Divorce And Separation

Dealing with Finances (property, maintenance, pensions, business)

Married couples tend to build up a variety of assets over the years and, rather like clearing out the loft, if they get divorced it can be surprising to find what they have built up.

Divorce courts have to deal with property, investments, maintenance, pensions and often businesses – how can they do all that?

The Family Court has four main powers:

  1. It can make one spouse transfer property to the other, or make them sell property and divide the proceeds of sale
  2. It can order one spouse to pay maintenance to the other, either indefinitely or for a fixed period
  3. It can make one spouse pay a lump sum to the other
  4. It can make one spouse transfer some of their pension to the other.

Using these powers, the court can deal with cases where the assets are very small right up to multi-million pound cases and can combine these powers to try to bring about a fair outcome between the parties.

When it decides a case the court has to take into account the length of the marriage and the parties’ ages, their incomes, earning capacity and their assets, their financial and other needs, their disabilities (if any), their lifestyle before the marriage broke down, the contributions each of them made to the family, any extremely serious conduct and any benefits they will lose because of the divorce.

All of this means that judges have a wide choice when hearing cases making it difficult to know how they will decide. Our Family Team has extensive experience in this area so please contact us if you have any questions on 01228 552222 or email hello@burnetts.co.uk