Divorce Proceedings

The legal process involved in dissolving your marriage is relatively straight forward and is usually a paper based exercise. The Divorce process itself takes between 4 to 6 months and takes you from being married to unmarried.

You must have been married for at least one year and the only ground for divorce in England and Wales is that the marriage has broken down irretrievably.

Filing for divorce

There are 5 ways of demonstrating this to the Court:

• Adultery
• Unreasonable Behaviour
• Desertion
• Separation for two years or more with the other person’s consent
• Separation for five years or more

I offer a range of fixed fee packages and if you would like to learn more please contact Lindsay Jones on 07917711887 or by email at ( insert email address)  for a free, no obligation chat.

Financial Settlements & Achieving a Financial Separation

Alongside the divorce process it is also necessary for the two of you to reach a financial settlement to ensure that all of the potential claims that each of you may have against the other’s income, capital and pension are extinguished. This is usually achieved by entering into a clean break order.

Deciding how best to divide the assets of the marriage is one of the most pressing concerns on relationship breakdown.

Financial claims often relate to the appropriate division of the following:

• The family home and any other property
• Lump sums of money
• Apportionment of investments or shares
• Maintenance
• Pensions

In order to decide on what constitutes a fair and reasonable settlement various factors are taken into account to include:

• the welfare of any children of the family
• the income, earning capacity, assets and financial resources of the parties
•  the financial needs, obligations and responsibilities of the parties
• The standard of living enjoyed by the parties
• The age of each party and the length of the marriage
• the health of each party
• The contributions made by the parties