Making a Clean Break of it!

I can't tell you how many people have come to me and said, "we haven't got anything so all we need is a Divorce" or "it's all sorted so we just need to get the Divorce done".

People assume that divorcing their husband or wife brings an end to all links between them. Leaving aside the ongoing link of any children, few people realise that financial claims between them will remain open beyond the point of their divorce unless they do something about them.

Those claims might include claims for maintenance, lump sums, property and pensions and, whilst they can be relatively easily dealt with on divorce, if they are not it can leave people defending claims from ex-spouses years after their Divorce.

It is, of course, understandable for those with limited marital assets or for those people who have agreed how they want to divide their assets to focus more on the divorce and less on dealing with the financial claims but you must be aware that additional work is needed to deal with the financial claims, their dismissal does not come as a consequence of the divorce process and forms no part of it.

If there are no assets of the marriage then you may simply need a "Clean Break Order" drafted and executed by you both - that dismisses all financial claims between you and prevents either party coming back against the other at a later stage.

(Be careful though - women on lower incomes and caring for dependent children might be better advised to keep their maintenance claims open, whilst dismissing the remainder of claims.)

If there are assets of the marriage but there has been agreement reached then a "Consent Order" needs to be drafted, setting out the agreement and dealing also with the dismissal of future claims.

Whether it is a Clean Break Order or a Consent Order that you need, the Court will have to approve it before it becomes legally binding - like I say, this is not an automatic part of the divorce process.

Whilst you might consider it unnecessary and not worth the extra £300 , a word of warning - there have been cases relatively recently involving lottery wins after divorce - the unassuming winner having to defend a claim from his ex-spouse who in the end was awarded some of the winnings - a cautionary tale

So please....make a clean break of it!!