If you can establish one of these grounds, then providing you have been married for at least one year, you will be entitled to a Divorce.

For more information about the grounds for divorce please scroll further down this page

The Divorce can be dealt with in one of two ways
a. By instructing a Solicitor
b. By doing it yourself

a. Instructing a Solicitor

Unless the split is amicable and there are no financial issues to be decided and no children involved we most strongly recommend that you take good professional advice from a specialist Divorce Lawyer. This will give you peace of mind in that you will be sure that your rights are being protected and there will be no future financial comebacks if individual circumstances change. When selecting a Divorce Lawyer we advise that more than any other factor you need to look for experience. An experienced Lawyer will have experienced most situations and will usually be able to get you what you are entitled to out of the marriage in financial terms and also ensure that where children are involved, their best interests are protected. Solicitors fees can vary enormously. If yours is not a complex case there should be no need to go for the most expensive Solicitor providing they have the necessary experience.

Our Directory is designed to let you have a look at profiles of Divorce Solicitors in your area and to see how much they will charge you. You will have the opportunity to select the Solicitor that suits you rather than approach a firm you have found in the Yellow Pages and be allocated to a solicitor in who you are not fully confident.

Most Solicitors profiled on our site offer a free initial interview and Legal Aid is often available if you cannot afford a solicitor. You may have to pay the legal aid fund back in certain circumstances but the advantage of having a Solicitor far outweighs the expense. It is however, often the case that costs are recoverable from the other side particularly if they are financially better off than you.
Solicitors profiled have been fully vetted by this site and are also approved and regulated by The Law Society.

If you feel that you could handle the matter yourself to save on costs please read the following section.

b. Do It Yourself Divorces

Since the Divorce Act of 1969 getting a divorce in England and Wales has been greatly simplified and people are actively encouraged by the Courts to deal with their own divorces. Explanatory leaflets are available from the Clerks of the Court, together with all the forms needed to proceed. The Clerks will be able to offer advice on procedural matters and on completing the forms, but cannot advise on legal matters.

The most important thing you have to do is to establish that you are entitled to a Divorce, and to do this you will have to establish that one of the five grounds for Divorce apply in your case.

If you are the person applying for a Divorce you will be known as the Petitioner and your spouse will be known as the Respondent. The petitioner must establish one of the following five grounds to be entitled to a Divorce:

(1) That the respondent has committed adultery. It is sufficient for the respondent to agree that they have committed adultery without naming the party or parties but you may decide to name the person, particularly if you want to claim costs against them. If you do decide to name them they will have to be made a party to your petition and be served with a copy of the petition.
(2) That the respondent's behaviour has been such that you can no longer be reasonably expected to live with them.
(3) That the respondent deserted you at least two years ago.
(4) That you and the respondent have lived apart for two years and he or she agrees to the Divorce.
(5) That you and the respondent have lived apart for at least five years, in this case it is not necessary for the respondent to agree to the divorce.

If you can establish one of these grounds, then providing you have been married for at least one year, you will be entitled to a Divorce.

Once you have established that you have grounds and that you wish to proceed, all you have to do is visit the local Divorce County Court. It is best to visit the Court, as you will be able to have a word with one of the Clerks who will be able to offer advice on dealing with the matter yourself. If however you are unable to visit the Court then you can telephone them and explain the circumstances and they will forward the appropriate forms and explanatory leaflets to you. You will find the address and telephone number of the Divorce County Court in Yellow Pages. Most big cities and towns will have a Divorce County Court.

The forms you receive from the Court will, when completed, enable you to apply to the Court to issue the petition. They are quite straightforward and relate to the grounds for the Divorce and arrangements for the children, if any, and also enable you to apply for financial relief. The Court Clerks will give you any assistance you need to fill in the forms.

On completing the forms you must take them to the Court with your Marriage certificate, or a copy, which you can obtain from the Registrar of births deaths and marriages for the area where you got married. The fee for this will be £6.50. If you are unable to get a copy from there you can get one through the post, from:

The Registrar General
ONS Southport
Smedley Hydro
Trafalgar Road
Birkdale
Southport
PR8 2HH
Telephone: 0151 471 4200

You will have to let them know the date and place of your marriage, and the full names of both parties. This costs £11 (cheques made payable to H.M. Paymaster General).
When you have completed the forms and have your marriage certificate, you are in a position to apply to the Court to issue the petition. When submitting your forms a fee of £150 is usually payable to the Court, however those in receipt of benefits or on low incomes may be exempt. (The clerk will be able to advise).

Once the Court Clerk is satisfied that the forms have been correctly completed the Court will issue the petition to the respondent, and the co-respondent, if there is one.

The petition is served with an acknowledgement of service form (D10) and the respondent is requested to complete it and return it to the Court within eight days. In the meantime you will receive written notice that the petition has been served and be sent a receipt for the fee.

If the respondent or co-respondent, if there is one, fails to return the acknowledgement of service, the Court will arrange for the petition to be served by a bailiff. The acknowledgement of service form usually confirms that the respondent agrees with the divorce, and, if there are children, that they are satisfied as to the proposed arrangements for the children. If the respondent does not agree on either or both of these points then the matter will usually go to a hearing. It does not necessarily mean that you cannot proceed with the matter yourself, but it would be advisable to seek help as you may be at a disadvantage in a hearing if a solicitor represents the respondent. If you decide to deal with the hearing yourself, the Court will give you every assistance.

