Family Law

If you are divorced you are free to marry again. If you are separated you are still married and cannot remarry. However, a legal separation is important as it deals with all the financial issues and means that you can get on with your life relatively soon after your marriage has ended. Otherwise, you must wait 4 years after the marriage ends before you can seek a divorce.

No, once you are four years separated you may start divorce proceedings.

Mediation is where an independent third party helps both parties come to agreement about difficult issues such as custody and access to children, division of assets, maintenance payments and pensions. The aim of mediation is to help the couple resolve matters in a constructive way so that the interests of both parties and in particular those of their children are met. If a couple can reach agreement in mediation, those terms can then form part of a consent agreement. This can then save couples thousands of euro in legal fees where they can reach agreement.

Under the law there is no obligation on either party to have a solicitor when seeking a divorce in Ireland. However, in cases where divorce is contested or there are issues over assets, or arrangements concerning the children then it is advisable to seek legal advice before bringing an application. Even if you have decided you do not want to retain a solicitor, it is best to seek legal advice. We often come across clients who have drafted their own legal papers and consent terms many years later and there have been difficulties in same.

Therefore, we recommend that at the very least that you have each party get a solicitor to review the terms of separation or divorce before you agree to same. Pensions are highly complex and it is important to seek advice on these before pension adjustment orders are made. Remember that in a DIY divorce you are responsible yourself and if it goes wrong the consequences rest with you alone. It is always advisable to seek the advice of a family law solicitor and/or family law barrister first.

In Ireland, the current system does not allow applicants to file online for a divorce. You must submit the paperwork through the Circuit Court office.

Divorce hearings take place at the local court.

There are thousands of people in Ireland waiting to lodge applications for a divorce or judicial separation. As it is, efforts are being made to provide extra judges, more courtrooms, additional lawyers. As a result, you may still have to wait many months before your case comes up for hearing. In addition, should your spouse try and drag their feet during the process or delay things, that can impact on the time it takes to get a divorce or separation.

However, where there is a good chance of settling a case or where the terms have been agreed between the parties, the process can move quickly. We believe in moving things along as swiftly as possible to avoid hefty fees for clients. A fully contested divorce usually takes on average approximately 9 months. Where the parties are not contesting the divorce but merely working out financial arrangements and child arrangements, then 6 months is more common.

Often when discussions about divorce arise, there is an assumption that the family home is the biggest asset and parties to a divorce may place a major focus on the family home. However, in reality, and certainly given property market values of the past few years, a pension may be the most valuable asset.

Typically the parties and the courts will deal with the pension itself, the pension lump sum, spousal death in service benefits and spousal death in retirement benefits. It should be noted that if one spouse has a substantial pension and the other spouse has none, perhaps because he or she worked in the home, the court can order that part of the spouse’s pension be paid to the other spouse or to a dependent child. Alternatively, part of the pension fund could be split and put into another pension fund in the name of the second spouse. This is known as a pension adjustment order.

Some clients, particularly those working for government organisations or large companies where there are often good pension plans in existences, may find that they have sizeable pensions worth significantly more than the family home. In such cases, those clients may look to protect their pension in the division of assets. Indeed, there are cases where, as part of a divorce settlement, a spouse has kept the pension and given the other spouse the family home.

The courts attempt to separate the parties in as fair a manner as possible and try to insure that proper financial provision has been made for both the children and the parents. Before making a pension adjustment order, a court will consider all of the finances available to the parties and if it refuses to make a pension adjustment order, it may decide to reflect the value of the pension fund in the division of other marital assets.

Once granted, a pension adjustment order is then served on the trustees of the pension scheme who will then amend the pension in favour of the other spouse.

The danger in not dealing properly with pensions during a divorce is that the problem may not become apparent until such time as someone retires. There have been cases where parties have divorced and remarried, yet when one party retires, it transpires that their former spouse and not their new spouse is the person entitled to the pension or the death in retirement benefit.

As pensions are very complex, it is strongly advised to consult with a solicitor and a pension specialist before negotiating any family law settlement.