The divorce process starts by one party submitting their divorce petition to the Court. This person is referred to as
the “Petitioner”. The Court then issues the petition and sends it to the other party, referred to as the “Respondent”.
The Respondent completes an Acknowledgement of service to confirm whether they agree to the contents of the
divorce petition. The Acknowledgment of Service is then sent to the Petitioner and the Petitioner applies for Decree Nisi to be pronounced. After 6 weeks and 1 day have passed, the Petitioner may then apply for the Decree Absolute. Once the Decree Absolute has been pronounced, the divorce process is completed.

If you are separating but do not want to divorce right now, you can have a Separation Agreement drafted to set out
what you have agreed to do with your finances and who shall petition for the divorce and on what basis, when you
are ready. The agreement can contain anything that you feel needs to be set out clearly as a reference point and the
document can be referred to in Court in the event that one party negates on the agreement during the divorce. The
Court will assess what weight to attach to the Agreement and will do so using various factors such as whether the
parties both received independent legal advice and the contents of the agreement in comparison to the law surrounding matrimonial finances.

The process usually takes 6 to 12 months, but this can be longer or shorter dependent upon the Court and the parties co-operation in the process.

A spouse can hamper the process in many ways such as not returning the Acknowledgment of Service, defending
the divorce or even submitting a cross petition. If any of these happen I will ensure that these attempts are dealt with effectively to enable the divorce to get back on track.

If you and the primary career cannot agree upon arrangements for you to see
your child, I can make an application to the Court on your behalf. The Court will
appoint a Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Services (CAFCASS)
Officer to speak to you, your child and their primary carer. The purpose is to
establish the wishes and feelings of the child and to ensure that any decision
made by the Court is in the best interests of the child. The CAFCASS Officer will
produce a report to guide the Court, if necessary and will make recommendations
as to what further steps are required to assist in a decision being made.

The Court will want to ensure that any settlement that is awarded is fair and reasonable. The Court will take into
account the length of your marriage and how much of the pension was acquired during the course of the marriage.
The Court will also consider what position you will be in following the separation and what age you are.
I will go through the factors that the Court will consider to establish whether a pension share is appropriate and if so, what share would be fair and reasonable.

When parties are not married the Court will consider who holds the legal title of the property, but also whether there has been a type of legal trust formed through the actions of the parties. I will discuss your individual circumstances and consider whether either of the above applies to you.

The Court will want to be certain that any settlement that it awards is fair and reasonable. This means that the
settlement will need to ensure that the parties are able to find a place to live and be able to afford to live there. The
options regarding the former matrimonial home will depend upon the circumstances of the family. The main outcomes are as follows:-

– One party buys out the other party
– The house is sold and the net proceeds are split

– The parent with whom the children spend the majority of their time stays in the former matrimonial home until the youngest child reaches 18 or finishes full time education or another of the trigger events listed within the Order occurs (most often remarriage, cohabitation for a set length of time, death)

I will help you establish what an appropriate split or buy out would be and which option would be best for you.
There are various factors for you to consider such as who will continue to pay the mortgage if the third option is
chosen or whether the party purchasing the other party’s interest is able to take over the mortgage in their sole name. I will work through these considerations with you.