How Does an Amicable Divorce Work Using a One-Lawyer Divorce Service?

Traditionally, it was seen as necessary to have a divorce lawyer in your corner.  Helping you fight to gain custody of your children and the best financial settlement. The concept of a divorcing couple placing their trust and confidence in one family lawyer is relatively new. Some couples embrace the idea, whilst others are understandably wary.

In this article, our family law solicitors outline how an amicable divorce works through Evolve Family Law’s One Lawyer Divorce Service.

Contact Evolve Family Law Today for Divorce and Family Law Advice.

What is one-lawyer divorce?

The One Lawyer Divorce Service is a simple concept; a husband and wife instruct one family law solicitor rather than two lawyers.

The lawyer listens to both husband and wife, then helps you facilitate an agreement and converts the agreement into the documents you need to:

1. Obtain a no-fault divorce.
2. Record the parenting arrangements for your children.
3. Provide you with a binding financial settlement.

Obtaining a no-fault divorce using the amicable divorce service

The government reduced animosity in the divorce process by introducing no-fault divorce proceedings. That doesn’t mean one spouse isn’t at fault for the breakdown of the marriage, or that one or both spouses aren’t upset, emotional, or angry.  However, removing fault from the legal process was intended to make it less adversarial. This has been achieved through:

1. The ground for obtaining a divorce is that the marriage has irretrievably broken down – no one needs to prove fault.
2. The couple can jointly or individually apply for the divorce.
3. There are very limited grounds to oppose a divorce – you can’t oppose the divorce even if you don’t think the marriage is over.
4. There is no need to attend a court hearing to obtain your final order of divorce.
5. The court won’t make divorce costs orders unless the circumstances are exceptional.

The advantages of using one lawyer rather than two

Using a single lawyer to file your joint divorce can help:

1. Minimise legal costs, and
2. Reduce animosity to help you reach a financial settlement.
3. You agree on parenting arrangements and to co-parent as the One Lawyer Service reduces animosity.

Agreements and the use of the One Lawyer Service

The Amicable Divorce One Lawyer Service at Evolve Family Law can help you with:

1. Recording your parenting agreement in a parenting plan or by securing an agreed child arrangement order.
2. Converting a separation agreement into a financial consent order.
3. Converting a memorandum of understanding reached in family mediation into an agreed and binding financial court order.
4. Obtaining a financial court order after you have negotiated a financial settlement between the two of you.

Some people believe they can only use the Amicable Divorce One Lawyer Service after reaching a financial settlement and an agreement on the residence and contact arrangements for their children. That’s not the case. You do not have to have reached a parenting or financial agreement before instructing the One Lawyer Service at Evolve Family Law.

Using the One Lawyer Service when you have not reached a financial or parenting agreement

You may think that it is essential for you and your spouse to have your own divorce solicitors if you have been unable to negotiate a financial or childcare agreement. You may be right. However, in some family situations, it makes sense to use the One Lawyer Service even though you have been unable to reach a full agreement.

Using the One Lawyer Service when you have not reached a financial or parenting agreement may be cost-effective and productive, where you:

1. Trust your ex-spouse’s financial disclosure.
2. Know there are no risk factors, such as the safety of your child or previous domestic abuse.
3. Know that you are both committed to reaching a financial settlement.
4. Are both receptive to taking advice on board and to reaching a compromise.
5. Are both willing to explore the stumbling block to reaching a financial settlement.

Examples of where the One Lawyer Amicable Divorce Service can help include:

1. One or both of you have pensions, but you are not sure how a pension sharing order works or how pension offsetting could help you both get to a fair financial outcome for both of you.
2. You inherited money after your separation, and you and your spouse both want to understand the relevance of the inheritance to the divorce financial settlement.
3. You have adult children living at home, and you both don’t know how their needs will be factored into the financial settlement.
4. You are struggling to understand the interplay between voluntary child support, top-up child maintenance, and court-ordered spousal maintenance.
5. You signed a prenuptial agreement in the hope that if you separated, the divorce and financial settlement would be amicable. However, your circumstances or your spouse’s have changed since the prenuptial agreement was signed.

If you and your estranged spouse are both able to take on board the neutral advice of a family lawyer specially trained in providing a One Lawyer Service, then the option of using one lawyer may be a quicker and more cost-effective solution for you.

How the One Lawyer Service works when you do not have a financial agreement

Consider a couple keen to reach a financial settlement but unsure how to manage their pensions and whether to include pension sharing in the agreement. If they elect to use the One Lawyer Divorce Service and the lawyer screens both as suitable to engage in the amicable divorce process, the lawyer will talk to them both about:

1. The relevance of pensions to their divorce settlement.
2. The pension options, including pension sharing and offsetting.
3. The pension valuations and the instruction of a pension actuary.
4. Potential court outcomes if the court were making a financial court order after a contested hearing.
5. The steps to obtain a financial court order and pension sharing order annexe.
6. Obtaining a financial court order and implementing the pension sharing order.

Two traditional divorce solicitors would have similar conversations with their clients in separate lawyers’ offices. In an amicable divorce, a neutral lawyer providing a One Lawyer Divorce Service may explain that a pension sharing order is likely and that the percentage of the pension share could range from 40% to 60% if the couple left the judge to decide on the pension split. The couple, armed with information on the value of 20% of the pension fund and the total costs and timescales of court litigation, may feel it is sensible and fair to compromise on a 50% pension-sharing order after hearing the neutral information provided during the One Lawyer Divorce Service.

Screening and the One Lawyer Divorce Service

Screening is an essential part of the amicable divorce process. If thorough screening is not conducted, you may waste time and money by committing to the service.

The specialist amicable divorce solicitor will probably say that the two of you should not use the One Lawyer Divorce Service if:

1. There is a significant power imbalance between you and your estranged spouse.
2. One of you does not see the need for financial disclosure of assets.
3. One spouse has entrenched views and appears unwilling to agree to any compromise.
4. There was domestic abuse in the relationship.
5. Your child could be at risk of harm.

There may be other reasons the service is not appropriate for you. An experienced divorce lawyer trained in providing the One Lawyer Divorce Service can screen and advise you of your alternate options.

Key takeaways on the One Lawyer Divorce Service

The Evolve Family Law One Lawyer Divorce Service is:

1. Cost-effective when compared to other methods of non-court alternative dispute resolution or traditional court proceedings.
2. Quicker than applying for a child arrangement order or financial order and waiting for court dates.
3. Flexible, as the process can work at your pace and can involve other experts as required, such as a pension expert or property valuer.
4. Bespoke to what you both want and need out of the process.
5. Less adversarial and non-confrontational compared to traditional court proceedings and some other forms of non-court alternative dispute resolution.

Get in Touch With us Today for Information on the One Lawyer Divorce Service.