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Divorce procedure

Divorce Rights home > Divorce and Separation > Divorce Procedure

How to divorce

The procedure below explains the legal process of ending your contract of marriage.

It does not explain other issues of children and money which people often think of as being their divorce. Children and money involve separate legal procedures. You may need legal advice about each issue.

Here at divorce-rights we will guide you through divorce, children and money issues and make sure you have expert legal advice throughout the whole process. Read more about the divorce process and how we can help:

Remember, to start divorce proceedings you need to establish:

You have been married for more than a year
The English Court has the jurisdiction to divorce you
Your marriage has "irretrievably broken down" supported by one of five facts

Divorce: STAGE 1

It may surprise you to learn that the legal process of “divorce” is more often than not, a paper exercise and no-one usually attends Court.

Divorce-Rights will prepare a form called a "divorce petition" to start proceedings. It confirms to the court that your marriage has irretrievably broken down by reason of one of five facts (grounds for divorce)

You will need to provide:

A marriage certificate (we can help you get a copy if you don’t have one)
Court fee of £300

We will then send the petition to the Court to start your divorce. Your spouse receives a copy of the petition and a form which he/she has to complete and return to the court.

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Divorce: STAGE 2

We prepare a form to confirm to the Court what, if anything has changed, since the divorce proceedings were started. We send this form to the Court and the District Judge decides if you have sufficient grounds to divorce your husband / wife.

If so, the Court send us a certificate called a Decree Nisi.

The Decree Nisi is the half way stage in the divorce process.

You will need to provide:

Court fee of £40.00

How we can help

Divorce: STAGE 3

6 weeks and a day after Decree Nisi, Divorce-Rights will prepare your application for Decree Absolute. This is the final decree in the divorce process.

We will send this to the Court.

The Decree Absolute brings your marriage to an end and leaves you free to re-marry.

GET IN TOUCH: We can discuss your case initially without charge and will provide an overview of how our service may be able to help you. If we cannot help you directly, we may be able to provide some very useful guidance about your situation or send you one of our specialist information brochures.

CALL OUR HELPLINE on 0845 009 5639 or make a written enquiry by using the contact form on the left of the page.

Who are we - About our service	Separation and divorce	Divorce & children	Separation agreements
Financial issues in a divorce	Simple divorce	More complex divorce	Civil partnership Dissolution