Your Draft Consent Agreement Explained - Also Referred To As A Draft Consent Order Or An Informal Agreement
(With Template)
WHAT THE WORD ‘DRAFT’ MEANS IN THE FAMILY COURT?
To understand what the word ‘draft’ means when it comes to the family court, let us explain first what a court order and consent order are –
A court order – is a piece of paper detailing any decisions made by a court. This court order will have a court stamp, mandatory warnings and penal notices on it.
A consent order – is a piece of paper detailing decisions that have been agreed between you and your ex-partner and approved by the court. In other words it is a court order that has been reached by yours and your ex-partners consent. This consent order will also have a court stamp, mandatory warnings and penal notices on it. In child arrangements, a consent order is called a child arrangements order that has been reached by consent. In financial settlement/division of assets, a consent order is called a financial consent order.
Now to get a consent order, you and your ex-partner will need to send the court a piece of paper detailing all the decisions you both have agreed so they can look over it and approve it. This piece of paper is called a draft consent agreement. It can also be referred to as a draft consent order or an informal agreement. However, please note the most important word here is the word ‘draft’.
Draft – A ‘draft’ version of a court order, consent order or an agreement is a version that has NOT YET been approved and stamped by the family court. The draft version is like a guide that will assist court staff to write the legally binding consent order.
YOUR DRAFT CONSENT AGREEMENT EXPLAINED?
During your divorce there are 2 agreements that you and your ex-partner will have to reach –
- Child arrangements (if there are underage children in the marriage).
- Division of your marital assets, finances and pensions.
When you and your ex-partner have reached an agreement concerning child arrangements and how your marital assets, finances, and pensions are going to be divided, this agreement will be written up on a piece of paper called a draft consent agreement. This draft consent agreement will be sent to the relevant court to be approved and converted into a legally binding final order called a consent order.
You will need a SEPARATE draft consent agreement for child arrangements and a SEPARATE one for the division of your marital assets, finances and pensions. More than likely different courts will deal with each of these 2 agreements.
If you and your ex-partner have reached an agreement through mediation, the mediator will write an outcome statement or a memorandum of understanding detailing everything that has been agreed. Then you and your ex-partner can either write this agreement into a draft consent agreement yourselves, the mediation company can do it for you, or you can hire a solicitor to do it. If you use an online divorce company, they will write the draft consent agreement for you, depending upon the package you buy from them, and they will send it to the relevant court to approve it into a consent order.
Applying for a consent order is a relatively easy process because everything is agreed. The court will make sure the draft consent agreement is fair to all parties.
WHAT OTHER PAPERWORK/FORMS DO YOU SEND WITH YOUR DRAFT CONSENT AGREEMENT TO THE COURT?
CHILD ARRANGEMENTS – For child arrangements, you will need to attach your draft consent agreement to form C100, which is the application form used to start court proceedings for child arrangements. Please tick the box on page 1 of form C100, ‘are you applying for an order to formalise an agreement?’.
LINK TO OUR L.I.P HELP GUIDE FOR FORM C100
FINANCIAL SETTLEMENT/DIVISION OF MARITAL ASSETS – For division of your marital assets, finances and pensions (also known as financial remedy/ancillary relief/financial settlement), you will need to attach your draft consent agreement to form A, which is the application form to start court proceedings for a financial settlement. Please tick the box on page 1 of form A ‘Additional information – Are you applying for an order by consent in terms of written agreement?’. You will also need to complete and submit form D81, which is a statement of support form for a consent order. Form D81 is where both you and your ex-partner will detail both of your finances. Form D81 will help the court determine whether your draft consent agreement is fair.
LINK TO OUR L.I.P HELP GUIDE FOR FORM A
LINK TO OUR L.I.P HELP GUIDE FOR FORM D81
DO YOU AND YOUR EX-PARTNER BOTH HAVE TO SIGN THE DRAFT CONSENT AGREEMENT?
Yes, both signatures are required before sending the draft consent order to the court.
WHEN DO YOU SEND YOUR DRAFT CONSENT AGREEMENT TO THE COURT?
CHILD ARRANGEMENTS – At any time.
FINANCIAL SETTLEMENT/DIVISION OF MARITAL ASSETS – The court will only agree your draft consent agreement once you have applied for a conditional order/decree nisi certificate – the document issued by the court that says the court believes you are entitled to a divorce. This consent order will come into force once the court have issued a final order/decree absolute certificate – the legal document issued by the court that states your marriage has ended.
