How to get a Divorce

Your wedding day is one of the happiest and most important in your life. It represents the start of a new beginning and is meant to last forever; “till death do us part.” Sadly for many couples the bliss doesn’t last and for whatever reason there is a need for the marriage to come to an end but how does one go about getting a divorce?

It has been speculated that the divorce rate throughout England and Wales is as high as 50% of all marriages, this is however purely just rumour but the rate is still rather high, leaving us wondering what exactly goes wrong? There are numerous factors that can end a marriage, with the main one being adultery but to be able to have a divorce agreed legally there are several things that need to be keep in mind surrounding the legal requirements of getting a divorce.

Anyone who is considering getting a divorce can only start court proceedings if they have been married for a minimum of one year. If your marriage has only lasted so far for merely months you will not be considered for a divorce as the courts won’t see this as giving the marriage enough time to work.

The first step that needs to be taken when it comes to getting divorce proceedings underway is you need to fill in what’s known as a petition. You can fill this in as either the wife or husband of the marriage. Within this petition you will need to prove to the courts that you have sufficient grounds for bringing your marriage to an end. A court will only consider your petition, under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1975, on the grounds that the marriage has broken down irretrievably. You need to describe what has caused the marriage to break down in such a way, with the five acceptable reasons being:

•Either you or your wife/husband has committed adultery
•Your spouses behaviour (mentally or physically) has gotten so bad that it is unliveable
•Your wife/husband has deserted you for a minimum of two years
•You and your spouse have been living apart for at least two years and you have both agreed to a divorce
•You have been living apart from your spouse for at least five years without an agreement of divorce

In order to gain a divorce in England or Wales it should also be noted that in order for proceedings to go through you have to have been living within England and Wales when the petition for divorce was filed. You also need to have had your permanent home situated here when the petition began.

In many cases there is never really a problem when it comes to getting a divorce as it is normally what both party’s want, in some cases however problems can arise in an attempt to stop the divorce going through such as when the divorce is defended. Your spouse may indicate on acknowledgment of the petition that there is in fact no ground for divorce. Your spouse may also fail to acknowledge the petition. In situations like this the likelihood of the divorce going to court is extremely high. Court proceedings also happen when you and your spouse fail to agree on aspects such as finance, property and children. Any problems that are encountered can delay the divorce for a length of time, making a process that should only take four to six months stretch out and out.

It is important if you are considering filing for divorce that you get legal advice before doing so. This legal advice will help your divorce proceedings go as smooth as possible.

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Helen is the web master for Divorce Consult, specialists in all your Divorce needs. Please feel free to republish this article providing this resource box remains intact with a working hyperlink to our site.

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