The Divorce Process

Applying for a Divorce

If you are applying for a divorce, you will be known as the “Applicant” throughout the divorce process and your spouse will be known as the “Respondent”. The Applicant submits an Application for divorce to the court. The application should be made online. Following issue of the proceedings, the court will send a copy of the divorce papers to the Respondent.

Under the old divorce law, which was pre April 2022, only one person to the marriage could apply for the divorce. The current divorce process allows a separating couple to make a joint application for their divorce. This can be the preferred option for some couples.

Where a sole application for divorce has been made to the court, when the court sends a copy of the divorce papers to the Respondent, they will inform the Respondent that they should acknowledge service of the divorce application and the letter sent to them by the court will explain how to do this. The court will ask the Respondent to acknowledge service within 7 days.

In some divorce cases, the Respondent may refuse or fail to acknowledge service of the divorce application and therefore steps may need to be taken to serve them personally with a copy of the divorce papers, so that the court can be satisfied that they are aware of the application for divorce.

An application for divorce can be made online. If you choose not to appoint a solicitor, you can make the application for divorce yourself using the following link Apply for a divorce – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

How Long Does it Take to Get Divorced?

Once the divorce application has been issued by the court, nothing happens for a period of 20 weeks and is considered a “cooling off period”. Once the 20 weeks have passed, the Applicant (or both parties in the case of a joint divorce application) will be notified that they can apply for the Conditional Order, which is the next step in the process. Once the Conditional Order has been pronounced by the court, there is a 6 week and 1 day wait before the application can be made for the Final Order. Once the Final Order is pronounced, this brings the divorce proceedings to an end and is a declaration that the parties are no longer married to each other.

If there are financial issues arising from the separation, the divorce process from start to finish may be much longer and the application for the Final Order of divorce (the final step in the divorce process) may be delayed until the financial matters have been resolved.

It is important to note that the pronouncement of the Final Order does NOT terminate financial claims so if you are looking to resolve the financial issues alongside the divorce proceedings you should be aware that the door will not be closed on financial claims until those claims have been dismissed by the family court.

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