I want to vary my financial order because my partner has won the lottery. Can I do this?

If your partner has won the lottery after your financial order has been made then there may be some circumstances when you can go back to court and ask for the financial order to be varied.

You can sometimes apply for the capital provisions in the order to be varied if your former partner could reasonably have foreseen winning the money before the court order was made.

However, this is very unlikely, if not impossible, when it comes to winning the lottery. Alternatively, if your former partner won the money very soon after the court order was made then you could be entitled to change the capital provisions in the order.

The court has more powers when it comes to varying either yours or your child’s maintenance payments in the order. If your former partner has won the lottery you should be able to get these maintenance payments increased. This is because the lottery win was not reasonably foreseeable when the original order was made and because your former partner’s finances have changed very dramatically since the original order.

Before going to court it is important to attempt to re-negotiate the order with your previous partner’s solicitors. We are experienced in negotiating with the other party’s solicitors in order to avoid lengthy court battles but if an agreement cannot be reached we have the necessary experience and expertise to take your case to court.

If you are in this situation then it is very important to get legal advice as quickly as possible after the situation arises.