Family: Form E and financial disclosure
In financial remedy work, Form E brings together a client’s income, property, pensions, liabilities and needs, with supporting documents. In many firms it is still completed by hand from emails and spreadsheets. It does not have to be.
Data first, then the form
Form E is really a structured data set: properties, accounts, investments, pensions, business interests, debts and income, often several of each. A system that captures this in custom data screens, with repeating groups, can produce Form E, the schedule of assets and the client's updates from the same data, and keep them consistent as figures change.
The small decisions
- Custom data: can the system hold several properties, pensions and accounts for each party, with values and dates?
- Collection: can clients upload statements and complete questionnaires through a secure portal, rather than by email?
- Precedents: who maintains the Form E template when the court form changes, the vendor or the firm?
- Court filing: represented parties file financial remedy cases through HMCTS online services; check how documents produced in the system reach them.
- Fixed fees: family work is often priced in stages; check fixed and staged fees are tracked against the work done.
What to ask, and what to see
- Capture a client's finances once, with several properties and pensions, and produce Form E and a schedule of assets from them.
- Show the client completing a financial questionnaire and uploading statements through the portal.
- Who updates the Form E precedent when the court changes the form?
Technical notes: small decisions, big consequences
Start with the overview: The details that decide the project
Accounts and finance
- Core accounting is still the gold standard
- One-way or two-way sync? Connecting your legal system to Xero
- Units or minutes? How time is recorded
- Your matter and nominal structure
- Making Tax Digital: the firm and its clients
Workflow, data and documents
- Workflow: deep, basic or none?
- Client onboarding and matter inception: portal, e-signature and ID checks working as one
- Custom data: what you rely on, and how you move it
- Precedents, merge codes and macros: your document bank in a new system
Your types of work
- Legal aid: your records, not just the Legal Aid Agency’s
- Litigation: Precedent H starts with time recording
- Family: Form E and financial disclosure (you are here)
- Private client: where does the tax software fit?
Security and access
- Roles or individuals? How user permissions are set up
- Why manage security twice? Linking application security to Microsoft Entra
- How granular is the security inside the system?
- Who can see what in reporting?
- Shared platform, your data: separation, restore and erasure
- When the supplier is the target: where your data lives, who can reach it, and your real risk
Microsoft 365
- How does it connect to Outlook?
- What did you just give it permission to do?
- What happens behind the scenes? Background integrations with Microsoft 365
- OneDrive is not a document management system
- Microsoft 365 is not a backup
Data and decisions
Official sources
Check the detail for yourself at the source. Rules and guidance change, so always use the current version.
- Form E: financial statement: The current form and notes for financial remedy cases.
- MyHMCTS for legal professionals: Online case management for professional users.
- HM Courts and Tribunals Service: The courts service and its online services.
Where does your firm stand?
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