Form E in Divorce – What is it & What do I need to do?

What is Form E in Divorce Proceedings?

Form E is a detailed document you and your spouse are required to complete if you want to finalise financial matters after a divorce.

You will be asked to provide details on your income, assets, pensions, outgoings, and expenses.

You will also be asked to disclose the needs of yourself and your children.

To ensure the document is completed correctly you and your spouse have a duty to provide full and frank disclosure.

Here is a link to a Form E divorce example.

Is Form E compulsory in divorce?

Completing Form E is not compulsory in every divorce. It’s only compulsory if you or your spouse have asked the court to approve a financial order to divide money and assets.

The courts will require both parties to fill out a Form E; this is so that they are able to make a fair judgment on your current financial situation. This ensures the order they make is fair to both parties.

If you and your spouse want to create a financial order but don’t want to go through the courts, you are able to use a financial consent order.

You will still be required to provide information on your financial situation and you may be asked to provide a Form E informally (without the courts being involved). If you both agree on how to split your finances, and it’s deemed fair, you are not required to go to court.

What information or documents are needed for Form E?

You will be asked to attach a number of documents to go alongside your Form E. These are documents that provide evidence to prove that what you have written is correct.

On the final page of your Form E document will be a checklist, this will help you understand what documents are required.

The documents you could be asked to provide could include:

• Matrimonial home valuation
• Matrimonial home mortgage statement
• Personal bank, building society and national saving accounts
• Any other quoted investments
• Life insurance policies
• Business interests
• Pension and PPF compensation
• Employment income & self-employment or partnership income

Not all of these documents will be applicable for you as an individual, for example, a mortgage. If this is the case you can simply mark it as ‘not applicable.

Alternatively, you may not have access to the document that they require. If this is the case simply mark it as ‘to follow’. This means that you have requested it but it’s not yet been made available to you.

Failure to provide financial disclosure

You have the duty to give full and frank disclosure when filling out a Form E. This means you have to give full and accurate disclosure of all your financial and personal circumstances.

If you fail to give the courts full and frank disclosure your case may be set aside.

If you are found to have been untruthful on purpose, criminal charges may be enforced under the Fraud act 2006.

If you believe your spouse is withholding information or has not been truthful, you can ask the courts for a hearing where you will be required to show evidence as to why you believe your spouse is lying/withholding information.

The courts will then make a judgment and decided whether to order the disclosure you have requested and if a punishment should be made against your spouse for not disclosing it.

It’s important to understand that Form E is a legal document and you are required to sign a statement of truth. This means that if you do not provide full disclosure there will be consequences.

These can include:

• A delay or removal of the financial settlement
• Your financial settlement can be altered which could result in the party who has been found guilty of failure to provide financial disclosure receiving less.
• A fine in the form of a cost order against the spouse who has not provided full disclosure.

Our Advice

Form E is a large document with a multitude of questions. This can seem rather daunting at first.

We would advise reading through the document first before attempting to answer any of the questions.

Once you have done this, check the final page which includes the checklist of evidence. The documents needed will provide you with the answers that are required to fill out the form.

To make it a little easier we recommended finding these documents first.

It’s extremely important that you give the courts the correct information otherwise there could be future consequences; especially if you are withholding assets or being untruthful.