Bury St. Edmunds time scales- consent order & Absolut

Hi all

I’m at my wits end trying to get my divorce finalised!

The decree nisi has already been issued, 18 mths ago but due to covid and a couple of issues with my solicitor there was a delay in the next part of the process for the Absolut and financial settlement.
Anyway the paperwork along with additional items that the court asked for relating to the financial side of things were submitted directly by me to the court in BSE. They received the paperwork on the 4th October 2021 and I’ve heard absolutely nothing since!!!
I’ve emailed 3 times and heard nothing back other than an automatic reply stating that they won’t provide updates. I’ve tried calling but got no where!

This should have been a fairly amicable divorce as we’ve agreed everything between us! I ditched the solicitor after the Nisi was issued because quite frankly she was useless and just charging me for everything and nothing. The bill far exceeded what she’d told me it would be!
I’m not sure whether not having legal representation has effected the process at all but I did write to the court informing that I’d no longer be using them. I had zero acknowledgment.

It is taking so long that I’m now finding the whole thing has left me feeling really distressed.

Does anyone have any tips for finding out what’s happening or what I can do to get something done. What’s more can anyone tell me how long they’ve had to wait for the financial side of things to be agreed by the court before the Absolut has been issued or additional info requested.


Thanks all

I don’t know if it will be the same for you but I wasn’t represented when my consent order was submitted by my ex, It was what we agreed, drawn up by her solicitor but I just had a solicitor look over it to make sure I wasn’t being stitched up by legal jargon. The court wrote to me and gave me 7 days (or maybe more) to take legal advice before it would be approved, much to my ex’s dismay.

As for BSE court, good luck there. I have a friend who works for The Courts, not in BSE, and pre pandemic, she and others were being hired cars and paid overtime to drive to BSE to help them out. I don’t know if they still doing that but I can’t imagine the pandemic has helped the situation.

Thanks for that insight, much appreciated!
I thought our divorce would be simple…. Clearly not!
It’s the fact that there’s absolutely no way of what is happening that’s so stressful.
I’m sure my husband thinks I’m delaying things which I’m not and quite frankly BSE is causing friction between us that wasn’t otherwise there! Grrrr!

>>I’m sure my husband thinks I’m delaying things which I’m not and quite frankly BSE is causing friction between us that wasn’t otherwise there!

Tell me about it. Not only do they take forever to do anything (if they don't 'lose' the file) but they actively discourage anyone from progress chasing even if they actually responded to emails or telephone calls in a timely manner which they don't. Continually having to explain how long divorces take without being able to give an actual time scale is very frustrating for solicitors as well as their clients. The old Soviet Union could probably have done it more efficiently.

I found the online chat facility useful (see previous forum post).
It seems the only way to get hold of someone who can look up a case.