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Edit: At time of edit, in 2018, court fees have risen again to £550

You’ve filed for a divorce and, best of all, were exempt from paying the court’s fees as you were unemployed and receiving income-based jobseeker’s allowance. A fortnight later, your divorce is progressing nicely. The courts have sent the relevant documents to the Respondent and they’ve contacted you to confirm that they’ve received them, even going as far as to add that they’ll sign and return them to the court within the next few days. This could be a stressful process, yes, but everything’s going smoothly so far. Suddenly, disaster strikes: you’ve been offered a new job. Now this shouldn’t be a bad thing, but if you find yourself in the situation described above, you might just perceive it that way. Yes, you’ll no doubt have been hoping to find employment, but do you now need to find that £410 that you were originally exempt from? Relax, you don’t. As far as the courts are concerned, it your situation at the time that you file your documents that determines whether or not you will be exempt from paying the court’s fees. Therefore, it does not matter if your situation were to change one day, week, month or year after you make your application – you will not be required to repay the court’s fees.