Writing a Section 25 Statement
A section 25 statement is prepared (if the court tells you to do one) between FDR and final hearing.
What is a section 25 statement?
A section 25 statement is a type of witness statement that talks about the things listed in section 25 Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. These are:
The income, earning capacity, property and financial resources of you and your spouse now and in the future.
The financial needs, obligations and responsibilities of you and your spouse now and in the future.
The standard of living before the breakdown of your marriage.
The ages of you and your spouse and the length of your marriage.
Any physical or mental disability that either you or your spouse have, or any children.
Any contributions you and your spouse have made to the welfare of the family including looking after the home or caring for the children.
Any conduct (behaviour) by you or your spouse that the court believes is relevant.
Any value or benefit which you would lose when getting divorced.
These are the things that the court has to consider when it decides how to split your assets.
When you write a section 25 statement, it’s your evidence on these things.
At the final hearing, the judge and your ex (or a lawyer) will ask you questions about this evidence. You can ask your ex questions about this evidence too.
It’s not about argument. It’s a factual statement.
If there’s something you don’t know for sure, you need to explain why you believe that information to be true.
The format of the statement
There are specific rules about formatting a statement for court. We have a template that you can use.
Don’t type your statement into an email. It has to be a separate Word document. Here is a free app for Microsoft Word on the web.
You must use font in 12 or bigger and use double line spacing.
Use headings in your statement and number each paragraph.
Write ‘I’ and ‘my husband’ or ‘my wife’. You can use their first name if you prefer.
In the first part of your statement put your name and address.
If you are hiding your address from your ex, then file form C8 if you have not already and write on the section 25 statement ‘I live at an address known to the court’.
How long should it be?
The court will probably set you a maximum page limit. Longer does not necessarily mean better.
The absolute maximum if the court does not set a limit is 25 pages in the format we’ve said (this is what it says in Practice Direction 27A at paragraph 8.1). However, best practice is to take up no more than 15 pages including supporting exhibits. That’s 15 pages single sided, double-lined spaced, and in 12 point font.
Suggested topics
It’s best to go through the statement in the same way that the law is written. This will make it easier for the judge.
Background information
Start with essential background facts: how old you each are, the ages of any children, how long you have been married and when you started to live together and when you separated.
Give a one-paragraph history of your life before the marriage, including your qualifications and career. Do a second paragraph about your ex.
Income and earning capacity
Explain your current financial situation. Where are you living, and how are you paying for it?
What’s your income? What do you do for a living? Could you earn any more money by retraining or working more hours? Is there a risk of losing your job?
Explain any limits on what you can earn or how many hours you can work (such as the need to pick the children up from school). If child care is a problem, explain what resources are available to you or not available to you, such as after school clubs, and any associated fees.
If you are self-employed, explain what you do and how much money it brings you, and how you expect the business to perform in the future.
If you’re not working, why this is, and whether you are able to look for work, and what benefits you receive.
Now do exactly the same, but for your ex. What do they earn? Could they work more?
Property and other financial resources
Explain briefly what assets you both have.
If there have been any changes to these things since your form E and its updates for this hearing, make sure you explain those.
Needs and responsibilities
Explain what amount of money you need to buy or rent a house and how you have worked this out. If you want to stay in the family home, explain why. You can refer to your mortgage capacity and the property details you found for yourself.
Explain what amount of money to need to live on. How much do you expect your bills to be and any rent or mortgage payments, and any debt repayments. How have you worked this out – make sure you explain this.
Do you have any other needs such as for a new car?
Now do a section with the same information for your ex. What amount of money do they need to live on, taking into account any amount they can borrow, and the property particulars you have found for them?
Standard of living
Discuss the standard of living you had during the marriage. How big was your house and did you own or rent it? What did you both do for a living? How many holidays did you have each year?
Disabilities and health
Explain any disabilities you or a child has, and your health. Explain what condition you have and how it affects you, any treatment you’re receiving and the likely prognosis (future). If it affects your ability to work or might do in the future, explain this. If you have a disabled child, then you need to also explain what effect caring for the child has on your ability to earn. Do you need a house adapted for a disability?
If you are in good health then just say that.
Now do a paragraph with the same information for your ex.
Contribution
If you have assets you owned before the marriage, explain what they are here, and whether those assets were used by the family or kept separate. If your ex has premarital assets write that down too.
Have you inherited any assets over the marriage or has someone other than your spouse given you valuable gifts? If so, explain that. Now write the same information about your spouse.
Discuss your contributions to the welfare of the family. This means what you have done for the family. That might be money (earnings or assets), child-raising/parenting, or home-making, or working in a family business, or supporting your ex. For example, did you reduce your working hours when the children were born? Remember that the court gives equal value to work done raising children and looking after a home as it does to earning money. In most cases, the contributions of each party will be treated as equal.
Now put the same information about your ex’s contributions. Do not intentionally write badly about your ex. It makes you look bad. Keep your statement factual.
Conduct
You can find our information about when conduct is relevant here https://www.uea.ac.uk/groups-and-centres/family-courts/what-s-relevant under ‘Does my ex’s behaviour affect things?’
Remember that bad conduct only taken into account in extreme situations and the court will have already directed witness statements on conduct if you have correctly told the court about it. That means there should not be anything to say here about conduct.
Assets you might lose the chance of acquiring
Now write about any assets you might lose the chance of getting if you are divorced. This often only refers to a widow or widower’s pension if the pension holder dies.
The end of your statement
At the end of your statement you must write:
I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true.
I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.
Signed: ____________________________
Print name:
Date _________________________
Exhibits, what exhibits?
You can attach ‘exhibits’ to your statement. An exhibit is evidence that supports your case.
In most cases you won’t need to do this as your documents are already in the court bundle. If this is the case, you can just give their location in the bundle.
If you do have new exhibits, you need to number them and refer to them in your witness statement as Exhibit 1, 2 etc. For example, you might write ‘My mortgage borrowing capacity has been assessed as £50,000. I attach the assessment as Exhibit [your initials]1.’ For example, Professor Polly would write Exhibit PEM1, Exhibit PEM2 etc.
In front of each exhibit you have a cover sheet that gives the number of the exhibit. This is a blank page on which you have copied and pasted the header from your statement (names, case number etc) and then written in the middle of the page ‘Exhibit [your initials]1’ and what the exhibit is – for example Exhibit PEM1 ‘Letter from mortgage adviser about applicant’s mortgage capacity’.
The letter will go behind the Exhibit cover sheet. You can do this for as many exhibits as you want (bearing in mind what we said about probably not needing any for a s25 statement). You then attach your exhibits to the back of your witness statement.