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When a couple decide to divorce, it’s vitally important that the assets they have jointly accumulated as a couple are distributed amongst them in such a way as to ensure that both parties are left with the resources they require to begin their new lives. Often, however, it is the need to agree an equitable and reasonable division of these assets that – along with childcare arrangements – is most likely to result in the type of disagreement that can prolong proceedings – possibly for several years. Sometimes, these disputes are completely justified; the negotiations in question revolving around large assets to which both parties have a reasonable claim. At other times, negotiations become protracted – and vast sums of money are wasted – because one or even both parties cannot agree something trivial. With this in mind, we thought we’d help people doing their own divorces to, we hope, successfully negotiate agreements that will help them to achieve financial stability post-divorce. We believe the key to doing this lies in ensuring that you pay close attention to the following three assets: Property The family home is likely to be the most valuable asset owned by a couple and it’s absolutely essential that both receive a reasonable portion of its value within any divorce settlement as a result. Often, one party will remain in the matrimonial home whilst the other is ‘bought out’. Such arrangements are perfectly fine provided the fee paid to the leaving party both reflects the properties true value and, if this fee is not to be issued in a lump sum, that the initial payment is enough to pay for a deposit on a new home. If the couple are lucky enough to own more than own more than one property, it can be easier to simply divide their portfolio provided doing so results in both parties being left with collections of properties that are of roughly equal monetary value. Pensions The money that one or both parties have saved for their retirements is another vital asset and, ultimately, both party’s respective ‘pots’ should be comparable following negotiations having concluded. In some instances, both parties will have similar provisions but, more often than not, there is some if not considerable discrepancy. In such instances, should this discrepancy remain, one party will be significantly prejudiced following their retirement so it’s essential that any settlement addresses this. Savings Like pensions, the savings that a couple have accrued throughout the course of their marriage should, ideally, be distributed evenly if possible in order to place both spouses on the right financial path following their marriage having legally ended. The Caveat Whilst an entirely equal division of assets would, to most of us, seem like a fair deal, it’s important to remember that the main reason you’re negotiating a settlement is to meet your needs, not necessarily to ensure that you get your hands on your fair share of your joint assets. So, if possible, compromise. It may be hard to swallow but prolonged negotiations could actually bring about a situation where the majority of your joint assets are wasted on legal fees. In other words, during negotiations stay focused on what you’ll need, not what you deserve. If you’ve reached an agreement and are looking to keep the costs of your divorce down, you can get a divorce and make your agreement legally binding with a Clean Break Divorce from Quickie Divorce.

When both you and your spouse want a divorce but you’ve not yet been living separately for two years and neither of you have committed adultery, then one of you will have to rely on the others unreasonable behaviour. As difficult as many assume this will be (and wait until the aforementioned two-year period has passed as a result) the actual technical definition of unreasonable behaviour is one that is very open. Indeed, as we’ve discussed previously, most negative behaviour will fulfil the relevant criteria. Provided that it satisfies rules regarding timescales, that is. Any behaviour relied upon in a divorce petition must have taken place within the six-month period that preceded the date on which the couple separated. To put it another way, if you and your spouse attended a mutual friend’s party on the 16th April 2018 and they proceeded to become heavily intoxicated before behaving lewdly and embarrassing you then, whilst there would be little doubt that their behaviour would be considered unreasonable, it would only be an acceptable example if the couple separated before the 16th October 2018. This can be problematic as, whilst we all behave unreasonably from time-to-time, it’s highly unlikely that four similar incidents will have taken place within the six-month period that came before a couple separated. Fortunately, there’s a simple and effective solution. Use ongoing behaviour instead The best way around this is simply to cite examples of behaviour that were ongoing instead. Using the fictional incident discussed above as an example, the reason would read: Throughout the last year of the marriage until the date of separation, the Respondent would regularly become heavily intoxicated at social gatherings, with this resulting in him speaking to others in a rude and abrasive manner. The Petitioner regularly informed the Respondent that this left her feeling embarrassed, but the Respondent’s behaviour did not change. As you can see, instead of referencing a single incident, the example above instead discusses a pattern of behaviour. This can be done for multiple common examples such as failing to communicate effectively, withholding affection, spending excessive amounts of time on electronic devices or refusing to socialise. Just remember to strengthen any example you provide by stating that you informed the Respondent of how this behaviour made you feel and that they failed to take action. Do you have more questions about getting a divorce on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour? Simply click on the link to get in touch with our team of advisers today!

