Thousands of couples who have settled their divorces in the last 20 months may have to re-open negotiations because of an error in software used by the Ministry of Justice to calculate financial terms.
The Form E available on the Ministry of Justice website records couples’ financial details. The error relates to paragraph 2.20 of the Form E, which is supposed to produce the totals by adding the assets and subtracting liabilities but the online form has failed to take account of liabilities entered earlier on.
The error in the automatic fields on the form which calculate totals, could have led to unfair settlements.
The mistake in the Form E was rectified early in December 2015, and Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Services are in the process of contacting those people affected.
Those that have used the online Ministry of Justice website to obtain the Form E, are being urged by experts at WHN Solicitors to seek urgent legal advice via our trusted experts.
Kate Allsop, Solicitor advocate at WHN, said: “When it comes to automatic fields, glitches are not unusual but this could be a critical fault for the justice system.
“Our clients can be safe in the knowledge that we do not use this version of the form in divorce proceedings. However, if there is any doubt as to whether other parties involved could have used it then it is vital to seek advice from our expert team.”
If you think you could have been affected by this issue, please do not hesitate to get in touch and arrange a free telephone consultation with our friendly team by calling 0161 761 8075.
