Nisi'.
We draw up the consent order ourselves, so there is no need to instruct a solicitor once the terms are agreed. Where a pension is to be shared, the pension sharing order forms part of that order and cannot be obtained on its own — and the timing of your final divorce application matters, which we explain when we get there.
Unmarried Couples
There is no such thing as common law marriage, however long you have lived together. Couples who were never married do not have the same financial claims as married couples, so disputes usually centre on jointly owned property and what each person put in.
We negotiate these settlements in the same way: one negotiator working for both parties, with fixed fees quoted before you start. Where an ongoing arrangement needs a Declaration of Trust to be drawn up, we will tell you.
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