With wages having been depressed for more than a decade now, people are regularly looking to save money wherever possible – divorces included.

Long deemed to be the exclusive preserve of the legal professional, Divorce Petitions and other documents needed to dissolve a marriage are regularly being completed and submitted to the courts by everyone from builders to supermarket employees. But what costs are they likely to accrue and what is the likelihood of their application succeeding?

In terms of costs, the filing fee for divorce is £550 though it is possible to have this reduced or possibly even waived completely. Provided an application is completely free of errors and the divorce is straightforward, this should be the only fee anyone is required to pay. As I’m sure you can imagine, however, mistakes are commonplace and can have significant financial ramifications.

Firstly, there are fees in excess of £100 to submit amended documents and, believe us, errors are far more common than you may think, particularly when it comes to providing information concerning marriage certificates. It’s also not unheard of for uncontested divorces to become contested as a result of the Respondent deciding that they’re no longer willing to admit to adultery. In the worst case, this can prevent the divorce from proceeding with the court fee being wasted as a result.

Additionally, extra costs may be accrued if the Respondent does not return documentation to the court but their spouse has filed on one of the grounds where consent is not technically required (unreasonable behaviour or five-year separation). Under these circumstances, the applicant can pay for a bailiff to attend the Respondent’s home and deliver the relevant documentation for a cost of £40 and the divorce will be able to proceed as normal.

All of these potential costs pale in comparison to those you could face if you fail to obtain a formal and legally binding order finalising the division of your and your spouse’s joint assets, however. By filing a Consent Order before or within six months of a divorce being finalised, divorcees can make any agreement regarding the division of assets legally binding and prevent either party from making a claim against the other in the future. If this order is not obtained, a claim can be brought at any time and either spouse could find themselves needing to pay out a vast sum of money to the other at any time.

Whilst many assume that a divorce will completely dissolve the monetary ties that exist between spouses, this is simply not the case and the important of obtaining a Consent Order cannot be understated as a result.

To find out more about divorce, including Consent Orders, get in touch with Quickie Divorce’s advisers today.  

The fact that the courts charge a fee of £550 when someone files for a divorce is, unsurprisingly, a huge bugbear for many. After all, the courts hardly make it clear what people will be getting for their money; so much so that many people assume that this fee will entitle them to help with their forms, assistance when negotiating a financial settlement etc. In truth, this fee pays for very little. A review of the required documents and a few minutes of a judge’s time are, ultimately, all that payees receive in exchange for their hard-earned cash.

With the fee in question often larger than that which people would pay an online divorce provider like Quickie Divorce, those that know what they’ll receive in exchange for their fee consistently deem it to be unreasonable. Others will find themselves frustrated when they discover that, in spite of them having paid several hundred pounds to the court, they will receive no assistance in exchange.

Ultimately, the UK’s government claims that this fee is required so that the courts can cover the costs they accrue handling each divorce application. This, though, is widely disputed and reputable sources such as the Ministry of Justice have claimed that this fee is actually being used as a means of generating money, something which is supported by the fact that the fee payable to the court when filing for divorce has risen substantially over the past decade.

Prior to the 21st March 2016, the court fee concerning divorce applications stood at £410 and had been just £340 prior to this. The £340 fee was introduced in January 2006 with it previously having been £240. As a result, the fee payable to the court when filing for a divorce has more than doubled in just over a decade – well above the rate of inflation.

What makes this even more irksome is the fact that it’s estimated – again by the Ministry of Justice – that the actual costs of administering a divorce is just £270. This means that, if we were to set aside the losses they’ll make as a result of some applicants being entitled to fee remissions and reductions, the courts generate a profit of £280 with every divorce application they receive. In 2016, 107,071 divorces were processed meaning that profits of almost £30 million were generated for the courts. Considering that the fee is payable at the start of the process and that many people don’t go on to finalise their divorces, thus reducing the courts workload, it’s likely that the profits generated by divorce were even higher.

