Divorce costs

With divorce costs and solicitors charges the first thing to know is that there are normally three possible legal issues involved in a divorce:-

(1) The divorce itself. It is obtaining the divorce – and, more particularly, the decree absolute – which enables both parties to remarry if they wish. This part is simply what brings the marriage to an end. The cost of divorce in this narrow sense is usually quite modest. It begins with issuing a divorce petition and it ends with decree absolute. Decree absolute dissolves the marriage. This narrow part of the divorce process is legally distinct from the two following issues.

(2) Issues involving the matrimonial property – basically, deciding who gets what,  whether any maintenance will be paid, whether there should be a pension sharing order, what happens to the former matrimonial home etc. This is the part about resolving the financial issues arising from the marriage.

(3) Issues involving children – access, contact, residence, maintenance etc.

It will be appreciated that not every divorce involves a dispute over all of these issues. Very often, for example, there will be no children and/or matters involving the children will have been resolved by agreement rather than by court action. In fact, the latter is what happens in the majority of divorces where there are children. Disputes involving children, while not exactly rare, are nevertheless not normally a feature of most divorces or, therefore, of divorce costs.

Divorce charges can soon mount up when there are disputes over the matrimonial property – who gets what and whether any maintenance will be paid etc (point 2 above). Both of these problems, namely problems relating to children and/or the matrimonial property, are legally distinct from the process of obtaining the divorce itself and usually a solicitor charges for them on a quite different basis. These two problems when they arise can usually only be charged for on a time basis as is the case with most litigation and more details about this are given on the page relating to time costing. Some of these disputes can be resolved very quickly but others can be very much more difficult and require a correspondingly greater amount of legal input.

Do please continue in order to find out more about divorce costs.