Financial Consent Order Process.

[Cribco]

My wife and I started divorce proceedings about three years ago held up mainly by the problems of Covid - and we finally received our NISI last year.. Before applying for our Absolute we were advised to obtain a Financial Consent Order but this seems to be more of a minefield than the divorce. We attended Mediation, completed Form E, and Form D81 - then the problems started. Our application was firstly rejected because our two solicitors sent the forms separately, not together by my wife who is the petitioner - then they were rejected because they should have been sent digitally, not in paper form. Neither of these points mentioned in any government leaflet as far as I can see. We are now informed that the consent paperwork will not be put before the judge for probably another eight months which is longer than the actual divorce took, Bearing in mind that the judge could then disagree with our joint financial agreement, and we would need to start all over again. Can anybody please lead me, inch by inch, through the correct process of obtaining a consent order

[Sam101]

Your solicitors should have known the correct way to make the application. You may wish to ask them why they did not mention it?

You are correct in saying that the Judge could not agree the settlement, usually because it is not deemed to be fair to both parties. May I ask if you and your wife are both legally represented and have received individual advice of your rights to assets?