New Member - advice on legal letter

hello, im a new member and would like some advice if possible. myself and my wife have seperated and we are at the 2nd stage of mediation. i have to put together a legal letter as part of the mediation admitting adultry, which is fine...but is there a correct or formulated way to put this letter together...any help would be appriciated, thanks

Hi Gaz. Hopefully DivorceLawyer will post a reply. But I will have a pop at this. I am not legaly trained so my advice may be suspect.

AFIK you are not expected to construct it in a legal fashion. If you have an offer for settlement (I think its called a calderbank) then just set out clearly what the offer is. I think you also put "Without Predudice" at the top. Be clear and succinct. That as far as I know is all you need to do. You need space at the bottome for you and a witness and yr ex and a witness to sign. But usualy these things are draft (also called heads of agreement) and you could mention the word draft. But I expect like all agreements it may have several revisions until it meets the needs of both of you. I hope this helps. C

Hi Gaz

I'm not really sure why you need to produce a 'legal letter'. One of the joys of mediation is that you don't get too tied up in legalese. It may be that the mediator wants something on paper from you, but it is not something I have ever asked a client to produce.

As far as the legal (as opposed to mediation) process is concerned, it will be clear from the court forms that the reason for the divorce is adultery, if that is what is entered in the appropriate box. If you don't deny it, there should be no problem.

Anyway, if the mediator insists on a letter, you had better produce one to keep everybody happy. In which case, I would write simply "Dear Sir, I commited adultery, Yours sincerely,". I suppose you could add the dates between which you commited these crimes.

Incidentally, the courts aren't terribly interested in apportioning blame and so such an admission shouldn't affect the division of assets.

By the way, a nice quirk of English law - did you know you can only commit adultery (one of the five facts needed for divorce) with a member of the opposite sex?! That means that, if you make whoopee with someone of your own sex, the plaintiff cannot claim adultery!

many thanks to both of you for your quick response and help. Yes the mediator did just want me to put something into letter form Imediate, but i want sure on the way to go about this and wanted to get it right, to save any complications that may arise later if it wasnt correct. i shall go along with your example you have given...
many thanks again

Gaz

Sorry but I don't see the problem here and I don't know why
you were asked to do one.

All she needs to do is petition on the grounds of adultery and you don't defend it. Simple. It is extremely unlikely that it will affect the financial settlement.

Marshy

Sorry, but Calderbank letters were done away with in 2006. I accept that is excusable for a non-lawyer but apparently some lawyers don't know either, which is scary.

Imediate

Yes, interesting point ! My wife's ex was a raving bisexual who would screw any man he met in a public toilet who was willing to do it. In view of the risks of AIDS at the time, if that isn't unreasonable behaviour I don't know what is.

Mike

Mike

It was probably drafted like that so that some of those sitting on the bench felt less vulnerable to a divorce petition!