Thinking Of A Divorce?
Are you and your spouse still happy or are you “living a lie” for the sake of the children? If sadly its the latter, are you aware of the grounds upon which you could seek a Divorce?
It is a common belief that all you need to show is irreconcilable difficulties and you are entitled to a divorce - a little more than that is in fact required.
No divorce proceedings can be taken until you have been married for 1 year.
The law requires an irretrievable breakdown of marriage for a divorce and this needs to be proved in one of 5 ways.
Of these five ways only three are “instant”, these being the other party’s adultery; the other party’s unreasonable behaviour towards you or that the other party has deserted you for a period of two years without your agreement.
The two “non-instant” grounds are that you have lived separate and apart from the other party for a period of either two or five years. Your spouse’s consent is required for a divorce based on 2 years separation but after five years the other party’s consent is not required.
Whilst many people go through the divorce process and obtain their Decree Absolute themselves it is all too common to overlook obtaining a Court Order preventing your ex-spouse from making claims against you should either of your circumstances change in the future.
If you instruct a Solicitor to advise you in relation to your divorce you will receive advice as to a Consent Order. This is an Order obtained with the consent of you and your spouse, setting out what you have agreed about the split of your finances on divorce. This enables each of you to bar any claim by the other in your lifetimes or on death and is known as a “Clean Break” Order.
Should one of you have on going liabilities to the other then rather than there being a “Clean Break” the Consent Order would incorporate those details.
Once you have obtained a sealed Consent Order from the Court then it is binding upon both of you, even if unforeseen circumstances arise.
If financial terms cannot be agreed then your Solicitor can help you with an application to the Court.
Rather than face claims in the future, which neither you nor your spouse had envisaged it is likely to be a lot cheaper for you to seek legal advice at an early stage, both in relation to the divorce and the obtaining of the Consent Order.
The Solicitor acting for you, will ensure that you are protected both now and in the future and this avoids increased legal expenses in the future if a disputed matter arises..
Do you have a legal question? If so we will try to answer it.
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