recital?

I''ve come across the term ''recital'' a couple of times and don''t know what it means. I''ve googled it before bothering wikis, but still don''t really understand what kind of things might be in there. Judging from some posts on here it can cause trouble?

What happens - assuming my x and i come to an agreement, we draw up a Consent Order? It has a recital as a preamble? If we don''t come to an agreement, this happens in court on the order of the judge without our consent?

The consent order says things like % of equity, maintenance (if any) etc. What does the preamble say and what is the point of it?

Realise I am going into all this blind. Thanks for any info.

See page 8 of the linked PDF

www.davidhodson.com/assets/documents/consent_orders.pdf

Charles

Thanks Charles. I may be missing sthg but the only ref I cd find to recital was the advice on p 8 to take care to differentiate between a recital and an order or undertaking but I''m no wiser as to what a recital is - sorry if I''m be

It would be worth doing a search for "consent order recital" for more research material.

A recital is really a status of intention which is used to explain the purpose of the subsequent order(s) (the recital appear before the orders).

An undertaking is a promise to the court to do something - e.g. making mortgage payments or attempting to remove someones name from the mortgage - which is something that the court has no power to order. The most common of these is to release somebody from a mortgage as the court has no power to interfere with a mortgage contract but can accept someone''s promise to the court that they will use their best endeavours to effect the release of their ex from a mortgage.

An order is something that the court has the power to make such as "the applicant pay the respondent £10,000 by the end of the week".

There are subtle distinctions between the three and some are less obvious than others. The worst case scenario is that the court will make an order which is not enforceable as courts also make mistakes. Think of it like building your own house and getting a surveyor to sign off on it - this assumes that the surveyor (court) knows what s/he is doing. It is better to get a builder (solicitor) who knows what s/he is doing in the first place..

Charles

Thanks Charles.

I sort of understand and see it this way:

recital = a statement of intention *by the court* i.e. what the court intends by the rest of the document, or the context in which the order is made

undertaking = one or both of the parties makes a promise to do something not easily quantifiable

order = a command to one of the parties (or both) do something which is easy to establish afterwards has been or not been done

is that right?

That''s about as simple as you can explain it. The undertaking is a promise to the court and it is possible to enforce an undertaking as you would an order.

An order is fairly narrow as the court has to have jurisdiction to make the order so it cannot make an order for transfer of a property abroad for instance but a party can undertake to transfer a foreign property to another party.

The recital is as you say although it is common for these to be incorrect and render the whole document confusing.

Charles

Thank you! Maybe still not to late to train to be a lawyer?!?