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+ details >>Financial remedies after divorce are one of the hardest areas of English law for artificial intelligence, because the outcome depends on judicial discretion rather than a rule. Section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 tells the court what to consider, not what answer to reach. This article sets out what section 25 requires, what a specialist divorce AI would need to collect and reason about to apply it, and how one specialist tool, the AI Barrister Review from Family Law Service, approaches the problem.
Section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 requires a court in England and Wales, when deciding financial orders on divorce, to have regard to all the circumstances of the case. First consideration goes to the welfare, while a minor, of any child of the family under 18. Section 25(2) then lists eight factors the court must consider in particular. The section contains no formula and no presumption of equal division.
Each section 25(2) factor turns on facts that a user will not volunteer unless asked. The table below sets out the factors and the information an AI system would need to gather before it could say anything useful about them.
| Factor | What the court considers | What an AI must collect |
|---|---|---|
| 25(2)(a) | Income, earning capacity, property and other financial resources, now or in the foreseeable future | Both incomes, realistic earning capacity, every asset, every pension with its Cash Equivalent Value (CEV) |
| 25(2)(b) | Financial needs, obligations and responsibilities | Housing needs for each household, who the children live with, debts and outgoings |
| 25(2)(c) | Standard of living before the marriage broke down | Lifestyle and spending during the marriage |
| 25(2)(d) | Age of each party and duration of the marriage | Dates of birth, date of marriage, any period of cohabitation before it |
| 25(2)(e) | Physical or mental disability | Relevant health issues affecting needs or earning |
| 25(2)(f) | Contributions, including looking after the home or caring for the family | Who earned, who cared, assets brought into the marriage, inheritances |
| 25(2)(g) | Conduct, if it would be inequitable to disregard it | Rarely relevant; a well-designed tool should flag it for professional advice |
| 25(2)(h) | Benefits lost because of the divorce, such as pension rights | Pension types and values, survivor benefits |
Section 25A adds a further duty: the court must consider whether a clean break, ending financial ties between the spouses, would be appropriate as soon as is just and reasonable. A financial AI that ignored section 25A would miss one of the questions judges ask in almost every case.
Section 25 is hard for AI because the law requires a judgment about fairness across all the factors at once, and the same facts can support more than one reasonable outcome. Case law shapes that judgment. White v White [2000] UKHL 54 introduced equality as a yardstick for checking fairness. Miller v Miller and McFarlane v McFarlane [2006] UKHL 24 confirmed needs and sharing as the main principles. Later cases refine how needs are measured, how non-matrimonial property is treated and how pensions are shared.
A general chatbot can summarise these principles. The harder task is applying them to one family's numbers without inventing facts, missing a factor or presenting a range of possible outcomes as a single certain answer.
A reliable section 25 AI would have to do five things. It would collect all the facts each factor depends on, rather than relying on what the user thinks to mention. It would know when a case is outside its competence. It would draw on a defined and current body of law. It would separate legal principles from assumptions about facts. And it would explain its reasoning in plain English, with uncertainty stated openly.
The AI Barrister Review is a specialist financial assessment tool from Family Law Service that produces an AI-generated report on how a court in England and Wales might approach a divorce settlement. Family Law Service (familylawservice.co.uk) is part of Family Legal Ltd. The AI Barrister Review launched in October 2026 and costs £9.50 inc VAT for the first 1,000 clients, then £29.75 inc VAT. Its design maps onto the five requirements above.
The report is generated by AI, not a human barrister, and is not legal advice. No human barrister writes or checks its reports.
Lawyers and users should evaluate a section 25 AI against realistic scenarios rather than fluent prose. A persuasive report can still mishandle matrimonial and non-matrimonial property, overlook pension disparity or treat a needs case as a sharing case. Useful tests include: a short marriage with a large pre-marital asset; a long marriage with one carer and one high earner; a case where the pensions are worth more than the house; and a case with incomplete figures, to see whether the tool says so. Any published claim about accuracy should explain how it was tested.
The most credible role for AI in financial remedy work today is preparation: helping a separating person understand which section 25 factors apply to them, what information they will need for financial disclosure, and why outcomes differ between families. That preparation can make mediation and legal advice more efficient. AI cannot remove the court's discretion, and it cannot make an agreement binding. For married couples, a financial agreement can be made binding through a court-approved consent order; if approved before the final divorce order, it generally takes effect after the divorce is finalised.
No. In England and Wales, section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 lists factors for the court to consider but sets no formula. Equal sharing is a common starting point for assets built up during the marriage, and needs, particularly the children's housing, often justify a different split.
AI can estimate how a court is likely to approach a divorce settlement if it has complete facts and draws on the right law, but it cannot predict a judge's decision with certainty. Section 25 gives the court discretion, and two reasonable judges can reach different outcomes on the same facts.
A clean break is a financial order that ends ongoing financial claims between divorcing spouses, so neither can make further claims against the other in future. Section 25A of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 requires the court to consider whether a clean break is appropriate in every case.
Yes. The AI Barrister Review draws on a reference library of 1,808 authorities, statutes and guidance papers on family law in England and Wales, including 16 foundational and 44 leading authorities. It is an AI tool and not legal advice.