Consent order rejected

[sevenseventy]

Strictly speaking, this excludes kids as we have made our own arrangements.
After a hearing last week, the DJ rejected the consent order as she wasn't happy with the split. It was too lopsided in my favour (both pensions and capital, no house/other assets to consider).
I initially had a brief session with a family law solicitor and explained my situation for imbalance, ongoing health issue (could affect ability to work in future) and disability (wheelchair user), and I was told that courts wouldn't try and override agreements provided that justification was clearly articulated.
So off we went to one of these online services which drew up the consent order, and now it all seems a bit wasted as it's been rejected. And they too, assured us that they would point out any glaring issues we needed to address before submitting it.
I do realize I will have to find another solicitor, but in the meantime, I'd appreciate any comments from folks who have been in, or know of a similar'ish situation?
Does a written explanation from the DJ arrive in the post later on?

 

[Ash]

Ok - I'm not an expert on divorce but I'm aware of someone who did similar. They were amicable and thought they'd save money by just using one solicitor to draw up everything they had agreed. It was submitted to court for approval and the Judge refused to approve it without a hearing to see them both as he thought it was imbalanced. But they insisted they didn't want to go to court so the Judge passed it. A few years later, when things weren't so amicable, one of them contested it and it ended up in court again and had to be done all over again because the court said both parties hadn't had independent legal advise.

So from what I understand - it's fine to draw up your own divorce agreement - providing you've both had independent legal advice. The downside to independent legal advice is, solicitors are adversarial and want to make some money so argue and drag things out.

If the DJ has rejected the consent order are they asking you both to go to a hearing?

Strictly speaking, this excludes kids as we have made our own arrangements.

Strongly advise you to have a separate consent order over the kids arrangements as well to legalise/formalise what arrangements you've agreed. You cannot just rely on trust when it comes to the future of the children as however reasonable things might be now - that can change. And if you later had to go to court to see your kids it would be a lengthy, stressful, expensive process.

To do a consent order for child arrangements, without going to court, you both need a solicitor for a one off job. One solicitor to write up the consent order, the other to approve the wording, then it's sent to court for sealing.

 

[sevenseventy]

I appreciate the information.
The consent order was submitted, then came the rejection letter saying 'not enough information provided to justify departure from equality', or something similar, along with information that a hearing would be scheduled by video call. That hearing/meeting took place last week.
We had both spoken to respective solicitors and then got an online service to do the write up of the consent order.
Judge never asked whether we had sought legal advice. Mostly asked each of us to explain how we thought it was fair. Ending with her saying that she was not prepared to approve it. I'm not sure what happens next?
Part of my reasoning for excluding kids, is that the youngest is 13 and is mature enough/well aware of issues. If things did turn sour, at most it's 5 years until he's able to make his own decisions. That's not the full picture, I admit, but looking at it from a worst case scenario.