So, why do you pay £550 to the courts when filing for a divorce? To add more money to the nation’s treasury!

If you’re looking for a low-cost divorce solution, get in touch with Quickie Divorce and find out how we can help you today.

Every time a couple gets a divorce, they need to divide their joint assets. Things like property, cars, pensions etc. all need to be considered and the couple must either reach an agreement or, if they find that they cannot, head to court and let a judge decide who gets what.

Whilst most couples will be able to successfully negotiate an agreement, though, fear of the courts needing to become involved, combined with an inaccurate assumption of how the grounds for divorce will affect a judge’s ruling, prevent many from filing for divorce before they and their spouse have been living separately for more than two years. Though it’s understandable that people tend to assume that their spouse will be treated more favourably in court if they’ve accepted responsibility for the breakdown of the marriage, this is not the case.

Settlements that have been affected by the behaviour of a spouse are not unheard of, but only when their behaviour has directly and adversely influenced the couple’s financial situation. Such incidents are rare, however, and are not influenced by the grounds for divorce, but rather evidence submitted because of the need for the courts to rule on a settlement, only. Information present in a divorce petition or any other piece of documentation that must be filed as part of the divorce procedure has, to our knowledge, never been used as evidence in order to leverage a larger share of a couple’s joint assets.

Ultimately, legislators have recognised that apportioning absolute blame on one spouse is a hugely problematic task and this is why the grounds for divorce have no bearing on financial rulings. Perhaps this might seem unfair or odd. Shouldn’t a spouse that commits adultery suffer adverse effects as a result? Isn’t it only reasonable that a spouse that behaved unreasonably receives a lesser share of a couple’s joint assets? Perhaps, but it’s worth remembering that only one party can file and that only one can take the blame. To put it another way, a Divorce Petition alone does not prove that the party in question was solely responsible for the end of the marriage and, proving who was would be too time-consuming and expensive for it to be something a court could ever practicably rule on.

So, if you’ve not yet pursued a divorce because you’re concerned about the grounds affecting your settlement, don’t!

If you have further questions about divorce or would like to speak to one of our advisers simply click here to request a call today.

The divorce process in England and Wales has, until recently, been administered exclusively via physical paperwork that needed to be sent directly to court. Now, though, it’s possible for the relevant documentation to be completed and submitted online – something which has left a few people feeling more than a little annoyed.

Traditionalists – in what is now firmly established as their default response when anyone proposes any kind of change to divorce law, the divorce process or pretty much anything divorce-related – have claimed that this will make the process of obtaining a divorce too easy. This, they claim, will bring about a tidal wave of divorces as if, we can only presume, that all married couples would divorce if it didn’t require a stamp or a trip to the nearest post-box.

The reality, of course, is that the greatest procedural barriers are still in place following this change: there is still a court fee of £550, couples must still apportion blame if they’ve been living separately for less than two years and there are still numerous forms to complete. These are just a few examples of the far larger problems faced by those looking to divorce their spouse than merely being unable to submit paperwork online.

As ever, I will make the same statement I have made previously when groups have argued that simplifying the divorce process will result in the breakdown of far more marriages: no one will decide to pursue a divorce exclusively as a result of a procedural change.

Indeed, changes to the divorce process or divorce law will never be what lead people to conclude their marriage has irretrievably broken down. They may file because changes make it more practical for them to do so, but there can be little doubt that they will have concluded that their marriages were not sustainable beforehand.

What’s more, it must be stated that whilst opponents of changes to divorce law and procedure appear to be under the impressions that legislators can make the task of ending a marriage easy, this is fallacy. Divorce is always difficult for those involved, particularly children of the marriage. When the formal process itself is unnecessarily complicated, it’s far more likely that those involved will become frustrated, thus worsening the negative effects it’ll have on not only them, but their extended family – and therefore children – also.

Once again, the criticisms levelled at changes to the divorce process serve as proof of the fact that those that detract such alterations are actually opposed to divorce itself, as their baseless reasons for opposing them prove.

