Consent Order

Does anyone know how long it takes for the principal registry of the family division to seal Consent Orders at the moment. I hear that it usually takes about 3-4 weeks?

Also is my understanding right that the consent order can be filed at the court anytime after the Decree Nisi has been granted?

Tbek

This is one of those piece of string questions. It all depends on how busy the court is. You could ring them to get a heads up on timings.

I another post you mentioned this was for your mother and she has not had legal advice. You may want to seek some advice here about a fair financial settlement. You said her stbx had terminal cancer. This may well affect how the settlement would work depending on his prognosis. This sounds morbid but bear in mind she will lose any entitlement to a widow''s pension (if he has a pension)once the divorce is concluded.

Bear in mind that if she has not had legal advice and the judge does not feel the settlement is fair, they may not agree to it.

Have a look at the information on the site about Consent Orders and fair financial settlements and come back with any questions.

Hadenoughnow

Hi thanks for your response. So far he has had all of the proceedings expediated due to his prognosis.

I appreciate what you are say, and i certianly understand what you mean. We went to an FDR hearing and they certainly indicated that it will be unlikey to be a 50/50 split most likely due to his prognosis and due to my mums age and poor employment history.

With regard to his penison he claimed it in the form of a lump sum leaving no further benefits under the terminal illness clause about 6 months before the first appointment. They have since failed to provide any details in relation to what her loss would have been if he had not claimed it both as his widow and wife, instead they have chosen to interpert the court order too his advantage (it was unfortunatly very vague). However it was a very small pension and her entitlement would have been no more than 10-15K.

When looking at things in there entirity we dceided that we wished to save the house and preserve its equity at all costs. I am ontaining a mortgage on my mothers behalf (as she is unable to due to poor credit) and we have agreed to pay him £50K in full and final settlement (the house is valued between £160K & £180K depending on how quickly you wish to sell). Our solicitor seemed to think this would be a resonable settlement under the circumstances, unfortunately we can only get legal help as my mother isnt entitled to legal aid so we only have the assitance of a trainee solicitor who seems to be rather preoccupied with other things. As you can imagine my faith in the legal system has been shaken somewhat! as naive as that might sound.