Birmingham Divorce & Family Law Solicitors

The law regarding prenuptial agreements has developed significantly over time however the position is that the Court are now giving great weigh to both prenuptial agreements and postnuptial agreements that that satisfy the following criteria:

a) Being signed at least 28 days before the marriage.  

b) Both parties having had independent legal advice.  

c) The agreement being based on full financial disclosure.  

d) The agreement being fair and reasonable.  

Any agreement that does not enable one party to meet their needs is unlikely to be upheld by the Court if there is a later divorce. Agreements that are fair and enable both parties to meet their needs stand a good chance of being upheld by the court.  We work alongside other family lawyers collaboratively to assist you and your partner agree a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement that can help you preserve your wealth and protect your assets in the event of a separation.

We will work with you to identify assets and then advise you what we believe a fair division of the matrimonial assets would be with consideration of the criteria that a Court would use to consider a financial settlement. There is no one answer about the division of assets and often there are several solutions that may work for you with those solutions being specific to your particular circumstances. Our advice will be tailored and specific. You should be careful about taking advice from others who have been through the process as their outcome may be very different to yours.

In certain circumstances, assets acquired before a relationship begins may be ‘ringfenced’. However whether this happens will depend on how long the relationship was, what other assets have been created during the relationship, whether the assets from before the relationship have been ‘used’ or incorporated into the marital assets and what each party needs to move on with their lives.

Any financial agreement that is reached is always on the basis of full and financial disclosure. Obtaining this disclosure is one of the most important parts of the process. If full financial disclosure isn’t being provided by your spouse there are steps that can be taken to enforce this disclosure through the Court with enforcement options. There may be experts that can become involved to help trace assets and identify the extent of wealth if this is of concern. We use trusted third parties to assist with such difficulties where necessary. 

A common misconception is that you equally share each individual asset that you own. This is not the case. Instead, we work with you to consider the overall value of the assets that you each own solely and that you own together. We then consider how that total value should be divided and adjusted between you after separation.

Any welfare decisions relating to your children require all those with parental responsibility to agree. Welfare decisions include moving out of the jurisdiction (or moving away from the locality of the family home). If you both agree to this move (and have this confirmed in writing) there is no need for there to be a Court Order unless immigration requirements need detailed evidence of the same. If the other parent does not agree, mediation is an option to try to resolve these issues. If mediation is not successful in resolving where the children will live, an application can be made to the Court and the Court can determine in which jurisdiction the children should be allowed to stay/ move to by reviewing what is in their best interest, and all of the options available.