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Divorce made simple
02 November 2009
Returning the petitionIf the acknowledgement of service is returned properly, the next step is for the petitioner to swear an affidavit under oath confirming the facts in the petition in front of an officer of the court, or a third party solicitor. This will then go to a judge who will check it and, if satisfied, the judge will certify whether he or she is entitled to a divorce and whether the arrangements for the children are satisfactory.
The decrees
The court will then fix a date for the decree nisi. On that date, the judge will read out in court the names of the couple getting divorced and the grounds. Neither husband nor wife have to be in court for this and the court will send a copy of the decree and any agreed order for costs to each of the divorced couple and their solicitors. The petitioner can then apply to the court for the decree absolute, which is the final decree of divorce. That can be done after six weeks and one day from the date of the decree nisi.
Stopping a divorce
The petitioner is essentially in the driving seat in the process – he or she can stop the divorce at any stage before the decree absolute is issued. Once the decree nisi is granted, the divorce will not move forward without an application for the decree absolute.
However, that does not stop the respondent applying to the court if they want to proceed with the divorce and have the decree absolute granted. They must wait a further three months to do this (six weeks and a day plus three months). It will usually then be granted to the respondent unless the petitioner successfully argues that it would cause them severe financial hardship. If there is a delay of more than 12 months between the decree nisi and decree absolute the court will want an explanation of the reasons for the delay. Once the decree absolute is granted the couple are divorced and are both free to re-marry.
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