One of the concerns for couples who are separating or divorcing is sorting out finances. We can help you reach a fair financial settlement.
Both of you and any children will need somewhere to live and enough money to live on. This means that arrangements will need to be made regarding your family home, savings, pension and income.
We can advise you as to what is fair, reasonable and realistic. Reaching a financial settlement can take time and depending on your circumstances, can be difficult. Our goal is to keep conflict to a minimum and help you and your family to move on with your lives. The law relating to financial arrangements at the end of a marriage does not set out hard and fast rules or use mathematical formulas. However, the same basic principles do apply in every case, we can explain these and discuss them with you.
Call your Newcastle Family Law Firm on 0191 5806044. We can have a discussion so that we can give you some initial advice and help with any concerns you have. We can also provide information about your likely costs moving forward so that can can decide what happens next.
Here is some basic information on resolving financial arrangements at the end of your relationship that we hope will help.
Sorting out money and property when a relationship ends. Click the arrow for more information on reaching a financial agreement and how the court shares your assets if you are unable to reach agreement between yourselves.
You and your former partner can choose which process to use in order to work out your money and property issues if you divorce or end a civil partnership. We can discuss the various processes that are available and what will work best for you.
You can avoid having to attend court if you are able to agree how to share your money and property. We can advise you on the agreement and draft the necessary documents to ensure that your agreement legally binding.
You can agree on child maintenance at the same time or separately. If you are not able to reach agreement you can ask the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to carry out a maintenance assessment. There is a fee payable for this service.
The law is different relating to the sharing of assets if you are not married or in a civil partnership.
You may want to consider meeting with your former partner and a mediator to discuss financial arrangements and get legal advice during the process. Depending on your circumstances you may be eligible for legal aid to help with the cost
If you can’t reach agreement a District Judge in the Family Court will decide how your assets should be shared.
Before you start court proceedings you must attend a Mediation Information Assessment Meeting (MIAM) with a mediator to see whether mediation is possible. If you are a victim of domestic abuse, mediation may not be appropriate.
We are happy to have an initial chat with you on the telephone to discuss how you would like to proceed.
The Sorting Out Separation website (www.sortingoutseparation.org) s a useful source of information about money and housing when you separate.