Divorce

Divorce can be a difficult, emotional and stressful process. Getting the right advice as soon as possible can help you to come to terms with the situation.

Our highly experienced team of divorce and family lawyers, based in Cradley Heath and Wolverhampton can help and support you throughout the whole process to make the right decisions for you, your family, your finances and even your business, to ensure we achieve the best outcome for you.

Procedure

In order to obtain a divorce in England and Wales you must have been married for at least one year. An application for divorce can be either a sole application (made by one spouse) or a joint application (made by both spouses together). There is one ground for divorce – that the marriage has irretrievably  broken down on the basis of “no fault” where neither party is blamed for the breakdown of the marriage. It is still possible for a Respondent to dispute a divorce, but only on very limited grounds such as the validity of the marriage

Once the application is finalised and submitted to the court, the court will issue the application which starts the divorce proceedings. In a sole application, the application and Acknowledgement of Service will be served on the other spouse. In a joint application, the court will produce a Notice of Proceedings, which each spouse must then acknowledge receipt of.

There are two stages to the divorce – a conditional order and a final order. The conditional order can be applied for 20 weeks after the divorce application was issued, and the final order can be applied for 6 weeks after the conditional order was made. The final order formally brings the marriage to an end. 

When dealing with a divorce, it is important to put in place a court order dealing with the financial position to prevent further financial claims being raised by either party in the future, for more information click here.

Cost

Our family team recognise that going through a divorce is a stressful and emotional time without having to worry about the costs involved. At George Green we believe everyone is entitled to affordable legal advice. Our divorce and family solicitors offer a range of charging rates to suit different budgets and will always provide you with a detailed estimate of our fees and keep you up to date with costs from the outset. We also offer fixed fee rates where possible. For further information please contact one of our divorce and family law lawyers.