Financial Court Order

Hi, desperate for some help and advise,really hope someone can help me/us.
My partner recently went thro the divorce process.He and ex wife owned 50/50 of the FMH.He was represented by solicitor who after being pushed by us eventually got ex wife to agree to buy my partner out.In Draft Consent ex wife stated that my partener was to pay his solicitor bill,and 2 other major liabilities he had.My partners solicitor agreed on his behalf just over 25% payout of the FMH,she listed her total costs,but then after my partner had signed the draft Consent Order his solicitors fees suddenly doubled,,leaving him no way to pay all the liabilities listed in the consent order.For example only,, payout of 30k,,,liabilities stated in consent order to be paid 45k,, not possible.His solicitor would no longer represent him after this query as we couldn't accept the just under 25% offer.Ex wife solicitor said too late to fight for more,ex wife could only raise the 25% and within a week they quickly did the transfer of money/property,leaving my partner totally head mashed as he doesn't understand all the legal process.2 weeks after the transfer,the financial consent was refused by the judge on the grounds that my partners liabilities hadn't been listed by the ex wife's solicitors when they submitted the papers,,had they listed them the judge would see his liabilities totalled over 50k and he was receiving a payout of only 25k.Not once did we see any proof that the ex wife could only raise the 25%,no financial background on her was ever provided.We believe she borrowed a huge amount,has brought new cars,holidays,clothes the list goes on.We are due back in the court in 2 wks as the ex wife's solicitor is taking my partner back to get him to agree to all the proceedings and list his current(today)liabilities,which will then please the judge,and get it all finanlly agreed. But shouldn't it be the liabilities at the date of the original consent order that are listed? Sorry if confusing,but really need help and advise as to how i fight this for my partner.Can we contest the original consent order if we believe the ex wife had more available funds to pay my partner what he was entitled to?Should we of been shown her financial position and what she was actually raising?? Be really grateful for some help, thank you

I am afraid that I am totally baffled by all this. But it looks to me as though your partner is in a serious mess.

Let us get a few facts straight.

1. A consent order is an order, made by the Court, where the parties are agreed in advance on the terms of the order that the Court will be asked to make.
2. In divorce cases the procedure is that, when the parties are agreed on the terms of the financial settlement, one party prepares a draft of the order giving effect to the agreement. That order is then submitted to the other party for his/her approval.
3. Assuming there is agreement to the terms of the draft order, then both parties or their solicitors will sign it and submit it to the Court for its approval.
4. The parties will give a short statement of their income and assets in the application for approval of the order. This is necessary to enable to judge to come to a decision as to whether the agreement is a fair one.
5. In your case, it seems, the judge did not approve the order because (s)he had insufficient information. (S)he would be perfectly entitled to do this.
6. Now I have to stress that, until the judge approves the draft order and signs it off, there is no consent order. It is only when the judge signs the order off that the agreement becomes binding.
7. People can, and do, change their mind at the last minute even when the parties are agreed on the terms of a consent order. Of course they have to explain what it was why they changed their mind ; but these things happen. It is not wise to take actions in anticipation of a consent order.
8. If what you are saying is that your partner would not have done what he did had he been aware of the true position, then that, could, at least in principle, be quite a reasonable thing to do. But the problem at the moment seems to be that this situation has become so messy that unscrambling it would require a considerable amount of effort. I'm really quite disturbed by the fact that your partner seems to have spent £50K on fighting over £25K and I wonder whether further expenditure is just throwing away good money after bad.

I know this is not an answer. There are two sides to every story, as all solicitors know. In reply to your question, yes, of course a Court must take liabilities into account, not just assets and resources.

You may perhaps have a case to challenge your partner's solicitors bill. He may well need some serious debt advice as to what action he takes in reltion to those liabilities. But if the money is not there, fighting over non-existent resources is pointless. In the short term I see little alternative for him to go to Court and hear what the judge has to say.

LMM

Hi LMM
Thank you for your reply.
You are correct in saying that a consent order was drafted up by my partners ex wife's solicitors.
My partner signed the draft consent order as at the time he was being informed that the offer made to him was all that could be raised by his ex wife.
His liabilities were at the time 48k,this was from credit cards,revenue bill,overdraft,solicitors bill,bank loan. The offer made to him by the ex wife was 25k, however he had a 50/50 share of the property and was entitled to 50k.If he had received the share he was entitled to he would of been able to free himself from all his outstanding liabilities.This was also explained to him when he attempted to declare bankruptcy.His application was denied because the district judge said under no circumstance should he receive less then his 50% of the equity,that would then clear all liabilities.He has since found out by hear say that his ex wife actually raised alot more and purchased new cars,paid 15k on the shortfall of a car she already had,paid for exotic holidays and a lot more treats.He has contacted her solicitor asking for some financial evidence that the 25k offered was all that could be raised,but they have not replied to his request.I must add that when he signed the consent order,he was requested to sign the transefer of deeds form at the same time.It was told to him this had to be done in order for his ex wifes remortgage loan to be officially agreed and his ex wife's solicitors stated that this would not be a legal binding document or he wouldn't loose his hold on the propery without his final consent being given.However,when his ex wifes remortgage was agreed her solicitors proceeded with the transfer and we received an email saying the deeds had been transfered and the money was on it's way to his account.Before we knew it the deal had been done,with great speed I may add,bearing in mind we had fought for months then suddenly all was done in a matter of hours.
So the situation he is in at the moment is the money has been transferred,the deeds are no longer in his name,the consent order has been refused by the judge and his ex wifes solicitors are pushing him very hard to just sign the letter they have drafted giving his current liabilities at todays date.
Could you tell me if they are correct in asking for the liabilities at todays date or should we give them at what they were at the time of the original consent order??
You are correct in saying that my partner would not have signed any consent order if he had understood totally what was happening.
Can we ask for proof of the remortgage/loan amount that his ex wife took out?? We don't believe the 25k was all that was raised.

In relation to his own solicitors bill and the sad breakdown of the relationship we had with his solicitor,my partner is totally aware that he has to pay for the services she provided,that he doesn't dispute.However he feels he was misrepresented,he was always asking for monthly statements from her as money was a huge factor for us this she was aware of,we never received any statements from her,we paid her £100-£200 here and there when we could.She put her bill down on the liabilities as one amount then when it looked close to completion the bill suddenly doubled.When questioned about it she became personal towards us,accusing us of being wreckless and calling my partner a total farce.Our only concern was not being able to meet with the terms of the consent order that were set out by his ex wife,,, he was offered 25k but it stated in the order he was to pay his solicitor first,her bill being 11k, then another bill which was 19k, then a final bill which was about 4k.It couldn't be done and she wasn't willing to help us any further, so she dropped us.
I hope this makes sense to you,sorry for going on.Any advise is really gratefully received,,,i'm trying my best to get my head around our options,,, do we just sign what they want and give up?
Thank you again