- Menu
On 6 April 2022, the law and procedure for divorce changed.
The only ground for divorce remains the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage however, rather than relying upon one of the five facts like under previous legislation, this is now evidenced by a statement that the marriage has irretrievably broken down.
You must have been married for one full year before you can legally apply for a divorce in England.
The law changed in April 2022 and implemented a new mandatory waiting period of 20 weeks between the issue of the application and pronouncement of the conditional order. Further to this, there is a mandatory waiting period of 6 weeks between the conditional order and final order. This means that a divorce will take a minimum of 26 weeks.
However, where matters are complicated or finances need to be resolved, this can take up to 12 months or longer.
Court proceedings are most commonly required when the two parties involved cannot reach agreement by negotiation through their solicitors. This may be in relation to children and finances, and not the divorce itself.
If agreement can be reached by negotiation then it may not be necessary to go to Court.
The new law that comes into place is commonly know as “the no fault divorce”. It does not seek to place blame on either of the parties for the breakdown in the marriage.
If your spouse refuses to acknowledge paperwork sent by the Applicant spouse's solicitor then this will delay matters.
In these cases, we can arrange for your spouse to be personally served the divorce application by a bailiff who can swear to this in court.
If your spouse is still unresponsive then the courts can allow the divorce to proceed without your spouse's consent.
