When a marriage comes to an end, the legal process of divorce involves not only the dissolution of the marital bond, but also the disentanglement of the couples’ financial and property-related matters. This is because the courts have a duty to ensure that both parties to the divorce proceedings and their children have a fair and equitable arrangement on their financial matters.
This process of seeking the court’s assistance in adjudicating all financial aspects of a marriage following the issuance of a divorce petition is called ‘ancillary relief’.
The Family Court can make various financial orders, including:
- Order for maintenance pending suit;
- Periodical payments order;
- Lump sum order;
- Secured lump sum payment Order;
- Secured periodical payments order;
- Settlement of property order;
- Transfer of property order;
- Variation of settlement order.
In making any of the above orders, the courts are guided by four principles:
- The objective of fairness – the result must be fair and just;
- The rejection of discrimination – both parties to the marriage hold an equal status even if they had different roles in the family during the marriage;
- The yardstick of equality – the court’s starting point should be to split the matrimonial assets equally and only depart from this if there is a good reason; and,
- The rejection of minute retrospective investigations into conduct and why the marriage failed, or who made the bigger contribution to the marriage.