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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.