Many people assume that they will be unable to get a divorce online if they and their spouse have had children together. So much so, in fact, that it’s a question our advisers are regularly asked.

All in all, it’s understandable that people have a tendency to assume that the divorce process will be complicated by the presence of children. The fact that the needs of children involved in legal proceedings of any kind will take precedent over those of anyone else involved is well documented, after all. In spite of this, though, the divorce process is, provided both spouses consent, straightforward irrespective of whether children are involved, how old they are, or even how many the couple have had together.

Several years ago, if the couple filing for divorce had children (or even if children had lived with them as part of the family during their marriage) under the age of 18, their Divorce Petition would need to be accompanied by a ‘Statement of Arrangements for Children’ form. Here, the spouse applying for the divorce was required to outline what arrangements were in place for the children. A copy of this form was then sent to the other spouse along with the Divorce Petition so that they could indicate that the arrangements outlined within it had indeed been agreed by the two parties. A judge would then review them and decide whether or not they were appropriate. If the judge was not satisfied, the divorce would not go through.

In reality, this was so rare that, even after we’d administered thousands upon thousands of divorces, we simply never encountered it. This led the government to reconsider how necessary this was and, following the necessary discussions, it was decided that this form would no longer be required when a divorce was formally requested.

Following this, a revised Divorce Petition was introduced that still required the applicant to name any children that had been born to the two parties or that had lived with them during their marriage but this and their dates of birth were all that was required. Shortly afterwards, this section was also removed and the Divorce Petition no longer makes any reference to children of the marriage whatsoever.

As a result, there is no reason why a couple that consent to a divorce cannot get a divorce online if they both consent.

If you still have questions about divorce, simply click here to get in touch with one of our advisers today.

Starting the divorce process can be a daunting prospect. The thought of formally ending your marriage is one that, as you’ll be aware of the significant changes it’s certain to bring, is more than capable of causing anxiety. Whilst these concerns are nearly always misplaced, though, this doesn’t make them any less unpleasant. Fortunately, in our experience, by improving our understanding of how the divorce process should begin, we can placate a great deal of these concerns.

With this in mind, here’s how to start the divorce process in England and Wales:

The couple discuss the divorce

Before actually beginning the process of formally requesting that the courts grant them a divorce, it’s important that couples get together and try and work out how assets should be divided, childcare arrangements and, most importantly, their grounds for divorce.

Decide on the grounds

You may have noticed that calls for no-fault divorce have been commonplace over the last few months and, after you’ve read this section of this post, we think you’ll have a much better understanding of why.

If a couple agree to a divorce and have been living separately for more than two years, then they can utilise what are currently colloquially referred to as the no-fault grounds of two or five-year separation. When these are used, the courts will need to be provided with no detailed information – all they’ll require is an approximate date of separation.

If they, instead, need to rely on the other grounds of either adultery or unreasonable behaviour, the courts will need examples and more precise dates. Crucially, one spouse will need to be blamed for the breakdown of the marriage and this often turns relatively civil spouses into hostile ones; hostility that is only exacerbated should they be unable to agree on who should accept blame for the end of their marriage and be required to wait years before obtaining their divorce.

Should such a dispute arise, it will often be because neither person feels they should accept the blame for the breakdown of the marriage but, if it is instead because they fear detrimental treatment at the hands of the court, they need not worry. The courts rarely consider adultery or unreasonable behaviour to be a valid reason to issue one spouse with a lower or greater award than the other. Most couples also arrive at an agreement on how things should be divided without needing the courts to make this decision.

Find your marriage certificate

Yes, it’s frustrating but you can’t file for a divorce without it so you’re either going to need to find or replace your marriage certificate. If you do need to do the latter, here’s a guide on what to do if you’ve lost your marriage certificate.

Get and complete a Divorce Petition

Also known as a D8, a Divorce Petition is the document you’ll need to complete and submit to the court along with your marriage certificate and you can download a copy here. Once this has been done, you’ll officially have started the divorce process.

Looking for more information on the divorce process? Click on the link to get more information and find out how to contact our advisers today.

