A vital issue to be determined when any couple is divorcing is how the assets of the couple should be divided. The starting point for this process is for each party to complete a financial statement known as 'Form E'.
The Ministry of Justice has the form available on its website to download. Given the withdrawal of legal aid (public funding) for most divorce cases in recent years, many people decide to complete the forms and prepare the documents themselves without the assistance of a solicitor to help them through the divorce process.
The Ministry of Justice has recently admitted that since April 2014 there was a software error in Form E on its website. The effect of this error is to potentially increase the financial worth of a wife or husband. Thus thousands of divorcing couples who have agreed their divorces in the last 21 months may have to reopen the discussions to ensure that the settlement was based on correctly calculated figures.
The error in the form was only spotted by a family law specialist at the end of 2015.
It is not necessarily the case that everybody that has used the form has an incorrect calculation but clearly it is vital to ensure that the figures have been correctly calculated.
The error could affect many thousands of divorce settlements including judgments and orders which have been made by the Courts. It is worth remembering that there were in excess of 114,500 divorces in England and Wales in 2013.
HM Courts & Tribunals Services has now admitted the error but it could take some considerable time to establish the extent of the problem and, of course, put the figures right.
If you think you may have been affected by this error (even if you acted for yourself in your divorce) contact us to discuss this and other family related issues.