One Lawyer, Two Clients is an increasingly popular option for separating couples who want an amicable divorce process and to minimise conflict when resolving issues in relation to their finances following on from their separation. We have previously explored this model in our article on Resolution Together at Girlings Solicitors.
Legislative reforms that came into force in 2022 created a no-fault route to divorce, which removed the need to blame one party for the breakdown of the marriage or wait a specified and significant period of time before the divorce could commence. This significantly changed the legal landscape for divorcing couples.
Seeking to build on those changes, Resolution Together launched an initiative to support solicitors in England and Wales to provide a more collaborative approach for separating couples seeking to navigate their divorce, whilst ensuring that they received the legal advice they needed to achieve a fair and reasonable resolution to issues arising from the breakdown of their marriage.
By working collaboratively with one jointly instructed, impartial solicitor for both partners, couples can obtain a more cost effective and less adversarial process in resolving their divorce and finances on separating.
The success of the Resolution Together approach depends on transparency, trust and full financial disclosure at the outset.
What is the process for the Resolution Together route to divorce?
In order to know if this model is right for you each party has their own individual meeting with Gemma or Jo, who are both trained practitioners, allowing them to assess suitability. It also allows clients to determine if this way of resolving matters is right for them.
Once the clients have had their initial suitability assessment and been assessed as suitable for the initiative, each party is required to complete financial disclosure.
What is financial disclosure?
Financial disclosure is a comprehensive process where each party discloses their individual financial circumstances. This will include providing evidence of income, savings, investments, debts, property details, mortgage capacity, liabilities and pension valuations amongst other things. Disclosure forms the foundation of the financial negotiations. Even if the parties have an idea about how they see their settlement they need to be sure they have a complete financial picture to determine if their settlement is fair and meets the parties (and any minor children’s) needs. By assembling important information clients enable their solicitor to focus on advising and progressing matters.
Couples will gather the relevant information prior to their first joint meeting.
How will our lawyer work out a settlement with us?
A Resolution Together trained lawyer, like Gemma or Jo, will then spend time going over each party's form and evidence to ensure that it is correctly completed and all the information is obtained before the parties sit down jointly in a meeting with Gemma or Jo and look at the settlement. As well as looking at meeting needs, transparency around pension assets is seen as being particularly significant as a Judge may not approve your Order if the issue of pensions has not been given proper consideration by the parties and/or the proposed division of pension assets is seen to be materially unfair to one party, even if it is agreed between you and your former partner as part of the process.
Why is the Resolution Together model worth considering?
The Resolution Together model reduces conflict, promotes open communication and enables the parties to work together with one lawyer whilst receiving legal advice to help and guide them reach their settlement. It is different to mediation as mediators are not allowed to provide legal advice.
Gemma says of this route to divorce: “The Resolution Together model is built upon mutual co-operation. Since the introduction of ‘no fault divorce’, I use this process to help couples who want an amicable end to their marriage, so that they engage with one another and work towards a settlement that is fair to both parties.
“If they can bring to the table a clear and transparent picture of their financial circumstances, it helps the situation enormously. As a trained RT solicitor, I have seen how fruitful this approach can be, saving time and money and allowing an otherwise stressful negotiation to be concluded with minimal friction.”
If you would like to explore whether the Resolution Together approach is suitable for your circumstances, our experienced family law team would be happy to advise. Clients that want to use this initiative can be seen at any of our three offices in Ashford, Canterbury or Herne Bay.
Please contact our Family Law team for more information: Family Law Solicitors in Kent: Canterbury, Ashford & Herne Bay
