Family and Divorce Law Solicitors

You cannot present an Application for divorce at court until you have been married for one year or more. This does not prevent you from separating sooner and it is possible to try to reach an agreement in relation to any financial and children related matters beforehand.

Whilst it is not compulsory for you to instruct a solicitor in relation to your divorce, it is advisable if there are children and/or financial matters to be resolved. A solicitor cannot act for both of you which means that if you both want legal advice then you will each need to instruct your own independent solicitor.

In order to start divorce proceedings you will be required to complete an Application for divorce which must be accompanied by either the original marriage certificate or an official certified copy if you do not have the original. You will also be required to pay a court issue fee (currently £593.00 – December 2024).

The marriage certificate will need to be uploaded to the court portal at the same time as the divorce application. If you do not have the original marriage certificate or if you have lost your certificate and your marriage took place in England and Wales you can obtain a copy from the local authority where the marriage took place. If your marriage took place abroad you will need to make enquiries with the relevant foreign authorities.

No. You do not have to send your marriage certificate to the court as you only need to upload it to the court portal.

In order to obtain a divorce you must satisfy the court that your marriage has broken down irretrievably. This is the one and only ground for a divorce.

During your first appointment we will discuss costs with you. We will provide you with an estimate of the likely costs and details of the current court fees which apply for issuing an Application. The costs of the divorce will be separate to any costs incurred in connection with financial or children matters which, if they apply, will be charged separately.

The costs will vary depending on whether you are the person filing for divorce (the Applicant) or whether you are the person responding to them (the Respondent). Costs will also vary depending on whether the other party fails to cooperate.

We can offer a range of services to suit all budgets. If you wish to deal with the divorce without legal representation, with a view to reducing costs, we are happy to offer an “unbundled” service, so that, instead of us dealing with the whole divorce from start to finish, we only deal with specific pieces of work, such as checking through a document that you have prepared to ensure it complies with the legal and procedural requirements. In this situation it is generally possible to agree a fixed fee for each separate piece of work as and when that piece of work is requested of us.

It is no longer possible to include a claim, within your divorce petition, for the court to order the other party to pay your divorce costs, or a contribution towards them. However, it may be possible for you to reach an agreement that your ex-partner pays a contribution towards the costs.

It usually takes between 6-9 months to complete, but the timescale is always dependent on the court timetable and how quickly matters are dealt with by the court and by the other party. If the other party fails to cooperate or otherwise delays in dealing with things in a timely manner, then the divorce may take longer and the costs may also increase. It is not uncommon for the parties to agree postponement of the Applicant’s application for Final Order until such time as their financial matters are resolved, in which case the divorce may take longer.

Once the Application has been issued by the court, it must be “served” on the other party (the Respondent). This will happen online via the court portal.  If the Respondent is legally represented, the divorce papers will be issued on the Respondent’s solicitors provided they have confirmed beforehand that they are instructed to accept service on behalf of the Respondent.

Once the Respondent has received the issued divorce papers, they must complete and return to the court using the online portal within 7 days after receipt of the Application a court-generated document known as an Acknowledgment of Service which asks them to confirm they have received theApplication, and to confirm the details are correct. If the Respondent is being served outside of England and Wales, then the time limit for returning the Acknowledgment of Service is extended.

The court will confirm to the Applicant that he/she is entitled to apply to the court for the Conditional Order to be pronounced. The application for Conditional Order includes the Applicant confirming that everything set out in the divorce Application remains correct.  Once this confirmation has been submitted to the court, it will be processed and the Conditional Order will be pronounced.

If the Respondent fails or refuses to complete the Acknowledgement of Service then you will need to prove to the court that they have received the Application and are choosing to ignore it. In the first instance you may be required to send a further set of the divorce papers to the Respondent by recorded delivery or by arranging for someone to deliver the papers to them personally, such as the court bailiff or a process server. If this fails you may need to consider asking the court to make an order specifying how further alternative or substituted service is to be effected. In exceptional circumstances, where all other service methods have been exhausted, it may be possible to ask the court to dispense with service altogether so that you can proceed to the next stage of the divorce despite the Acknowledgment of Service not having been completed or returned. Your divorce costs are very likely to increase if the Respondent does not cooperate with completion and return of the Acknowledgment of Service.

The Conditional Order is the first formal stage of the divorce which occurs. It is an important stage as it is the first time that a Consent Order dealing with financial arrangements can be sent to the court to be made legally binding.

Once the court has received the Applicant’s application for Conditional Order a District Judge will review the papers and, provided everything is in order, will usually list a date for pronouncement of the Conditional Order. The parties and their solicitors, if so instructed, will be notified of the date of the hearing although in practice attendance at the hearing is not necessary.

