Legal terms explained

Barrister
This is a specific type of lawyer who spends the majority of their time arguing cases in court. Barristers also use that advocacy experience to work with solicitors in advising on possible outcomes. Also referred to as counsel.

Cafcass
This is the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service. A Cafcass officer assists the court with matters relating to children and, in disputed cases of contact or residence for example, may be asked to prepare a report for the court on what orders or action would be in the children's best interests.

Child abduction
The wrongful removal or wrongful retention of a child from their place of normal, day-to-day residence without the agreement of all persons with parental responsibility for the child.

Child maintenance
An amount that the parent not living with their child pays to the other parent in order to support the child.

CEV
A cash equivalent value (CEV) is the value of the rights accrued within a pension scheme (previously called cash equivalent transfer value or CETV).

Charge on property
This is sometimes used as a means of security if one spouse is awaiting payment of a cash lump sum on a delayed sale of a home. It works like an additional mortgage, but without interest being paid, and is usually expressed as a percentage of the value of the property. It gives the holder of the charge security because they know that they will be paid out of the proceeds of the eventual sale.

Chattels
Legal term for personal effects, usually house contents or personal possessions.

Child arrangements order
This order sets out who a child is to live with, spend time with or otherwise have contact with.

Child Maintenance Service (CMS)
Its role is to make sure that parents living apart from their children contribute financially to their upkeep by paying child maintenance. It is intended to be used by only those parents who cannot come to an agreement themselves over child maintenance. There is a child support calculator on the government website.

Circuit judge
In the family law context, this is a senior judge who deals with the more complicated cases in the Family Court. Appeals from magistrate's or a district judge's decision are heard by a circuit judge.

Civil partnership
The Civil Partnership Act 2004 came into force on 5 December 2005 and enables a same sex couple to register as civil partners. Being civil partners enables the couple to have equal treatment to a heterosexual married couple in a wide range of legal matters, including on the breakdown of the relationship.

Clean break
An order of the court ending any further financial claims between the divorcing couple. A clean break is only effective if the financial agreement is confirmed within a court order. The court has a duty in all financial proceedings to consider whether a clean break is possible.

Cohabiting/cohabitation
An arrangement in which an unmarried couple lives together in a committed personal relationship.

Collaborative law
An approach to dealing with family law issues such as finances on divorce and children arrangements built on mutual problem solving where the couple and their lawyers pledge to work together to negotiate an agreement without going to court.

Committal to prison
Sending a person to prison for breaching a court order.

Common law husband and wife
This is a common misconception; there is no such thing as a common law marriage. The rights and responsibilities of a couple who live together but are not married differ greatly to those of a married couple. They would be considered a cohabiting couple.

Consent order
A court order made by a court giving effect to the settlement terms that have been agreed between the parties.

Contact
It usually refers to the arrangement for a child to visit or stay with the parent with whom they no longer have their main home. This can be by an order of the court in a child arrangements order or by agreement between the parents. Indirect contact means the exchange of letters, telephone calls or presents. Contact arrangements within a child arrangements order can also be made in favour of others, such as grandparents.

Cost order
The court can order one party to pay the legal costs of the other. In most financial proceedings, there is a general presumption that each person will pay their own legal fees although costs orders can be made where there is “litigation misconduct”, for example a person is dishonest about their financial position or ignores court orders.

Counselling
Specialist counsellors, with the right background, are able to help adults or children who are going through a separation. Other help can be provided by psychologists, therapists and family mediators with specialised training in working with adults or children within the family context. These professionals can be referred to as family consultants.

Family consultants can be brought into the collaborative law process to help spouses work out and articulate what they want, and to help and advise on ways to improve communication. Further support can help reduce conflict, help develop coping strategies for dealing with the emotional issues that may affect the family now and in the future and help everyone to move on with their lives following the divorce. Family consultants may also work with children, seeing them separately in appropriate cases, helping them to voice their thoughts, feelings, needs and concerns.

Court
The courts handle all types of family law disputes. There are only two types of court that deal with family law disputes. The Family Court will hear most cases and, depending upon the complexity of the case, the judge might be a magistrate (also called a lay justice), district judge, circuit judge or a High Court judge. Mostly, you will find your local Family Court based at your local County Court. Very few specific types of family disputes will be heard in the High Court.

Court fees
These are the fixed administrative costs paid to the court when making an application. Fees vary depending upon the type of application. If you are in receipt of public funding (legal aid), then the court fees are generally exempt.

