Specialist Divorce Lawyers For Complex Affairs

An application for divorce is based on ‘no fault’ and filed via the gov.uk website, but the application is processed by officers of HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

The possibilities for contesting a divorce are extremely rare and very limited. If the divorce is not contested, as the vast majority are not, then all forms can be completed online and there is no need for either party to attend Court as part of the process of applying for divorce.

The Family Court charges a fee of £612 to issue an application for divorce.

If you meet certain criteria, for example if you receive certain state benefits or have a low income, you can make an application for help with paying the Court fee prior to making the application for divorce.

Since the introduction of no-fault divorce in 2022, the application for divorce is now made online via the gov.uk website. This has streamlined the process of applying for divorce and the majority of divorcing couples now choose to issue proceedings themselves, rather than instructing a solicitor to take this step.

The Family law team at Blake Morgan are able to provide support and assistance throughout the process of making an application for divorce.

It takes at least seven months from submitting an application for divorce to receiving a Final Order.

Once an application for divorce is submitted, it takes around two weeks for the Court to process the application.

After the initial application, there is a 20-week compulsory waiting period before you can apply for a Conditional Order.

Once the Conditional Order has been approved, there is a further compulsory 6 week waiting period before you can apply for a Final Order.

The Family Law team at Blake Morgan advise against making an application for a Final Order of divorce until the terms of a financial order have been approved.

When a couple marry, their marriage automatically gives both spouses the right to make financial claims against the other should they sadly divorce. A consent order is an agreed court order containing the financial terms agreed between a divorcing couple, but which importantly concludes those financial claims. No other step will do that, even concluding the divorce itself. The consent order is filed with the Family Court for consideration, alongside a form containing details about the relationship, the parties’ future intentions and ‘snapshot’ financial information of the parties’ respective financial positions both before the order is made, and after it is implemented.

A Judge of the Family Court will review the terms of the consent order and if satisfied that it is fair and meets the legal criteria set out in s25 Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 and elsewhere, the Judge will approve the Order and it will become legally binding and enforceable to the same extent as any other order made by a court.

The terms of any financial order, whether by consent or in contested proceedings, must be approved by a Judge of the Family Court in order to become binding and enforceable. When contemplating the terms of any financial order, the Judge must consider three principles of needs, compensation and sharing, consider the following factors and satisfy themselves that the order is fair to both parties and gives the first consideration to the parties’ children:

• The income or earning capacity, property and other financial resources of each party
• The financial needs, obligations and responsibilities of each party, both now and in the foreseeable future
• The standard of living during the marriage
• The age of each party
• the length of the marriage/civil partnership
• Any disability of either party
• Contributions made by each party, including contributions to be made in the foreseeable future
• The conduct of each party, if it is such that it would be inequitable to disregard it
• The value to each party of any benefit that they will lose as a result of the divorce (such as pension rights)

Each case is decided on its own merits.

The family law team at Blake Morgan are able to provide advice as to the weight that is likely to be attributed to each of the matters listed above in each family’s specific circumstances.

The Family Court has the power to order a pension sharing order as part of any financial order on divorce. If there is a significant difference between the pensions held by each spouse or civil partner, then it may be appropriate to share the pensions. Pensions can only be shared if an order for pension sharing is made by the court, even if by consent.

There are different types and values of pensions. For this reason, a simple comparison of valuations is not always possible or useful to resolve a pensions issue. In some circumstances, particularly if one or both spouses have a public sector or final salary pension scheme, then it is more likely, particularly if pensions are valuable, that separate financial advice will need to be sought from a Pensions On Divorce Expert (PODE). We can guide you through this process.

There is a minimum value below which the Court are unlikely to order any form of pension sharing.  There are also other cases where the court is unlikely to view pension sharing as fair.

A clean break is a form of financial order following a divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership where, once made, there are no ongoing income payments made from one former spouse to the other (often called ‘maintenance’ or ‘periodical payments’). It follows that where there is a clean break, all future financial ties between former spouses or civil partners are brought to an end once the order is implemented.

There can only be a clean break if the terms of a financial order (including a consent order) are drafted to include a clean break and are approved by a Judge of the Family Court as being fair. In rare cases, or those where the parties themselves have already undertaken a fair division of their assets and no maintenance is required, a very simple court order can be obtained which does nothing other than conclude the divorcing couple’s potential financial claims against the other. This is known colloquially as a ‘clean break order’.

A clean break consent order dismisses the right for one or both parties to make a claim for maintenance or periodical payments against the other for their own benefit.

Child maintenance, by contrast, is maintenance or periodical payments for the benefit of a child or children. It follows that child maintenance is payable in almost all relationships where there are children, even if the parents are unmarried. It is possible to have a clean break in a case where one parent continues to pay child maintenance for the benefit of the children to the other parent. This is because a clean break does not bring an end to a parent’s obligation to pay child maintenance to the parent who provides the majority of the children’s care. The amount of child maintenance payable in each family’s case can be calculated using the Child Maintenance Service website.

Even in circumstances where there has been a clean break financial order, there are circumstances when it will be possible for a parent to bring a claim against the other parent for financial provision purely for the benefit of a child under Schedule One Children Act 1989. This is most commonly seen, however, in relationships where the parents are unmarried.