Deal - or no Deal?

District Judge PETER JOLLY

Encouragement has quite properly been given to the speedy processing of financial agreements reached through the process of collaborative law. Following an initiative by Coleridge J in S v P (Settlement by Collaborative Law Process) [2008] 2 FLR 2040 a case that in fact involved an unmarried couple these agreements can be fast-tracked in High Court cases. County courts are challenged to offer equivalent facilities for divorcing couples. If spouses have resolved their respective differences in an adult and conciliatory fashion the sooner the court can approve the agreement and it can be implemented the better.

The reasons are obvious. Most parties are better able to move on in their lives once litigation is concluded. Legal costs cease and were one party to have second thoughts about the wisdom of the concluded deal or feel a sudden pang of jealousy at the new person in the life of their former spouse or feel peeved at the apparent breakdown in child contact an agreement perfected and implemented is more difficult to unscramble. The purpose of this article is not to examine grounds and procedures for upsetting agreements and orders merely...

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