What financial claims do we have?

As a party to divorce proceedings, whether petitioner or respondent, you have the right to bring a claim for financial remedy against your spouse if you cannot agree matters between you. The claims that you can bring are as follows:

• Spousal Periodical Payments, i.e. an Order that your spouse pay you a monthly amount. This would normally be for a fixed period of time and will commonly be increased from year to year.

• Maintenance Pending Suit – this is an application for spousal maintenance pending the final resolution of your case which can be brought in the event you simply cannot pay your essential living costs (for example, the cost of food, services to the home, rent or mortgage payments, but not non-essential expenses such as gym membership or eating out) and your spouse has not paid a reasonable sum of money to you in the interim.

• Child maintenance ‘top up’ order – the Child Maintenance Service deals with claims for child maintenance but in certain circumstances you may apply for a ‘top up’ of child maintenance.

• Lump Sum Order – this would be an Order that your spouse pays you a certain sum of money by a set date.

• Transfer of Property Order – the court may order the sale or transfer of your family home or any other properties or assets (such as shares or a car) which you or your spouse may own.

• Pension Sharing Order – the courts may order that your spouse should receive a percentage of the Transfer Value of your pension.

Before issuing a financial remedy claim you are required to try and resolve matters with your spouse through mediation. Mediation is not for everybody and there are some exemptions to this requirement to attend, but without one of these exemptions applying, at the very least you have to attend a mediation information assessment meeting (known as a MIAM) to discuss the mediation process with an expert mediator. Your spouse does not attend this first meeting with you. If you wish or the mediator requires mediation to proceed, then your spouse will be invited to attend a MIAM and thereafter joined mediation sessions can take place if you both wish them to.

Other options to try and avoid court proceedings are to try and negotiate either directly or through solicitors.

If you do not resolve matters an application for financial remedy needs to be issued at Court.

Once financial remedy proceedings have been issued, you will be sent a date for your first hearing which is a ‘directions’ appointment, referred to as the FDA or Financial Directions Appointment. The court will give you a timetable of tasks to complete before the hearing, specifically completion and exchange of financial disclosure in Form E, filing of a Chronology, Schedule of Issues and a Questionnaire setting out any questions you wish to put to your spouse having read their Form E.