A married couple can easily split up and leave each other. However, for there to then be a formal and legal divorce, the matter has to be taken to court. To get a court to grant a divorce, one party has to show to the court that the marriage has "irretrievably broken down”.
To do this the party who petitions for divorce must show one of the following facts.
(a) That the other party has committed adultery
(b) That the other person has been guilty of unreasonable behaviour.
(c) That the other party has "deserted” them
(d) That the couple have lived apart for two years and both agree to a divorce
(e) That the couple have lived apart for five years
To ask the court for a divorce, a Petition will have to be filed at court together with a Marriage Certificate and - if there are children - a document called a Statement of Arrangements for Children, which sets out what the arrangements in relation to the children are going to be.
The next stage is that, if you have proved one of the above facts, the court will pronounce a Decree Nisi, which is the first Order. That means that as far as the Court is concerned the Petitioner is entitled to a divorce.
Six weeks and one day later, the petitioning party is entitled to apply to the court for a Decree Absolute which is the second order and which formally ends the marriage.
It is often agreed that Decree Absolute will not be applied for until all arrangements as regards the children and finances are sorted out. In practical terms, in a marriage breakdown the actual divorce is not always the difficult and contentious part. If there are problems, they usually come in the form of disputes over the money and the property in the marriage, and of course in relation to the children of the marriage. See the sections of this website that relate to "Divorce - financial aspects ” and "Divorce - children aspects ”
Our large and leading Matrimonial Law team can help you with all aspects of the divorce process - at the outset if you are contemplating divorcing your partner, or when you have decided to start divorce proceedings, or at any stage during the divorce, or the financials, or the children process. That is, we can help you not just in relation to the divorce proceedings, but in relation to arrangements over children and the financial arrangements that flow from the divorce.
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