Court portal 
The court portal is an online system run by HMCTS. It allows cases to be started and run digitally.  It can be used for divorce and many types of financial remedy proceedings. There are slightly different portals for legal representatives and those who are acting in person.  

Custody
This is now called residence and forms part of the child arrangements order.

Equity
Refers to the net value of a property after mortgages or other charges are paid off.

Ex parte
This is now called without notice. It most commonly refers to emergency hearings that are conducted with only the applicant present at court. If the court makes an order at the without notice hearing, the judge will ensure that another hearing can be held quickly afterwards in order to hear the respondent's case and then make a final order. Often without notice hearings are used to deal with injunctions.

FDA
First directions appointment: this is the first court appointment under the standard procedure in financial proceedings.  It tends to be mainly administrative (family lawyers sometimes refer to it as a "housekeeping" hearing). The judge will consider what information is needed from both sides in order to progress the case. If the couple is able to agree the directions prior to the FDA then it may be possible to treat it as a financial dispute resolution (FDR). Often this hearing is held online, meaning you do not need to go to a physical court.  

FDR
Financial dispute resolution appointment/hearing: the second court appointment under the standard procedure in financial proceedings. This is an opportunity for the parties to negotiate on a without prejudice basis and with the assistance and guidance of a judge. Importantly, the judge who deals with the FDR cannot take any further part in the case if it does not settle at that hearing, other than to give directions for progressing the case to a final hearing. The FDR can, in more simple cases, sometimes be combined with the first directions appointment (FDA) to save costs and speed up progress.

FHDRA
A first hearing dispute resolution appointment: the first court appointment in a private law children application.

Final hearing
The trial and the final court appearance in all proceedings. A judge will hear the parties and any experts give evidence and will make a binding judgment and court order.  In limited situations there maybe grounds to appeal the judge's decision or to have it set aside.  

Financial proceedings
These are the court proceedings following a divorce to reallocate the income and capital of the marriage.

Financial remedy application
This refers to an application asking the court to sort out the financial arrangements of a couple on their divorce. The court can make a variety of orders about the finances of a divorcing couple. These are lump sum orders, property adjustment orders, property transfer orders, variation of trusts orders, periodical payments/maintenance and pension sharing orders.

Form A
This is the form used for a financial remedy application [link to definition]. Once a Form A is filed with the court, the court will set a timetable for financial disclosure and also set a court date for the First Directions Appointment (FDA). Form A is usually now submitted online via the court portal.

Form E
This is the court form setting out a person's financial circumstances (called financial disclosure) as well as details about what orders are sought. It is about the same size – and as much fun – as a tax return. It is obligatory to complete and confirm the truth of this form in court led proceedings. It is often also used as a checklist for voluntary financial disclosure and in those cases where the parties are able to come to a financial agreement without needing the help of the court, directly or through mediation or collaborative law.

Forms H and H1
These are forms filed before each court hearing, which provide details of each party's costs and what has been paid towards them.

Former matrimonial home
The house in which the divorcing couple were living together before they separated. If it is owner-occupied, it is often one of the biggest assets that has to be dealt with on divorce.

McKenzie friend
An individual who assists a litigant in person in the courtroom.A McKenzie friend does not need to be legally trained, but a specific application must be made to the court in order for them to assist.

Maintenance pending suit
In financial proceedings, a person can apply for interim periodical payments/maintenance, which is payable on a temporary basis while the proceedings are ongoing and before they are concluded. It is sometimes called interim maintenance or MPS. This is particularly useful if the financial proceedings are going to take some time to conclude.

Mediation
The process through which independent mediators try to help a couple reach agreement about the arrangements to be made for children and/or finances following their decision to divorce or separate. It is sometimes wrongly thought to be a discussion about the relationship and whether a reconciliation is possible.

Mediation information assessment meeting (MIAM)
Before court proceedings can be issued – either about children or about finance – you will usually be required to attend a meeting about mediation to ensure you have information about the process. This is called a mediation information and assessment meeting (MIAM). This meeting can be a useful way of finding out more about mediation, although it is better to have explored the option of mediation before you decide that you want to start court proceedings.

Mediator
A third party who assists the parties to reach a negotiated settlement.

Mirror order
A court order obtained in a foreign court, which reflects exactly the terms of an English court order. Mirror orders are generally obtained to enforce the terms of an English order outside England and Wales.

