Divorce can be one of the most stressful things in life and facing important decisions on your own, when you already are going through difficult times, can be daunting.
Whilst you may choose to draft the divorce papers yourself and use the government website to lodge the petition, it is strongly recommended that you seek legal advice before you do so and throughout the process.
Typically a divorce should take around 5 to 6 months, however, this may be longer if Children & Finances are involved.
For information about Divorce & Finances please click the link below
The Divorce Process
The divorce process is a paper exercise and for several years we have now had what is referred to as a “no fault divorce”.
If you and your spouse are able to communicate then you may wish to consider issuing a joint divorce application but if not, a sole divorce application can be submitted to court.
Once the divorce application has been submitted to court and issued by the court, your spouse will be required to acknowledge receipt of the papers.
A Conditional Order can be applied for 20 weeks after the date the petition has been issued and in that 20 week period, you and your spouse will hopefully be able to resolve matters and agree arrangements in relation to any children.
Once financial matters have been agreed then the agreement can be set out in a Consent Order which can be approved by the court as and when the Conditional Order has been granted.
6 weeks and one day after the Conditional Order has been made you will be able to apply for the final divorce order (previously called a Decree Absolute) and it is the final divorce order which ends your marriage.
Please ensure you take legal advice as to whether you should apply for the final divorce order particularly when there are significant pension assets, you may be advised to withhold making that application until all financial issues have been resolved.
For more information and legal advice, please contact me.
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