It has been reported in the media that the forms on the Court Service website could have caused many divorcing couples to receive unfair outcomes in their cases.
The Court Service provides access to court forms that anyone wishing to make an application to the courts may need. They can be downloaded and printed by anyone for free. One of these forms is the Form E financial disclosure form which is used for divorcing couples who wish to settle their financial affairs.
The Form E is a detailed form in which each party must include information about their income, outgoings, capital, property, pensions, liabilities and other information connected to their financial position. These forms are then exchanged between the parties. This is called an exchange of financial disclosure. It is at this stage that the parties should then be able to negotiate a settlement as their cards are on the table.
The problem with the Court Service’s online form is that the boxes at the end of the form which add up the totals were not adding up correctly. This means that the summary showed vastly different figures than the true position as people’s liabilities were not taken in to account.
It seems that the impact of this would be that parties may have reached agreements based on incorrect figures, potentially due to the form’s error.
Samantha Lee, Managing Director and Family Solicitor at Swain & Co says, “At Swain & Co we do not use the Court Service’s online forms. We use different software that definitely does work. In addition, we always do our own calculations using good old fashioned pen and paper, to ensure we are accurate. People’s livelihoods are at stake and we take this very seriously”
If you have been affected by the Court Service errors, let us know and we can advise you further. Call one of our experienced team today on 023 92492967.
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