Legal support through your divorce

It is advisable to have the financial settlement in place and agreed before you apply for a decree absolute to ensure your entitlement to certain assets are not at risk. Therefore in order to protect yourself it is advisable not to apply for the decree absolute until the financial settlement has been agreed.

A decree nisi is a document that says that the court has approved the application for a divorce. The Decree Nisi is the first stage of two parts to obtaining a divorce.

A decree absolute is the legal document that ends your marriage and concludes the divorce process.

A consent order is legal document drafted by a solicitor that explains to the court how you intend to split assets such as money, property, pensions and savings. If you have a situation where both parties have agreed the financial settlement the consent order will be sent to a judge for approval as part of the divorce proceedings but without the need for a court hearing.

1. ISSUE THE PETITION – the Petition will be prepared by us on your instruction. It will then be sent to the Court.
2. COURT SENDS THE PETITION TO RESPONDENT
3. THE RESPONDENT FILES AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SERVICE (If they do not then the Petition will need to be personally served on the respondent) and this is sent to the Petitioner
4. THE PETITIONER FILES A STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF THE DIVORCE AND APPLICATION FOR DECREE NISI We will prepare this documentation for you, you will check and sign the documentation before it is sent to the court
5. A DISTRICT JUDGE WILL CONSIDER THE PETITION If the grounds are accepted, then the petition will be listed for the pronouncement of a Decree Nisi
6. THE DECREE NISI IS PRONOUNCED BY THE COURT; you will not need to attend court for this
7. AFTER SIX WEEKS AND ONE DAY THE PETITIONER CAN APPLY FOR A DECREE ABSOLUTE (If they do not do so within four and a half months then the Respondent can apply)
8. THE DECREE ABSOLUTE IS THEN ISSUED, at this point the marriage is legally dissolved. You are now free to remarry. However, it is important to know that if you are the Respondent and you remarry it may impact any financial claim against your former spouse and you should seek legal advice.

Obtaining a divorce in the UK can take as little as 6 months if the divorce is uncontested, you have finalised as much as you can beforehand with your spouse and there are no problems with sending documents to each other. Then it is a case of filling out paperwork.

However, it is important to note that whilst bringing the marriage to an end is relatively quick, the process often takes longer, particularly if agreement can’t be reached on financial matters and/or children arrangements. On average ending a marriage and agreeing a financial settlement takes around 12 months.

Divorce is the act of terminating the marriage by the Court and is not concerned with the Financial side of the marriage.

Legal Aid is no longer available to pay the legal costs of divorce or dissolution unless there are specific circumstances. We do not provide Divorce under Legal Aid.

There are several ways Hepburn Delaney Solicitors can support you through your divorce. If your divorce is going to be agreed between you and your spouse, we offer a fixed fee to undertake all the work from drafting the Petition, right through to obtaining the final order, Decree Absolute. The only additional cost will be the Court fee and any additional work associated with financial remedy.

Alternatively, we can offer ad-hoc advice at our competitive hourly rates.

This is not possible as there would be a conflict of interest.

We do not provide Mediation under Legal Aid. We do however offer fixed fees for Mediation appointments.