Divorce
What is divorce?
Divorce is the legal dissolution of a marriage. You can apply to the court in England or Wales for your marriage to be dissolved, providing you have been married for at least one year.
The spouse applying for a divorce is called the petitioner, and the other spouse is called the respondent.
Grounds for divorce
There is only one ground for divorce, which is that the marriage has irretrievably broken down.
Petition and initial Court Documents
We will prepare divorce documentation for you and issue it at court. A petitioner can prove that the marriage has irretrievably broken down in one of five ways:-
- by proving that the respondent has committed adultery and that s/he finds it intolerable to live with the respondent
- unreasonable behaviour
- desertion by the respondent
- two years separation, provided the respondent consents
- five years separation
We will also draft a Statement of Arrangements for Children, which confirms the existing arrangements for children of the family who are under 16 or aged between 16 and 18 but still in education/training.
These documents with some other documentation will then be sent to court with a request for issue and the court will normally serve the documents on the respondent by post
Decree Nisi
This is the first stage of the divorce. We will provide documentation to enable the court to consider whether grounds for divorce have been sufficiently proven and the court will then name a date and time for pronouncement.
Decree Absolute
After six weeks we will be entitled to make an application for the Nisi to be made Absolute although normally we would wait for any outstanding financial issues to be resolved before making the application.
How we can help you
- we can save you time and effort through our understanding and familiarity with the legal processes of divorce
- we can draft papers sufficient for the court's purposes but designed not to harm your relationship further
- we can try to reduce the levels of stress that can occur when relationships are hostile by communicating and negotiating with your spouse on your behalf
Further information
Frequently Asked Questions: divorce
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