In continuing my look at Form E and the final three sections in the form.
Third Section
In the third part of the form the court is trying to ascertain what you need to be able to rehouse and what is anticipated to be your monthly expenditure.
What are your monthly outgoings and are these going to change? It can be surprising how basic living costs can mount up. Your regular outgoings for housing and utilities, such as water, gas and electricity need to be included and other expenses include food, clothing, travel, pets, medical and leisure will need to be identified and calculated.
What your capital needs going to be? These are the one-off purchases such as buying a property or having a deposit for a rental property, white goods and a car.
What are the children’s needs? If there are children of the family then do they have any different income or capital needs from yourself. This includes items such as hobbies, clothes or computer equipment for school work.
Fourth Section
The fourth section of Form E is the narrative part of the form to give the court information about factors which may be relevant but would not necessarily be captured by other parts of the form. This includes if there have been any changes in assets or income over the last twelve months or if any changes are anticipated in the next year which would include things such as lump sums being drawn down from pensions, assets being sold and job changes.
You can also detail particular contributions you have made to the marriage that you would like taken into account but there is no guarantee that any funds will be reimburse to that party.
In the section asking about bad behaviour then there are only extremely limited circumstances in which a court may consider to financially compensate one party for the other party’s behaviour. It is rare for a court to take bad behaviour into account when deciding a settlement.
Are there any other circumstances which might impact a financial settlement which have not been detailed anywhere else? This can include matters such as impending retirement or redundancy, income earing capacity, disability and agreements previously entered in to.
Fifth Section
The final section of the form is a summary to give the court an idea of what orders you would like. Sometimes until you have seen the other party’s disclosure you will not know, but for some assets you may hold strong views on what you would like to happen to them i.e. the matrimonial home. It does not mean that you will get what you have put on the form but it does help the judge know if both parties have the same or different ideas.
The Form E ends with a statement of truth to confirm that the form gives full and accurate disclosure.
Once the form is completed and lodged at the court then that is not the end of financial disclosure and you remain under the duty of providing ongoing disclosure until the court has made the final order in respect of the finances.
For more information on matrimonial matters or to find out how we can help you, please contact our Family Team on 0345 646 0406 or fill in our online enquiry form and a member of our Team will be in touch.