Contact Us

Tel: 0800 015 2331
Fax: 0113 242 1965

Emergency out of office hours:
Tel: 07699 711844

Meet the Team

Divorce and Civil Partnership Dissolution

The court will only grant you a divorce if the Judge agrees that your marriage is at an end and the legal term used is that the marriage has “irretrievably broken down”.

You must be able to satisfy the court that one or more of the following is true as proof that marriage has irretrievably broken down:

  1. Your husband or wife has committed adultery.
  2. Your husband or wife has behaved unreasonably which you means you find it impossible to live with them.
  3. Your husband or wife has deserted you for a period of at least two years.
  4. You both agree to the divorce and you have been separated for at least two years.
  5. If your husband or wife does not agree to the divorce, that there has been at least five years’ separation.

To start the divorce you would have to issue a petition for a divorce at a County Court.  With this divorce petition you have serve the court with a certified copy of your marriage certificate and also details about any children of the family.

Your husband or wife would then be served with the divorce petition and with the statement setting out the arrangements for children is appropriate.  You husband or wife then has to decide whether they wish to contest the divorce or whether they agree to it. 

In most cases, divorces tend to proceed uncontested and the usual step is that the spouse who issued the divorce petition applies for the “Decree Nisi”.  A Decree Nisi is granted only if a Judge having considered the court papers is satisfied that there are property legal grounds for a divorce and that the arrangement for the children had been agreed or are in the process of being resolved. Usually you would not need to attend court.

You are not formally divorced until the final stage is obtained which is called the “Decree Absolute”.  You can apply for the Decree Absolute six weeks and one day after the date the Decree Nisi is pronounced.

There is an alternative to divorce called judicial separation.  This is very similar to divorce except that you are not able to remarry.  The judicial separation is used mainly by people with religious or other views which mean they do not wish to get divorced. 

Often people tell us that they do not wish to get divorced.  However it is often the best option because it enables a final resolution of things as quickly as possible.  The court has the power to decide what happens with the financial matters such as dividing up the assets/making orders as to maintenance and it is only a court order obtaining divorce proceedings which settles the final matters permanently.  The process for ending a civil partnership is quite similar to the divorce procedure. Again, the court will only grant you a dissolution of the civil partnership if the Judge agrees that the civil partnership is at an end as it has “irretrievably broken down”.

The civil partnership Act 2004 came into force from 5th December 2005, this allows same-sex couples who wish to register a civil partnership to have the same legal benefits and claims on death as heterosexual married couples. It means that civil partners are accepted as legal next of kin and would be eligible for pension benefits where appropriate.

To dissolve a civil partnership the court must have proof that the civil partnership is over because of one of the following four factors:

  1. Your civil partner has behaved unreasonably.
  2. Your civil partner has deserted you for a period of at least two years.
  3. You have been separated for two years and both yourself and your civil partner agree to the dissolution. 
  4. If you have been separate for five years then the court can deal with the matter even if your civil partner does not agree to the dissolution.

Again you would start the process by issuing a petition for dissolution of your civil partnership and you would need to provide the court of the civil partnership certificate and also provide details as to any children of the family.

Like in the divorce the civil partnership petition is served upon your civil partner and they have to respond saying whether or not they agree to the dissolution.

As with divorce the civil partnership dissolution is a two stage procedure the first is apply for a Judge to review the papers and to decide whether the Judge is satisfied that there are proper grounds for a dissolution.  If the Judge agrees they you would be granted a “conditional order”.
Your civil partnership will not come to an end until you obtain the “final order” and like divorce this can only be applied for six weeks and one day after the court has pronounced your “conditional order”