Click here for a PDF guide to divorce. If your spouse refuses to acknowledge your divorce petition? If you do not know where your spouse lives or works? What happens if I get divorced in another country? Deciding that your marriage has ended can be very difficult.
This legal guide is designed to give information about the law and procedure on divorce. When marriages break down there are often other issues that need to be resolved, such as child arrangements or financial matters.
Rights of Women provides a number of other legal guides that may be useful including Children and the law: when parents separate and A guide to financial arrangements after marriage breakdown. If you have been legally married for at least one year, either you or your spouse can apply for a divorce. Some foreign or religious marriage ceremonies are not recognised by the law of England and Wales.
The English courts can dissolve foreign marriages so long as there is an appropriate connection, for example if one or both of you live in England or Wales or you are both from England or Wales. It may be that you and your spouse have connections with more than one country and that you have the option to get divorced here or abroad. Choosing the right country to get divorced in is important as it can have a big impact on how the marital finances are shared.
If you think your spouse intends to start divorce proceedings in another country, you should seek family law advice urgently as you may wish to start divorce proceedings in England or Wales before they do.
This is known as a petition race. The only ground reason for divorce is that your marriage has irretrievably broken down. Irretrievably means the marriage has broken down permanently and cannot be fixed. To prove that your marriage has broken down irretrievably, you must state one of five facts in your divorce petition:. Adultery — your husband has committed adultery with another woman or your wife has committed adultery with a man. Adultery is sexual intercourse between a married person and a person of the opposite sex who is not their spouse.
If your husband or wife admits to adultery and agrees to the divorce proceedings, the divorce is likely to be accepted by the court. If your spouse does not admit to committing adultery you will need to provide the court with evidence of the adultery. In addition to the adultery, you must also prove that you find it intolerable to live with your spouse, either because of the adultery or because of some other behaviour. Intolerable means that you cannot bear to be in the marriage any longer.
If you continue to live with your husband or wife for 6 months after you find out about their adultery, then you cannot use that incident of adultery as the reason to divorce. However, if you do so you will have to send the divorce papers to that person as well as to your spouse. This will cause additional expense and delay if they do not co-operate.
Unreasonable behaviour — your husband or wife has behaved in such a way that you cannot reasonably be expected to live with them. Unreasonable behaviour can include a wide range of behaviour from domestic violence to withholding love and affection.
It may be helpful to include the first, the worst and the most recent incident of the unreasonable behaviour during the marriage. If you continue to live as a couple for 6 months after the last incident of unreasonable behaviour, it may be harder to prove to the court that you cannot reasonably be expected to live with your spouse.
You need to show that your spouse left you in order to end your relationship, without your agreement and without a good reason, for at least two years. This is difficult to prove so it is very unusual to use this fact. Two years separation with consent — you and your spouse have been separated for a continuous period of two years and you both agree to the divorce. You need not necessarily have lived in separate homes but you need to have had separate lives, for example, eating and doing domestic chores separately and sleeping in different rooms.
Your spouse must agree to the divorce on the basis that you have been separated for a continuous period of two years. It is a good idea to check whether your spouse will agree before sending your divorce petition to the court.
Five years separation — you and your spouse have been separated for a continuous period of five years. If you have been separated for 5 years you are entitled to apply for divorce, even if your spouse does not consent. Your spouse can only oppose the divorce if they can argue that ending the marriage would result in serious financial or other hardship. Find out more: How much does a divorce cost? Contact your bank or building society as soon as you know you are separating and make sure any benefits or wages go into a new separate account.
Find out more: The dark side of joint finances. Or if you have a life insurance policy, you will need to agree how each policy will be dealt with. Will you continue to pay the premiums? Will the beneficiaries of any life insurance change? Pensions can be split in several ways. You could either get:. Find out more: What are my pension rights in a divorce?
It will not discriminate between the homemaker and breadwinner. If a couple have been married for decades, it is likely that a partner who left work to raise the children might be awarded:. Whereas two young people with no children could just walk away with whatever they brought into the marriage.
NOTE: Children are given top priority by the courts, and any issues, including maintenance, will be dealt with separately.
There really is no hard and fast rule as to exactly how all this will be worked out by the courts; there are only general principles which the law follows. What you think is fair may not be what will legally happen. Why you got a divorce does not normally affect the financial settlement. So if one partner cheats, the court is very unlikely to decide that they should get less.
If you are struggling to reach a financial settlement, you can use an independent mediator to try to find a way forward. But if that fails you may have to apply to the court for it to decide how your affairs are split up. If it comes to that, you have to show that you have attempted mediation first. The exception is in cases of domestic abuse. You need to have started divorce proceedings before you go to court with a financial consent order.
This needs to be sorted out before the break-up is finalised. Couples living in England and Wales can sort out their financial settlement themselves or use a low-cost online solicitor service. This is becoming increasingly popular, lowering costs and speeding up the process, although most couples still get some professional help as well.
It is probably necessary to seek independent legal advice to draw up the financial settlement if:. Look for a legal professional on the Resolution website. When it comes to legal costs , they are on the up. There may be circumstances where it is not possible or advisable to communicate with your ex, but in general it saves money to talk. The more you agree before the divorce lawyers get involved, the less you will have to pay in legal fees and the quicker the whole process.
Find out more: Financial guide to divorce. One big barrier to amicable divorces has been the strange rule in the UK that means one party has to accept blame, even if the marriage has simply come to a natural end. Next Post Superannuation, Divorce and Separation. Luke is experienced in family law matters ranging from divorce to child custody. He is a skilled negotiator and strategist and fights zealously for his clients family law rights. Consent Orders What is a consent order? How much does it cost to draft a consent order?
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