Mortgagee
This is usually a bank or building society, but it can be anyone who lends you money to buy a property on the security of the property.

Mortgagor
This is the borrower who obtains a mortgage.

Parental responsibility
This term describes all of the rights, duties and responsibilities which, by law, a parent of a child has in relation to that child. Aspects of parental responsibility include decisions about a child's religion, education, name and medical treatment.If the parents are married, or if the child was born after 1 December 2003 and the father is named on the birth certificate, both parents of a child have joint parental responsibility for that child before, during and after divorce or separation. 

Pension
Cash and/or an income paid by the Government or a private company or arrangement on a person's retirement. Pension funds can be extremely valuable and may be an important part of any financial settlement, especially after longer marriages. There are three ways of resolving issues around pensions and provision on retirement.

• Pension earmarking is arranging that, when a pension comes to be paid, a proportion of it is paid to the other party
• Pension offsetting is offsetting the value of the pension against some other asset such as the marital home
• Pension sharing is the splitting of the pension at the time of divorce, giving both parties their own pension fund

Periodical payments
The technical phrase for maintenance.

Permission to remove
An application to the court for permission to remove a child permanently from England and Wales. This used to be called leave to remove.

Postnuptial agreement (postnup)
An agreement which  is used to protect the wealth of one or both spouses in a marriage. It sets out will happen if their marriage breaks down and, in particular, deals with finances. A postnup is signed after a marriage has taken place. 

Power of arrest
This allows the police to arrest a person who ignores or breaks an order of the court. A power of arrest can only be attached to an occupation order and not a non-molestation order because a breach of a non-molestation order is automatically considered to be a criminal offence.If your partner breaks the order and you call the police, they will ask to see a copy of the order to see if it has a power of arrest. Once the police have arrested that person they must bring them back to court within 24 hours.

Prayer
The section of the petition that asks the court to make orders in favour of the petitioner.

Prenuptial agreement (prenup)
An agreement made in contemplation of marriage, and signed before the wedding.  It sets out what will happen if the couple separate or divorce and is often used to protect wealth. 

Parent with care
A term that used to be used by the Child Support Agency for the parent with whom the child had his or her main home. The Child Maintenance Service now refer to the parent with care as the "receiving parent" (i.e. they receive the maintenance on behalf of the child).

Privilege
The right of a person to refuse to disclose a document or to refuse to answer questions on the grounds of some special interest recognised by law.

Process server
This is someone employed to serve court papers. To prove that the papers have been served, the process server will normally swear an affidavit, which will be sent to the court.

Prohibited steps order
An order used to prohibit something being done to a child, for example, changing a child's surname or taking the child out of England and Wales.

Property adjustment order/property transfer order
The court's power to change the ownership of an asset. Usually, but not always, this will be in relation to property.

Sale of property order
Where a court makes an order for secured periodical payments (see maintenance), lump sum or property adjustment, it may make a further order for the sale of property to satisfy the earlier order.

Seal
A mark or stamp that the court puts on documents to indicate that they have been issued by the court.

Separation agreement
A contractual document that deals with the arrangements between a couple after their separation. 

Service
The process by which court documents are formally sent to, and received by, the party to whom they are addressed.

Set aside
Cancelling a judgment or order.

Solicitor
A lawyer who advises a client and prepares a case for court. Specialist family law solicitors may also be trained as mediators, collaborative lawyers or arbitrators.

Specific issue order
An order determining a specific issue relating to a child, for example, which school a child is to attend.

Spousal Maintenance
A regular payment of money by one spouse to another under a court order or following an agreement. It is possible to capitalise spousal maintenance by the payment of a lump sum to achieve a clean break. Though rare, maintenance can be secured on the assets of the paying party if there is a risk that the order may be breached and those assets can then be sold to ensure the recipient's claim is satisfied. See also child maintenance.

Section 8 order
An order under section 8 of the Children Act 1989: namely a child arrangements order, a prohibited steps order and a specific issue order.

Section 25 factors
The checklist of criteria upon which financial remedy applications are decided.

Statement of truth
A statement or other document containing facts verified as being true by the person making the statement. If the document is false, proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against the person who made the false statement.

Stay
To place a stop or a halt on court proceedings.

Strike out
The court ordering that written material or evidence may no longer be relied upon.

Swear
To declare on oath that what is being said or what is contained in a document is true. This is usually administered by a solicitor, notary public or a member of court staff. It sometimes incurs a small fee.