The divorce process

As mentioned in the previous page, the divorce begins by sending a divorce petition and the other prescribed documents together with a court fee to a county court.

You may be able to claim an exemption from the court fee, depending upon your income and assets.

Acknowledgement

Then, the divorce petition is issued by the court and served on the respondent, usually by post. (N.B. The person who starts the divorce proceedings is known as ‘the petitioner’ and their spouse is called ‘the respondent’.)

The respondent should return the acknowledgement of service form to the Court saying whether or not he or she will be defending the divorce.

If the respondent does not intend to defend, the next stage is for petitioner to swear a statement known as an “affidavit” to confirm the contents of their petition are true and to identify the respondent’s signature on the acknowledgement of service form.

An application for Decree Nisi to be pronounced is sent to the court along with this affidavit.

Decree Nisi

Then the District Judge looks at the petition and considers the documents including the affidavit and, if satisfied that the ground for divorce is substantiated he or she will certify that the petitioner is entitled to a decree of divorce and will fix a date for the pronouncement of the first conditional decree known as the “decree nisi”.

The decree nisi will be pronounced. Neither party needs to attend court. It is also at this stage that any order for costs is made in the divorce.  However, in nine out of ten cases there is no order for costs.

Decree Absolute

Once the decree nisi has been pronounced, then six weeks and one day later, the petitioner may apply for the final decree of divorce which is known as “decree absolute” on paying a fee, (although in many cases we can also claim an exemption from this fee).

The marriage ends with the “decree absolute”, this dissolves the marriage.

If the petitioner does not apply for the decree absolute to be made for any reason, then the respondent may make the application, but would need to wait a further three months after the date on which the petitioner could have first applied (i.e. six weeks and one day plus three months). The application is not granted automatically and usually requires attendance at court.