marriage break up- do we need solicitor ?

saraiain

My wife and I have decided to split after 2 1/2 years of marriage.
There is no one else involved- we just grew apart.

My question is do I need to go through a solicitor at the moment even though we have decided to split the profit from our house 50/50.

I am sure that we can work this out ourselves but I also don't want things to come back and haunt me in a few years!

Appreciate any comments you may have

Cheers

Bossyboots

To be honest, there are a number of threads asking this question already which might give you the info you need.

However, in summary you do not need a solicitor for the actual divorce. What to do is covered in an ongoing thread on the same subject. You should however seek legal advice and have professionally drafted a consent order dealing with the split of the property and it is VITAL that it includes a clause preventing claims made against either party by the other in the future.

You will have to sign disclaimers confirming you have received and rejected advice about both parties giving full disclosure of income and assets. You should also be prepared for the court to question the fairness of the document and ask for statements or personal attendance at court to explain why the parties consider the agreement to be fair. It may be that in your circumstances what you propose is fair and can clearly be seen to be fair in which case there will be no problem but the actual drafting of the document should not be attempted DIY.

saraiain

Thanks bossyboots. Would a solicitor do this consent order?

Bossyboots

saraiain wrote:

Thanks bossyboots. Would a solicitor do this consent order?

Yes. The cheapest way is for you to write out exactly who is having what and then for one of you to go to a solicitor with it and ask them to draw up a consent order. It would be preferable for you both to take legal advice on the document from separate solicitors just to satisfy the court that you have both had independent scrutiny of the document and independent advice, even if you choose not to take it.