Divorce, even when it’s uncontested, can still be extremely expensive, particularly as it often means that people will be moving from dual-income to single-income households. As a result, it’s hardly surprising that so many people are concerned about their spouse’s debts and whether or not they’ll be in any way responsible for them.

Generally, you wouldn’t need to worry about debt that your partner accrued entirely in their own name such as credit cards, personal loans etc. This would still apply if the debt was accrued for something you both benefitted from such as a holiday or home improvements unless your former partner contested this in court and provided evidence that you agreed to share the debt in question. As we’re sure you can imagine, this is likely to be problematic and is very rarely pursued as a result.

Whilst you’ll probably think that this is good news, there is a potential drawback: if you’ve ever had a joint bank account, your credit ratings are forever linked. What this means is that your credit rating will be adversely affected if your spouse fails to make payments or worse.

Now, if you’re confident that you won’t be relying on credit then this may be something that you can live with. As we’ve stated previously, though, the period that follows a divorce is often financially turbulent and the insurance of available credit can, at such times, prove to be invaluable. Should you find yourself without savings and in urgent need of money, you could well find that your only option is to take out a payday loan and to then deal with either the exorbitant payments that will follow or, worse yet, bankruptcy. It’s an extreme example, but the point remains: you may not be responsible for your former spouse’s debts following a divorce, but they can still have an adverse effect on your finances.

Painful though it may be, it can be better to negotiate an agreement that ensures both parties will be able to keep up with any repayments they are left with. It may seem unreasonable for you to find yourself paying for your former spouse’s purchases and, yes, that’s a perfectly reasonable way to feel under such circumstances but – for the reasons we’ve discussed previously – it can make fiscal sense.

Looking for more divorce advice? Click on the link to get in touch with our advisers today.

For several months, prominent figures from the worlds of law, religion, government and more have been publicly debating divorce law within the UK. Some have argued for reform, others that revising the law and allowing no-fault divorce would be harmful to society.

I, personally, have argued that it is rational to reform divorce law and the need to, at times, apportion blame should be eradicated. My arguments rely on simple logic: I have worked within the divorce-sphere for a decade and am yet to speak to someone that flippantly made the decision to divorce. With those opposed to changes to divorce law claiming that reformations would lead to an increasing divorce rate, my own experiences have shown me that this would not be the case and I can see no credible argument for not changing the law as a result.

Morally and subjectively, I have also supported these reforms because I believe that organisations have no more of a right to decide whether or not a couple can divorce than they do over whether they may marry. In short, I genuinely believe that people should be trusted to end their marriages if they believe it to be the best course of action. Today, I stumbled across an article in the Guardian describing the lengths one of China’s provinces has gone do in order to stem escalating divorce rates within their region and it galvanised my views.

In what I can only describe as the divorce process you’d presume to be akin to that utilised in one of Orwell’s more obscure pieces of science-fiction, couples that file for divorce in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu are offered the opportunity to take a test designed to determine if their marriage can still be salvaged. Granted, the test isn’t mandatory and the couple will not be prevented from getting a divorce whatever the result may be, but this is still clearly a bridge too far.

The test may be voluntary but administrator’s claims that they can identify when a couple shouldn’t be looking to end their marriages as a result of how they respond to questions is nothing short of fallacy. Human relationships are incredibly complex and, as stated previously, the people best placed to determine whether or not the marriage is salvageable or beyond repair is the couple themselves.

This event does serve as a timely reminder of why it’s so vital that no-fault divorce is introduced as soon as possible, though. Yes, those arguing it will damage familial stability are – just like those administering tests in Jiangsu – well intentioned, but preventing couples from separating by utilising metaphorical roadblocks when there’s no love left in the marriage is far more likely to have a profound and negative effect on the parties and their children than a divorce ever could.

In short, we need to either embrace that no-fault divorce is the future or accept that, should we choose to end our marriage, that we’ll be required to jump through any number of hoops in order to appease people who simply cannot understand our situations and why we wish to end our marriages.

Divorce can get very, very expensive. Negotiations over the division of assets are, after all, ultimately discussions that will determine the participant’s quality of life for at least a few years following their divorce being made final. Combine this with potential disputes over children, gargantuan solicitors’ rates, the increased financial strain that comes with living alone etc. and the cost of a divorce can quickly spiral out of control.

