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You will not be surprised to hear that as a divorce lawyer one of the questions that I'm typically asked is, 'when is my best time to apply for divorce in order to get the highest settlement?'.

The reward they have in mind is their husband (or wife's) and I provide an extremely basic response: the longer the marital relationship - the bigger the claim.

Take Trudy whose 2nd marital relationship was to Eric, a wealthy residential or commercial property designer who had a couple of residential or commercial properties, ISAs and financial investments. To Trudy, the genuine reward was Eric's pension which was worth more than ₤ 1 million.

The marital relationship concerned an end after five years, but when Trudy attempted to declare versus Eric's pension she was devastated to be told by her legal representative that instead of the half-share that she had actually determined in her mind that she would be granted, she was wrong.

Eric could, in reality, ring fence all the pension that he had developed prior to the marital relationship. This suggested that Trudy might just claim a tiny proportion that had accumulated throughout their brief time together.

The judge felt that the excessiveness of Trudy's claim was too high and that the majority of the wealth in the marital relationship had actually originated from Eric and this was reflected in the settlement that Trudy received.

So while she got a capitalised settlement to show the way of life that they had actually delighted in together, it was nowhere near her expectations. The moral of this story? A short marital relationship equals less possessions granted.

It could not have been more various for Gloria, who was wed to Frank for more than 30 years. Frank confessed to having affairs with females who he referred to as 'the worked with assistance', believing it did not actually count as adultery. It did to Gloria. As the pensions stacked up throughout their 3 years relationship, Gloria had the ability to claim half of it and was approved equality of all the pensions.

Vanessa Lloyd Platt, a leading divorce legal representative, states the longer the marriage, the bigger the divorce claim

Frank might not sound fence one cent of it. And thanks to the length of the marital relationship, Gloria received what is called a 'Joint Lives Order' for upkeep. In other words, this indicates Gloria would be provided maintenance for life, although this is unusual today as the majority of upkeep payments are for a set term just.

It was not helped by the reality that Frank had not been upcoming over the real extent of his cost savings and had at the last moment attempted to move funds offshore. He was given a punitive award and Gloria benefited from numerous thousands more on her side of the divorce formula. The moral here is that dishonesty does not pay - particularly in a divorce court.

So that's brief and long marriages - what about a longer than typical length of marital relationship (12 years) for state 15 years?

Here the court will equalise the capital of the pension unless wealth has actually been accumulated before or undoubtedly, for a duration, after separation.

It is constantly essential that a pensions expert analyse the worth of a pension so the proper figure can be calculated.

Which is where Gemma came unstuck. She had a 16-year marital relationship to City broker Paul. His pension ran into numerous countless pounds. Gemma was none too troubled by the pension however, like lots of wives I see, she wanted the security of remaining in the home that she loved. So instead of claiming any of Paul's pension she traded it off against the worth of your house.

This is called a 'set-off', but as a lawyer I would always suggest to any customer that an actuary report is gotten first and all options are thought about.

Wives in particular can come out with a lower deal when they pick this choice. The moral here is that you might feel young and ready to begin afresh, but do not be too quick to trade away your future pension.

Vanessa says that in a marriage longer than the average of 12 years, the court will equalise the capital of the pension unless wealth has been accrued before or, for a period, after separation

Another question I'm frequently asked is whether an arbitrator will take into account all of the couple's assets to maximise a settlement.

Many individuals seem to think that arbitrators will go easy on the parties - and husbands in specific - might get away with more by using an arbitrator, than if the matter is before the court.

This is a fallacy, as Neil found. The company director thought that mediation would indicate that he might put pressure on Judy to settle. It had actually been a long marital relationship spanning twenty-eight years and he believed that Judy was not the brightest. He felt he might bluff his method through and bamboozle the arbitrator.

What Neil had not reckoned upon was the tenacity and cleverness of the conciliator who firmly insisted that all info be produced for the conferences. The mediator might see that Neil was being obstructive in answering questions about financial transactions and motion of money between subsidiary business.

Little had Neil believed that the arbitrator had been a forensic detective for HMRC, before becoming a matrimonial arbitrator. After lots of sessions the conciliator recommended a settlement figure which Neil was outraged by and insisted they go to court. Unfortunately for Neil - the exact same settlement figure was reached in court. It deserves remembering that mediation can be a much better way of resolving matters however is never a soft choice.

Mediators will help the couple and advise actuaries to exercise pension divisions whatever the length of the marital relationship. The courts are now encouraging the celebrations to think about options to court procedures more than ever. Arbitration is also being encouraged. All these choices are offered simply put, medium and long marriages.

This is the reason EVERYONE is separating ... and why your marriage is at threat without you recognizing

So no matter the length of your marital relationship, I encourage all my customers not to have unrealistic expectations of what the final figure should be. It's vital to realise that you can not penalize your soon to be ex-partner in the courtroom. Unless you can show that the behaviour of your spouse has actually had a financial effect, the conduct or behaviour will be overlooked.

Let me present you now to Henry, who thought that he was being particularly clever when he moved his shares in the household business to his brother, cashed in the capital from his pension and gave it to a good friend and purchased himself a Lamborghini.

This was because Claudia, his partner of twelve years had begun divorce proceedings. At the end of the lawsuits, the court found that he was deliberately trying to lower the properties offered to Claudia and included back all the value of the pension, the cost of the Lamborghini and the shares to his side of the equation and then divided all of it in half. Henry's actions were so contrived that his efforts to drain the assets absolutely backfired on him. Oh and Henry needed to sell the Lamborghini.

The ethical of the story when it concerns how to increase your settlement? Don't try to be too clever, play fair and truthfully, or risk the very opposite of what you wanted to accomplish. Divorce can be a minefield, and it does not need to blow up for either of you if you both take sensible actions towards fixing matters.

* All names have actually been altered to secure customer identity.
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