It is not usually necessary to attend court as the divorce is an online process. Court attendance will only become necessary if the divorce is defended by your spouse (it is now only possible to defend a divorce if there is a jurisdictional dispute).

There are a number of different options for resolving the financial and/or children arrangements and normally court proceedings should be considered as a last resort. In cases where parties cannot agree the arrangements directly, they will need to consider alternative ways of resolving matters amicably including, mediation, collaborative law, arbitration and solicitor negotiation. In any event, with limited exceptions, it is now compulsory to consider mediation as a means of resolving any financial and/or children matters before court proceedings can be commenced and non-court dispute resolution methods must now been considered throughout the proceedings to see whether it is possible to move away from the court process as the case proceeds.

It is not usually necessary for the financial and/or children arrangements to be agreed before the divorce is finalised. However, it is sometimes advisable to delay finalising the divorce (i.e. obtaining the Final Order) until the financial arrangements have been settled and properly recorded. This normally occurs by way of the parties signing a document known as a Consent Order which can be submitted to the court for approval and sealing without the need to commence formal court proceedings. Some preliminary financial issues may also need to be resolved before the parties can agree the terms of their overall financial settlement, such as interim financial support (also known as spousal maintenance). If the interim financial arrangements cannot be resolved then a court application to deal solely with this issue may be necessary.

If efforts to resolve all issues by agreement fail then it may be necessary to apply to the court for these issues to be determined by a Judge (however, a court application should always be a list resort).

It does not make a difference if you were married in England and Wales, or abroad. Instead, it is fundamental to determine where you and/or your spouse are living at the time the divorce proceedings are commenced and whether the court has jurisdiction to deal with the divorce. This may involve an examination of your domicile and habitual residence which can be complex, particularly if you or your spouse has foreign connections. You should seek specialist legal advice before starting any court proceedings, as this may impact significantly on the divorce, financial and children arrangements.

It is a common misconception that the court, when considering any financial and/or children arrangements on divorce, will look at who started the divorce proceedings and what fact is relied upon in the Application. In fact, the court does not consider this at all as the financial and children arrangements will be considered entirely separately to the divorce.

Neither party can remarry until the Final Order has been obtained. At that point the divorce itself is concluded and the marriage is legally dissolved.

Under the court rules, Applicant cannot apply for the Final Order to finalise the divorce until a period of six weeks and one day has passed from the date of the Conditional Order. The application is made on a standard court form and unless the divorce application was filed on or before 30 June 2013 there will be no court fee payable.

If the application for Final Order is made more than 12 months after the date of Conditional Order then it must be supported by a written statement or letter explaining the delay, stating whether the parties have resumed cohabitation since the Conditional Order and stating whether any child has been born to the wife since the Conditional Order. If a child has been born it must be stated whether the child is a child of the family.

If the Applicant delays or fails to apply for the Final Order, then the Respondent can make the application once a period of three months has passed from the date on which the Applicant could have first applied (i.e. six weeks and one day, plus three months). A court fee is payable for this application. The Respondent’s application for Final Order will not be granted automatically and both parties will usually be required to attend court. If the parties’ financial matters have not been resolved, the court might refuse or adjourn the Respondent’s application.

You should speak with your solicitor before making the application for Final Order as this will have significant legal implications. Your marriage will be dissolved upon the granting of the Final Order and, in turn, you and your former spouse will then be free to remarry. It is sometimes advisable to delay applying for the Final Order until the financial arrangements have been resolved and properly recorded. There are certain inheritance, pension and financial rights which the Applicant may lose on Final Order and this is why the application may be delayed. Where the financial arrangements are not agreed and have to be decided by the court the process may take several months.

Even if you or your spouse decide that your marriage has broken down, this does not necessarily mean that either of you wish to start divorce proceedings immediately. If that is the case, there are other ways of formalising your separation without dissolving your marriage.

The most common option is to enter into a Separation Agreement setting out the agreed terms of the financial and children matters arising from your separation. Obviously this is only an option if all arrangements are agreed.

Alternatively, either spouse may issue  an application for Judicial Separation. The legal procedure for a Judicial Separation is very similar to that of a divorce, save for the fact that you do not need to be married for one year before filing  an application for Judicial Separation and you will remain legally married at the end of the process. However, Judicial Separation proceedings are very rare and generally only used when both parties are strongly opposed to a divorce for religious or other reasons. Whilst the court can make some financial orders upon pronouncement of the decree of judicial separation, the full array of financial orders is not available which means that it is not possible to achieve a full financial clean break.

Whether you decide to enter into a Separation Agreement or obtain a Judicial Separation, you will remain legally married. This means your spouse’s entitlement with regards to pension benefits, death in service benefits, policies, wills and estates will remain intact, unless specifically changed. For this reason we strongly recommend that you make a Will or revise any existing Will in light of your separation.