Fixed Fee Divorce Solicitors

In England and Wales, you can start divorce proceedings once you have been married for at least a year.

There is one ground for divorce – your marriage has irretrievably broken down. You have to state one of five ‘facts’ in the divorce to prove the breakdown. The five facts are:

Adultery – your husband or wife had sex with someone of the opposite sex and you’ve not lived with it for more than 6 months

Unreasonable behaviour – your husband or wife has behaved in such a way that you cannot reasonably be expected to live with them.

Desertion – your husband or wife has left you for at least two years before you start your divorce.

Two years separation and you both agree to the divorce – if you both agree and you’ve been separated for at least two years, you can apply for a divorce.

Five years separation – you can apply for a divorce if you’ve been separated for five years, even if your husband or wife does not agree

In England and Wales, a divorce normally takes around six months. There are some more complicated circumstances which could result in the divorce taking longer.

You will need to pay the Court fee if you are the one applying for the divorce. You’ll also have to pay any legal fees for legal advice about your divorce. It’s important to get legal advice from a specialist Divorce Solicitor so you know where you stand. We offer an Initial Fixed Fee Consultation to discuss your situation with you. We can give you all the options at this meeting, so you know the facts before moving forward. Legal Aid is not available for divorce unless there has been domestic violence or child abduction, but we don’t offer this service.

No, we can’t as it is a conflict of interest. It’s important for you both to have independent legal advice and we’ll do all we can to make sure that our involvement does not affect your current agreement.  We can make recommendations for their representation to help the process if necessary.

Yes, you can, people do reconcile.  However, if the divorce has already reached the Decree Nisi stage, your husband or wife could simply apply for the Decree Absolute, which means the divorce would be finalised. Generally speaking, you have more control if you started the process.

Probably not as most divorces are dealt with by the Court on paper. If your divorce is defended, you may need to go to Court but this is rare.

You’ll need to make a divorce application and send it to the Court with your original marriage certificate and the Court fee.

You can get a certified copy from the General Register Office (GRO) online, as long as you were married at least 18 months ago. If not, you should apply to the Register Office local to where you were married. It will cost you around £11 to £15 currently and will take 15 working days. 

Yes, you can as long as your marriage is recognised in England or Wales. You’ll need to prove that you were married abroad, and you can do this with your original marriage certificate. If you have lost it, you may have to apply for another one from the country you were married in which could cause a delay.  It’s best to check you have this document as part of your preparation for seeking legal advice for your divorce.

The divorce documentation needs to be served on your spouse and the Court requires proof they received it. They do this by completing an “Acknowledgment of Service” form. If they don’t respond after the paperwork has been posted to them, our Divorce Solicitors can arrange for him/her to be served personally with the paperwork by an agent. There is an additional fee for this service.

You’ll need to show to the Court that you’ve done all you can to trace your wife/husband. The Court may then rule that the divorce can go ahead without the paperwork being served on your spouse. We can tell you what steps you need to take to try to track down your spouse and you’ll need to swear on a statement that we draft for the Court. This will increase the cost of your divorce.

No. You’ll need to deal with any financial issues separately. If you and your husband or wife can agree on how to deal with your financial matters, a solicitor can draft the agreement into a Consent Order which is filed at Court for approval.  If you can’t agree, you can still get divorced, but we strongly advise you to deal with your financial issues before the divorce is finalised. If the Court does not make an Order on financial matters as part of your divorce, then either of you could still make a claim against in the other in the future, even though you’re divorced.

No. Your divorce simply deals with dissolving your marriage. You’ll either need to come to an agreement with your husband or wife or let the Court decide. Applications will be made through the Family Court, but you will need to attend a Mediation Information & Assessment Meeting, known as MIAM first. This is a requirement before going to Family Court but there are some exemptions.

A Decree Nisi is made when the Court is satisfied that you have met the criteria to divorce. Nisi means ‘unless’ in Latin. That means your divorce is not finalised unless you apply for a Decree Absolute. Once a Decree Nisi has been issued, the Court can make Financial Orders but you won’t be divorced until your Decree Absolute is pronounced.

A Decree Absolute is the final Order of the Court that will end your marriage. Once the Decree Absolute is issued, you can get married again. Do get legal advice before you remarry as this could impact you financially if you’ve not resolved your financial and property matters first.  You may also want to consider a Prenuptial Agreement.

Your Divorce Solicitor will tell you the when to apply for the Decree Absolute. If you applied for the divorce (the applicant), the first date you can apply for the Decree Absolute is six weeks and one day after the Decree Nisi has been made. However, it may be better for you to wait until all the property and financial issues have been resolved so you don’t jeopardise your financial position.

As the respondent to the divorce proceedings, you can apply for a Decree Absolute three months after the time the applicant could first apply. Practically, this means you can apply about four and a half months after the date of the Decree Nisi.  This will require a statement justifying why you are applying to divorce as a Respondent and will increase your costs.

The parts of your Will that relate to your ex-husband or ex-wife will be affected by your divorce. Anything you left to your ex-partner will be treated as if they died on the date of the Decree Absolute. Although your Will is not invalidated by your divorce, you should make a new Will as soon as possible to avoid your Will being ignored because your ex-partner is treated as having died on the day you divorced.