Why you need a court order about finances

Divorce & family law solicitor Sian Winter explains why it is so important to finalise your financial agreement when you divorce by getting a financial order from the court.

People often think that getting a divorce is the end of the process and they think if they have reached an agreement with their spouse or soon to be ex spouse about the finances and about how they are going to divide everything up then that’s it.  In fact even if you have got an agreement with your spouse about the finances or if you haven’t got any assets at the moment to divide, you do still need to go through and get a Court order by consent, a consent order, to bring an end to the financial claims under the marriage. 

If you fail to get a financial order from the court, if you win the lottery next year, year after that, you may find your former spouse knocking on your door wanting their half share of it.  So to bring an end to that and make sure that they can’t come back to you in the future for more money you do need to go and get a financial order as well as the divorce.