What happens in a Financial Provision Application (Ancillary Relief Proceedings)?

Negotiations & Consent Orders

Before any formal Court proceedings are issued every effort will be explored to see if matters can be resolved by agreement. This can take several forms: informal discussions between you and your former partner, negotiations between solicitors, mediation or even the collaborative law process.

Most discussions will often involve voluntary disclosure of financial information such as bank statements payslips Cash Equivalent Transfer Values (CETV) of pensions and valuations of other assets.

If agreements are reached it is recommended that those agreements are set out in writing and a Court invited to approve the agreements reached by way of a Consent Order. A draft Consent Order will be prepared, Statements of Financial Information completed and Form As for Dismissal Purposes prepared and the papers will be submitted to the Judge for consideration. The Court can not make even agreed Orders until after a Decree Nisi has been pronounced within the Divorce proceedings.

If agreements are not possible, or matters appear to be drifting or not progressing then formal proceedings may need to be issued. This can be simply to make sure there is a timetable or a structure given to ensure matters can be resolved rather than a threatening course of action.

Issuing Formal Court Proceedings

Step 1
Preparing Papers

An application for Financial Provision within a divorce is commenced by the filing a Form A, setting out what is being sought, at the Court in which the Divorce is progressing.

Step 2
Issuing Application

The Court will issue the Form A and set a timetable for the filing of evidence and other information in readiness for a first direction appointment. The Court will normally allow around 16 weeks between the issuing of the application and the first directions appointment. During this time a Financial Statement (Form E) must be completed, a summery of the assets and issues prepared, and after considering the other side’s Form E a list of relevant specific questions raised about the information disclosed by them.

Step 3
Preparing your Form E

It is important to start collecting the information required in your Form E as early as possible. You must provide 12 months statements for all accounts in your name or held jointly with another, the family home and any other property must be valued and a redemption figure obtained for the mortgage. Surrender values must be obtained for all insurance policies and valuations obtained for all shares, savings, and other investment assets. If you have a pension, even if it is frozen, an up to date cash equivalent transfer value must be obtained together with specific information relating to the pension. Generally the pension information takes a long time to obtain, and may not be available within the time scale set by the Court. However evidence must be available as to the time the information was sought.

Step 4
First Directions Appointment

This appointment is before a District Judge, who will want to see that all the timetabled steps have been complied with and will want to know whether there is any other relevant information needed to progress the application further. If more information is needed, or not all the information is available the Judge will set a further timetable to gather the missing or additional information and may fix a future directions appointment or fix a Financial Dispute Resolution hearing appointment. If all the information is available at the First Directions Appointment the Judge can either fix the Financial Dispute hearing immediately or treat the First Directions Appointment as one.

Step 5
Financial Dispute Resolution Hearing

The financial dispute resolution hearing is the first time the Judge will have considered all the information. He will want to know what each party is seeking and basically what the maximum is and minimum each party is prepared to accept. The aim of the appointment is to try and get the parties to reach a solution. The Judge can, and usually will, give an indication based on the information before him, what he believed the outcome of the matter would be if it was before him to make a decision on. The Judges recommendations are not binding on the parties but are a good indication as to how the matter will proceed at final hearing. If matters cannot be resolved then the Judge can either list the matter for a further Financial Dispute Resolution Hearing or list it for a final hearing.

Step 6
Final Hearing

14 days before the final hearing the Applicant must set out in an open letter their final offers to settle. 7 days before the hearing the other party must respond with a counter offer if the offer is not accepted.

At the final hearing each party will give oral evidence setting out their case by answering questions put to them by their legal representative and by the other side’s legal representative. It is not a chance to go over all the history but to add and clarify information within the Form E and matters, which arise from it. After hearing both parties and their representatives the Judge will make a decision and set out his reasons for it. It will not be the same Judge who hears the case at the Final Hearing who gave the indication at the Financial Dispute Resolution Hearing.

At any stage within the Court Process agreements can be reached and a Consent Order prepared to reflect those agreements.

Timescales

Generally within the Court process from the issuing of a Form A to a final hearing the timescale is usually around 9 months. This can vary of course depending on what information has to be gathered, and how long is given to collect it. It can also depend on Court or Judge Availability as to how quickly hearing can be listed.

The less formal processes are far more flexible with regards to timings and will depend on how quickly both parties want to proceed.

Costs

It is very difficult to give any firm indication as to the likely costs involved as costs are entirely based on the time spend on your matter.

If you and your partner reached an agreement between yourselves and the only work required is to prepare the Court papers and submit these to the Court this is likely to take about 2 – 3 hours worth or work plus the Court fees.

If you opt for mediation there will be the costs of the mediation process itself and the independent legal advice in between the mediation sessions and also the costs of preparation of any Consent Orders if matters are resolved. However this is normally around 5 – 7 hours work.

The Collaborative Law process will depend on the number of meetings undertaken.

Formal Court proceedings can prove very expensive. Generally to get matters up to and including the First Appointment will normally take around 10 – 12 hours of work. From First Appointment up to an including a FDR the time spent us usually around a further 10 – 15 hours. From a FDR up to an including a fully contested Final Hearings, depending on the length of the hearing, will usually take a further 10 – 20 hours of time… These costs do not include VAT or Court fees and will vary depending on the time spend on your matter.