Working with clients
Typical clients
We work with wives, husbands, businessmen and women; highly-paid, comfortably well-off or of modest means. It’s fair to say that we are less likely to be involved in divorces that are proceeding entirely amicably.
We only ever work for one party in a divorce.
There’s seldom a lot of time, frequently there’s urgency with forms or analysis needing to be submitted soon. Perhaps there’s a hearing coming up and you are way off completing the forms. Clients often find the detail bewildering and find the time pressures overwhelming.
Availability
We’re used to tight deadlines. We’re used to taking calls in evenings and at weekends and you’ll find us working unusual hours to complete work on time. We are fast, responsive and used to meeting urgent timetables and Court-imposed dates. We’re also used to working with other professionals, like solicitors.
You don’t have to be based nearby for us to work effectively together, as much of our interaction is by telephone and email. When we meet it can be at one of our Divorce Accountant’s offices, or at your home, workplace or somewhere else convenient. We can be flexible.
Managing “facts”
We understand the importance of detail and the value of hard facts to confirm earnings, expenditure and needs. We uncover what we need by a mix of interpreting complex financial information and by the more basic forensic examination of bank, credit card and financial statements.
Our work may culminate in a completed Form E or a questionnaire. It is often ongoing until the case settles. Where we produce reports, they will be clear and, where possible, succinct. Solicitors counsel and judges have little available time and our work aims to highlight the key points at issue.
We work with your solicitor
Most people need a solicitor, and if divorce proceedings have already been initiated you probably have already appointed yours. Or perhaps you are more recently separated and have yet to take that step.
Either way, unless you prefer that we work in the background (which is fine), in due course we are likely to be working with your solicitor, and together we can make a formidable team.
We can streamline financial aspects of the case and enable progress to be made faster. Solicitors tend to get far better financial data when we’re involved and they can then use that to good effect.
It’s cost-effective for us to focus on finance and for your solicitor to attend to the legal side as we can deliver far greater financial expertise and be less costly than having your lawyer do everything. Indeed we often accompany a client to Court to be able to explain and evaluate, there and then, the financial discussions being negotiated by Counsel.