FDA and FDR

Hi,

Brand new to this and am struggling to understand some of the finer details of the financial settlement process - apologies if this is a simple issue that I've misunderstood.

I'm just starting to prepare for my "First Appointment" and reading through the letter and what is required.

Point 8 of my letter states: "The parties may agree to use the first appointment as a Financial Dispute Resolution hearing......"

What are the circumstances and advantages/disadvantages of having it as an FDR rather than an FDA?

Thank you in advance.

If both parties are satisfied that all financial disclosure has been made and there are no disputes in relation to the assets, the FDA becomes a box ticking exercise.

The system allows those parties to inform the court in advance that there are no directions required and that the FDA can be utilised as an FDR. You effectively skip a hearing which saves time, money and court resource.

There are no disadvantages unless one or both parties are not happy with the level of disclosure in which case you wouldn't agree to re-purpose the FDA.

Charles

Thank you for your response.

Please can I just ask about your statement "and there are no disputes in relation to the assets".

What does this mean? We are going to court because we can't agree what to do with the asset (house) and how future proceeds should be split. Is this what you mean by your statement? therefore, should I be doing an FDA or should I go straight to FDR?

Apologies for being unread in this area, and thank so much in advance for your response.
LVB70

Agreeing a division of assets first assumes that you know the value of those assets and what needs to be done in order to get to a point that you know how they can be divided. Here are some examples.

Where a pension is to be shared, there may need to be an actuarial report to calculate the value of the pension in payment and how it can be split giving consideration for the rules imposed by the pension Trustees.

A property value may not be agreed and a valuation might be necessary.

A bank account might exist but there is no evidence to show what is in there. Disclosure of statements can be ordered.

One of the parties might suffer from a medical condition which effects their health and therefore there earning capacity. A medical report might be necessary to specify how this will have an effect long term.

If there are issues which cannot be agreed it's not possible to ask the Court to give an opinion upon the likely division at an FDR therefore an FDA is necessary to make directions to put the parties in a position where an FDR will be effective.

Charles

This is great - thank you so much for taking the time to reply with a detailed explanation.

Many thanks,
LVB