The newspapers have today been awash with various headlines such as "Divorce form error could have led to unfair settlements" and "Divorce software error to hit thousands of settlements".
The concern about such headlines is that it could lead to divorcees panicking or indeed raising false hopes about overturning the original financial settlement. The software relates to an online form which can be downloaded from the Ministry of Justice. Solicitors rarely use forms directly from the Ministry of Justice and certainly we at Wake Smith do not use the software which has caused today's headline. Where a divorcing couple have agreed a financial settlement, the form to which the software glitch applies, is not relevant. If a couple are not able to reach an agreement and issue Court proceedings to try and resolve their claims then they are required to fill in a lengthy form called a "Form E". The Form E requires the parties to set out in detail their income, expenditure, capital, liabilities and pension provision. The Form E is completed at the start of the process. The completed Form E will clearly show what each parties' capital amounts to and will clearly show what each parties' liabilities amount to; the software glitch is that the online form should automatically deduct the liabilities from the capital sum and calculate the net effect. It is unusual for solicitors to use the Ministry of Justice website to fill in Form E's and so the problem highlighted today will predominantly affect those parties who have represented themselves within the financial proceedings. As has already been mentioned, the Form E is completed at the start of the Court process and although there is a problem with the software, it nevertheless does not prevent the Judge clearly seeing on the Form E the value of the capital and later the amount of the liabilities. Whilst it has been estimated that over 20,000 cases may have been affected by the error in the software it would be very surprising if many divorce settlements will have to be revisited as a result of the error. Despite the anticipated low numbers of cases affected, nevertheless the Ministry of Justice will have to carry out a full investigation which will require judicial involvement. This is unwelcomed news during a time when the Courts are very much overworked, not least because of so many people representing themselves in person rather than through a specialist solicitor who would know what assets and liabilities should be taken into account relevant to the individual case in hand and will not rely on a generic formula from the Ministry of Justice. If you have any concerns about a financial divorce settlement which may have taken place after the issue of Court proceedings, please contact our specialist Family Law Department on 0114 266 6660 or [email protected].