By following a few simple steps, though, you can significantly reduce the cost of ending your marriage:

Try and negotiate with your spouse directly

If you and your spouse can both agree on how to split your finances, residency arrangements for the children etc. you’re not going to need to pay third parties to negotiate on your behalf and will make significant savings.

Yes, such negotiation can be fraught with tension and even animosity but, if you both want to save on your divorce, you’ll certainly be able to agree a few compromises.

Whilst you may not be able to agree on everything, though, that doesn’t mean you’ll need to go straight to expensive solicitors.

Try mediation

For couples that genuinely want to try and drive down the cost of their divorce but need some help negotiating a comprehensive agreement (who gets what, where the children of the marriage will live etc.) mediation is an invaluable service.

During mediation sessions, a qualified individual will work with both spouses and help them come to an arrangement that works for both parties. Mediators are not only significantly cheaper than solicitors, but are also guaranteed to be non-confrontational meaning that they won’t rile either spouse. This means that the parties will not only save money but will find the divorce process less emotionally damaging, too.

Download your documents

More and more people are now opting to complete their own divorce paperwork and, as all of the documents you’ll need can be downloaded directly from justice.gov.uk, it’s not hard to see why.

Whilst you’ll save money if you can complete your documents correctly, though, you’ll be charged a further court fee (you’ll find more information about this charge later in this article) if you need to re-submit them because of an error so drafting your own documents can quite easily prove to be a false economy.

Consider an online divorce provider

Online divorce providers such as Quickie Divorce are significantly cheaper than solicitors and will prepare all of the divorce documentation you’ll need for you for just £67.

As the fee for re-submitting amended documents to the court is £110 and most people that prepare their own documents making a mistake, the value of these services is, we think, obvious.

Check if you’re entitled to a discounted court fee

Whilst the courts charge a fee of £550 to process all divorce applications, you may be entitled to a reduction in this fee. Alternatively, you may not need to pay it at all.

So, before you submit your divorce paperwork to the courts, check out this page to find out if you can make further savings.

‘Can I immediately remarry once my divorce has been finalised?’ is – and you may be surprised by this – a question that is put to our advisers on a pretty regular basis.

Often, spouses separate and neither has the inclination to file for divorce. They agree on how to divide their various assets, have chosen who’ll keep the matrimonial home etc. and the process of ending their marriage simply seems like an unnecessary cost.

Such arrangements often persist for several years but, when one party finds themselves in a serious romantic relationship, their desire to remarry prompts them to take action and pursue a divorce. Many even book venues, find caterers and ultimately arrange their wedding before they’ve even begun the process of ending their marriage. Hardly surprising that they want to know how soon they’ll be able to marry, then.

Circumstances like these are so common, in fact, that a myth has entered circulation because of them: in recent years (and we have – in spite of our dogged efforts – been unable to discover the origins of this belief), our advisers have reported that an alarmingly large number of people have been under the impression that they are able to remarry immediately after they have filed for a divorce. This is untrue and could potentially result in people committing the act of bigamy – a criminal offence which carries a potential custodial sentence. So, to cut a long story short, if you’re one of the people looking to get divorced so you can remarry your new partner, you’ll need to read this next part very carefully!

Any individual that has been married previously cannot marry someone else until their previous marriage is legally over. Essentially, if you want to avoid being charged with a crime, you need to wait until your divorce has been fully processed; and the word ‘fully’ is important.

Due to exaggerated media reports which imply that a divorce is finalised once a Decree Nisi has been issued (as it’s the one part of the divorce process where a judge is actually involved and their involvement is typically brief), no one could blame you for thinking that you’d be able to marry once you’d received yours, but no, you need to wait for your Decree Absolute.

Yes, it is only once a Decree Absolute has been granted that your marriage is legally over and you’re free to elope with your new partner without fear of legal reprisal. Remember, though, that you’ll need to apply for your Decree Absolute and will need to wait until at least six weeks and one day have passed from the date on which your Decree Nisi was granted before you do.

Do you have more questions about divorce? Click on the link to get in touch with our advisers today.