Final Settlements on Divorce: make sure it's final

Over the weekend The Times reported a divorce story where a wife had secured a divorce settlement of £220,000 over 22 years after the couple separated.

When the couple separated in 1986 they didn't divorce nor did they agree a financial settlement. It may seem astounding that the wife was allowed to pursue a divorce settlement so many years after they separated, but legally there's nothing to stop her.

If the couple couple had divorced in 1986 and, more importantly, if their financial claims on divorce had been resolved by way of a court order, then the wife would not have been able to bring this claim so many years later.

So that's the moral of the story: agree a financial divorce settlement and get it made into an order by the family court.