Obtaining a divorce is a legal process, i.e. it involves the courts. Accordingly, it is not possible to be absolute with the time it takes to obtain a divorce but, leaving to one side any financial issues and the arrangements for children, the minimum time it will take is six months in England and Wales.
Previously (i.e. before April 2022), a divorce would typically take around four to six months to complete. This changed when the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 (the “Act”) came into force on 6 April 2022.
Under the Act, there are now two mandatory reflection periods which, taken together, add up to a total of 26-weeks (six months) to finalise a divorce, although it could take longer because of the steps around the mandatory waiting periods
Arguably, therefore, the introduction of the Act may have extended the time to obtain a divorce by a few months but in practice, because of the abolition of the need to prove one of five grounds that demonstrated that the marriage had irretrievably broken down, it is very likely the case that the Act has reduced the time necessary to obtain a divorce.
Furthermore, the old rules would often cause delays by virtue of the fact that couples would need to agree on the reason for the marriage ending (e.g. adultery) or have a court decide this. This required one spouse to assume the blame for the marriage ending or else the couple would have to wait years before they could apply for a divorce without assigning fault. Removing the need to give a reason and relying only on the fact that the marriage has irretrievably broken takes away the potential for these sorts of delays.
Another issue under the old rules was that one spouse would need to start divorce proceedings and the other spouse would need to agree to the divorce and reasons given for it in the application. The respondent could contest the divorce, forcing the applicant to take the matter before a court, which could cause significant delays.
The Act removes the right for a spouse to contest the divorce in all but the most limited circumstances, taking away another potential source of delay.
Sole Application Or A Joint Application?
A divorce application can either be submitted by one of the spouses acting alone (a sole application) or by both spouses working together (a joint application). Generally, a joint application is the fastest way to get divorced. The reason for this is that with a sole application the other spouse will need to be served with a copy of the application by the court and they will have to respond to the court confirming there is no reason the divorce cannot go ahead. This adds an additional step and the possibility of a delay in the process.
The Divorce Process
This is the standard divorce timeline:
·A spouse or a couple submit their divorce application (online).
· A court formally issues the divorce normally within about 10 days of the application being submitted.
· The court will then need to serve a copy of the application to the spouse who did not make the application. This normally takes a maximum of 28 days from the court issuing the divorce.
· In a sole application (you have the applicant and the respondent) the respondent will have 14 days to complete the acknowledgement of service form and return this to the court. The respondent will need to confirm that there is no reason the divorce cannot proceed.
· The applicant/s will then need to wait a minimum of 20 weeks from the date the court issued the divorce. This is to allow time to reflect and make sure the applicant/s are happy to move forward with the divorce.
· Once the 20-week wait period has passed, the applicant can apply to the court for a Conditional Order. This is an order of the court that states there is no reason the divorce cannot go ahead.
· Once the Conditional Order is granted, there is a second reflection period of six weeks before the next stage of the process can take place.
· Once the second wait period is over, an applicant can apply to the court for the Final Order the effect of which is to dissolve the marriage.
The process of having the assets divided in a divorce is entirely separate from the legal process to end a marriage. It is advisable to sort out your finances before you apply for the Final Order, which needs to be taken into account when considering how long a divorce will take to obtain.
There are two broad ways of reaching a financial settlement – through voluntary agreement between the spouses or through applying to a court to make a decision for you. It is almost always much faster to reach an agreement outside of a court as you do not need to wait for a hearing date.
How long a divorce takes where children are involved will depend on whether the parties can agree on arrangements for children voluntarily or if court proceedings are required.
As with financial matters, it will generally be much faster to agree arrangements for children amicably through methods such as negotiation, mediation or arbitration. If court proceedings are needed, this can delay matters considerably.