Amicable divorce

Antfan

Has anyone had any experience of using the company Amicable for their divorce? From what I understand it's part of the Octopus group of companies.

Myself and my wife want to get a Consent Order with a 'clean break' in relation to our finances. We're in agreement about the division of our assets so there's no mediation required and we're just looking to get a Consent Order that a judge will sign off at the relevant point.

Peter999_2

I went through this last year with my now ex-wife.   It was very amicable like you and we had decided between us who got what.

We went through divorce-online.co.uk and it was £399.99.    We drafted the consent order and sent it to them to go throught it and make any relevant changes.       They hardly changed anything to be honest.

We submitted it and waited a couple of months.    It was rejected by a judge who wanted more information as to why we weren't splitting my pension.    We both forgot that we could have gone back to divorce-online and just replied ourselves with clear reasons why.

I did read somewhere, though I never found it again, that a judge can't actually reject the consent order really.    They can ask for more information and make sure it is technically correct but it's seen as an agreement between adults and as long as they clearly state their reasons then they have to accept it.      About 3 weeks later it was approved and then we could finalize the divorce.

We did initially speak to a solicitor and they wanted about £1,500 to do the job and were horrified that we'd decided not to get any solicitor advice.  I guess they were so used to big arguments but we are both adults and we just spent a couple of hours going through what we wanted to do.   

Download the forms and have a look at the questions and see what you think, we found most of them very straight forward but weren't sure about a couple but quick internet searches explained what the questions actually met.

poseidon1

Peter999_2 said:

I went through this last year with my now ex-wife.   It was very amicable like you and we had decided between us who got what.

We went through divorce-online.co.uk and it was £399.99.    We drafted the consent order and sent it to them to go throught it and make any relevant changes.       They hardly changed anything to be honest.

We submitted it and waited a couple of months.    It was rejected by a judge who wanted more information as to why we weren't splitting my pension.    We both forgot that we could have gone back to divorce-online and just replied ourselves with clear reasons why.

I did read somewhere, though I never found it again, that a judge can't actually reject the consent order really.    They can ask for more information and make sure it is technically correct but it's seen as an agreement between adults and as long as they clearly state their reasons then they have to accept it.      About 3 weeks later it was approved and then we could finalize the divorce.

We did initially speak to a solicitor and they wanted about £1,500 to do the job and were horrified that we'd decided not to get any solicitor advice.  I guess they were so used to big arguments but we are both adults and we just spent a couple of hours going through what we wanted to do.   

Download the forms and have a look at the questions and see what you think, we found most of them very straight forward but weren't sure about a couple but quick internet searches explained what the questions actually met.

My impression is that amicable divorces in this country is a rarity, due to absence of rational thought and actions between the parties. You are to be applauded for bucking the trend.

VyEu

Judges don't just sign off consent orders, the division has to be broadly fair between the parties or if it's not, it has to be backed up by some pretty good (in *law*) reason. It's also not the case that they will just (if the order is rejected the first time) accept a joint letter via the portal etc, there could be a mention hearing and then the court can still reject it.

My view is that if you want a 50/50 split or something like 45-55/45-55 split with nothing other than a house and a savings account (no businesses, no pensions, etc) then amicable is probably ok because is not complicated and the numbers add up. If you're talking pension splits or deviation from equality then you're better off getting an actual solicitor to draft it.

I've seen some ok amicable drafting. Other time it's a negligence claim waiting to happen.