LINK TO OUR L.I.P HELP GUIDE ‘PROCESS OF APPLYING FOR A CONDITONAL ORDER’
LINK TO OUR L.I.P HELP GUIDE ‘PROCESS FOR APPLYING FOR A FINAL ORDER’
WHAT HAPPENS ONCE YOU SEND YOUR DRAFT CONSENT AGREEMENT TO THE COURT?
CHILD ARRANGEMENTS – The court will decide if the draft consent agreement is best for the child/children. The court will probably have a court hearing to make sure and see if Cafcass need to do any safeguarding checks.
FINANCIAL SETTLEMENT/DIVISION OF MARITAL ASSETS – The court will go over all the paperwork. If they feel that the draft consent agreement is not fair, then they may order a court hearing to discuss this with both you and your ex-partner and may ask for more information.
IF YOUR EX-PARTNER IS NOT COMPLYING WITH THE COURT STAMPED CONSENT ORDER, WHAT CAN YOU DO?
CHILD ARRANGEMENTS – First, you should give them a chance to rectify the situation. Then, try family mediation. If this doesn’t work, then you can complete form C79 and submit it to the court so that the court can get involved.
LINK TO OUR L.I.P HELP GUIDE FOR FORM C79
FINANCIAL SETTLEMENT/DIVISION OF MARITAL ASSETS – First, you should give them a chance to rectify the situation. Then, try family mediation. If this doesn’t work, you can complete form D11 and make an application to the court so the court can get involved.
LINK TO OUR L.I.P HELP GUIDE FOR FORM D11
WHAT IS A DRAFT CLEAN BREAK CONSENT ORDER?
Even if you are divorcing and there are no marital assets, it is important to get a clean break consent order from the court so that neither you nor your ex-partner can make any future claims on each other’s future assets and finances. Please read our L.I.P Help Guide, ‘Financial Terms & Financial Court Orders Explained – Clean Break Order’.
DO YOU NEED TO ATTEND MEDIATION BEFORE SENDING YOUR DRAFT CONSENT AGREEMENT TO THE COURT FOR FORMALISATION/APPROVAL INTO A CONSENT ORDER?
There is no legal requirement for both you and your ex-partner to attend any form of mediation before you apply to the court to formalise/approve your draft consent agreement.
HOW SHOULD YOU REFER TO EACH OTHER/YOUR EX-PARTNER IN THE DRAFT CONSENT AGREEMENT?
Normally, you should refer to your ex-partner as the applicant or respondent, whichever one they are. However, I have also seen people refer to their ex-partners by their name (MR, MRS, MS, DR) or in my divorce case I was referred to as W (wife) and my husband was referred to as H (husband).
WHEN ELSE SHOULD YOU SEND A DRAFT COURT ORDER TO THE COURT?
When you submit an application to the court to ask for something you can attach a draft copy of the court order you want the court to make. This will make it easy for the judge to understand what you are after. An example of this is when you submit a form D11 to the court to ask for an interim order within an existing court case.
You can also attach a draft copy of a court order to your witness statement or position statement before a directions hearing which will give the judge a picture of what you are asking for/what you want.
YOU CAN USE OUR I AM LIP TEMPLATE
You will need to produce your own draft consent agreement as it is not a government form. You can either get a solicitor to produce a draft consent agreement for you and your ex-partner or you can both use our I AM L.I.P template below.
The team here at I AM L.I.P have produced a draft consent agreement template for you to download and fill in. Once you have filled in it you can print a hard copy. Click on the upper right corner of the document below to access it. Once accessed, we recommend you click the ‘Open Original’ button on the upper right corner to download the document on Microsoft Word, or you can download the document on other applications such as Google Docs. The BLACK writing is part of the template document and should not be altered. The RED writing is where you should edit the template document as it is there to guide you on what to include.
PLEASE NOTE – Our team at I AM L.I.P have produced these templates with the focus being to cater to every type of user regardless of their skill set, technical capabilities, literacy comprehension and level of neurodiversity. We understand that when most people are completing these templates, they can be under immense emotional distress due to the difficult process of divorce. Therefore, these templates are here to make the process easier.