When you get married, you become financially linked to your spouse. Those links relate to income, property, pensions, debt, everything. When you get divorced, those links remain.
In Dudley in the West Midlands, a few years back, somebody won the lottery. They'd been divorced for 10 years but they still faced a claim from their ex. Ok, they'd just won the lottery so she gave him money to go away, end of story. But it would generally have been better for them if they didn't face a claim at all.
If one of the parties remarries, then they have a new spouse to look after them financially. This means they can't make a claim against their ex. But they are still vulnerable to a claim FROM their ex, unless their ex has remarried as well.
Imagine you've got your divorce and you remarry. Your financial circumstances take a dive (perhaps you've lost your job) and your ex has plenty of money and still lives in the old matrimonial home. You can't claim any of it. You've remarried.
Now imagine you've remarried but your ex hasn't. Your ex loses their job and is struggling financially. You could still recieve a claim for some of the money in the matrimonial home. Yes you've remarried but your ex hasn't - you're the last spouse they had so they're still your responsibility, financially.
Unfortunately, you can make them remarry. So you're going to be vulnerable to a claim from them in the future. Unless...
You could get an order from the divorce court that confirms that your money is yours, and their money is theirs and neither of you will make any claims against each other in the future. You'll need to figure out what exactly is yours and what is theirs but this would stop you being vulnerable to a future claim from them if your circumstances improve or theirs get worse.
If you agree the terms, you just get it drawn up in the correct format by a solicitor, sign it, give brief details of your current financial circumstances, and send it off to the court. You don't need to attend. The judge will check that the proposed settlement is fair, given your financial situation, and will make it into a binding court order. You'll both get a copy of it and you both have the security of knowing there will be no more arguments about finances.
The document you receive is a court Order, made with the consent of both parties. So we call it a consent order. And it gives you both a financial clean break from each other. So we call it a clean break consent order.
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