In the majority of cases where people have decided to do their own divorce, both parties will be in agreement and the matter will proceed to divorce without the need for either party to attend Court.
You will be notified when the acknowledgement of service form has been returned to the Court. You may then ask the Court for directions for trial. As mentioned before you will not have to attend the trial or hearing unless there is a dispute. The application for directions for trial is done by completing form D80 and form D84. Theses forms will be supplied by the Court and are very simple to complete. Form D80 is the application for directions and form D84 is an affidavit (sworn statement) that the contents of the petition are true, and that the respondent has been served with the petition. This affidavit can be sworn before a Court officer or a Solicitor, for a small fee. You would be best advised to take these forms to the Court personally, in order that the Clerk can check them.
These forms will then be shown to a judge who will decide whether there are grounds for a divorce and whether the arrangements for the children, if any, are satisfactory, If he is satisfied that everything is in order, which is usually the case, you will be sent form D84A, which is a certificate stating that you are entitled to a divorce. You will also be given the date of the hearing, when the decree nisi will be granted. You will not have to attend the hearing. In rare cases, as mentioned before, the judge may not be satisfied on either the grounds for the divorce and / or the arrangements for the children and he may ask for more information, or order a hearing.
The granting of a decree nisi means that you are divorced, but it does not mean that you are free to re-marry. You will not be free to re-marry until you have applied to the Court for the decree nisi to be made absolute. This can only be done when six weeks have passed. The reason for this six-week delay in issuing the decree nisi is historical and is really only a formality. The delay is so that the Queens Proctor can, if he feels it is necessary, investigate the circumstances of the divorce to see if it was dealt with fairly to both parties and according to the Law.

After the hearing you will receive notice of the granting of the decree nisi from the Court. This notice is contained in form D29. If there are children involved you will also be sent a form D84 B stating that the decree absolute can be applied for and need not be delayed on account of the arrangements for the children being finalised. On the expiry of six weeks from the date of the decree nisi, you will apply to the Court using form D36, which you will obtain from the Court. Again this is a very simple form to complete and should be submitted with a fee of £30. The Court will send you form D 37 (the decree absolute). You will then be free to remarry, if you should so wish.

Financial Relief For The Spouse And Children

In cases where the petitioner and respondent are in agreement as to financial matters, the Court will, on examining the terms of the agreement, make an order to put it into effect. An application to the Court to deal with financial matters is contained in the petition and is known as The Prayer. The court can make an order on financial matters at any time; it does not have to be before the actual divorce.

For the Court to make an order it is necessary for both parties to submit an application for a consent order together with an affidavit (sworn statement) as to their means. If the judge is satisfied that the arrangement is fair then he will make an order to that effect. Again the Court clerk will provide you with the forms and give you any assistance you require to complete them.

In certain cases one of the parties may need financial assistance before the Court makes its final order. This is called ancillary relief and can be claimed at the time the petition is issued. This is usually where there is financial hardship and in such cases the applicant will be entitled to Legal Aid and be able to have legal expenses paid.
If the parties to the divorce are unable to agree on financial matters then there will have to be a hearing and the Court will decide what is fair in all the circumstances.

Summary

We have tried to explain as clearly as possible what is involved in obtaining a divorce. In the majority of cases where both parties are in agreement the procedure is very simple. You have been given all the information you need to proceed, and with the assistance of the Court clerks you should have no problems. In disputed matters it is still possible to proceed without a solicitor, but you may be at a disadvantage and it is therefore essential that you weigh up carefully the potential risk of jeopardising your case against the savings involved in not employing a solicitor.

If you do decide to deal with the divorce yourself you will save a considerable amount of money. Solicitor's fees can run into thousands of pounds. You will also probably be able to get the matter dealt with quicker as it is in your interest to do so, and you will not be dealing with a lot of other matters simultaneously.

If you decide that your case is likely to be too complicated due to your not agreeing to financial matters or the arrangements for the children, and you decide that you need professional help in the form of a solicitor, do be sure to get one experienced enough to deal with the case particularly if your partner has instructed a solicitor. You need to be sure that your solicitor is at least as experienced as your partner's solicitor, or you may be at a considerable disadvantage, particularly if the matter is complicated or involves large amounts of money.

Before the decree absolute is issued you are still legally married, and therefore if you were to die your spouse would be entitled to inherit your assets. If you do not want this to happen then you should seriously consider making a Will. We can prepare a Will to cover this situation at a cost of £15. If you would like to make this important move please Email us at wills@ukdivorcelawyers.co.uk stating your interest and we will contact you to explain the procedure.

If you feel that you would like to at least try to deal with your Divorce yourself we will be happy to assist you with our Divorce package which provides you with everything you will need by way of forms and explanatory notes. We have a telephone helpline you can use in the event of any difficulties and a free email service for procedural enquiries. The Will pack includes a draft Will for you to prepare which will exclude your partners right to inheritance in the event of your death and in the case of women applying you will be given a free deed poll to enable you to change all your official documentation before the divorce is granted. The cost of our divorce pack which represents great value for money is £25. If you would like to proceed please forward a cheque made payable to:

`ukdivorcelawyers` to
UK Divorce Lawyers
278 Station Road
New Waltham
N.E. Lincs
DN36 4PE

In the event of you deciding at a later date that you would like to instruct a solicitor our Directory of Divorce Solicitors enables you to view profiles of experienced divorce lawyers in your area with details of fees charged. Solicitors are happy to take into account any work you have done before instructing them so you will automatically make savings for carrying out the simple work yourself.