Financial Settlement

We strongly recommend that you seek legal advice in relation to financial matters. This forms part of our specialist approach here at Cunningtons. Both you and your spouse/civil partner may have financial claims over the income, pension and assets of the other and your claims remain open unless you are a Respondent to divorce proceedings and you remarry, or your claims are formally dismissed by the Court. It is therefore very important that these matters are addressed.

The matters to which the Court must have consideration are as follows:-

• The income, earning capacity, property and other financial resources that each party has;
• Financial needs, obligations and responsibilities now and in the future of each party;
• The standard of living enjoyed during the marriage;
• The age of each party and the length of the marriage;
• Any physical or mental disability of either party;
• The contributions which each party has made to the marriage;
• The conduct of each of the parties if inequitable to disregard it;
• Any benefit which may be lost to either party by dissolving the marriage.

To advise you we will need full information as to both you and your spouse’s/civil partner’s financial circumstances. Do not worry. We would not expect you to have all of this information at your first appointment with us. This is a matter that we will help you with during the divorce/dissolution and the ancillary relief proceedings. However, we will be able to advise you considering the factors referred to above and previous case-law so that you will have an outcome tailored to your circumstances and needs.