Form E within Family Court Proceedings

A Form E is the financial document, used within Family Court proceedings, which each party is required to complete to evidence their financial position. Forms E are also exchanged on a voluntary basis, outside of Court proceedings, in order to provide full financial disclosure to enable solicitors to negotiate a settlement without the need for costly court applications.

The Form is split into three parts, the first part requires you client to detail everything that you have both as to capital and income.  The second part requires you to detail capital and income requirements for the future post-divorce and the third part enables you to set out various pieces of information that the Court and the other side should take into account when considering the case.  In that section you can also detail what Orders you are seeking although sometimes it is not possible to do this until after receipt of the other party’s Form E.

It is crucial that the Form E is completed as accurately, with the most up to date information and as with as much detail as possible.  You are required to sign a Statement of Truth at the end of the document which states “I believe the that the facts stated in this statement are true and confirm that the information given above is a full, frank, clear and accurate disclosure of my financial and other relevant circumstances”.

When completing a Form E you need to ensure the following:-

• There is consistency between related sections
• Temporary decreases in income, for instance, are not represented as long term which would be misleading
• That the information in the Form E is reflected in the supporting documentation
• There is consistency as to the valuation dates for bank balances etc
• Valuation information is the most up to date possible

It is our role to ensure that your Form E presents with the fullest disclosure possible and does not fall foul of any of the points made above.  If your Form E has missing information then your spouse’s solicitors will merely raise a Questionnaire requesting that documentation and clarification on any misleading information.  Examples of missing information are:-

• Failure to provide a full run of bank statements
• Providing tax returns or accounts for one year only rather than two
• Failure to provide disclosure of offshore assets or recently opened bank accounts
• Failure to disclose investments which maybe held by third parties as nominees
• Failure to disclose trusts of which you are a beneficiary

It is your solicitor’s job to test your Form E before it is sent to the other side so that as fewer questions as possible are raised by your spouse’s solicitors. This also keeps cost to a minimum. A copy of a Form E can be found at Form E Financial statement (publishing.service.gov.uk)