I’ve received a divorce application
Hopefully this is not a surprise to you but as the process is now so quick and easy to do yourself online it’s possible that you had no idea it was coming. Either way there’s no need to panic.
The forms will say that you have just 7 days to reply to a divorce application by returning the acknowledgement of service form. But nothing will happen after 7 days if you don’t, so don’t rush off to the first solicitor you can find, it’s very unlikely any more will happen before two or three weeks.
If you don’t reply to a divorce application, sooner or later you will have the papers given to you personally by a court bailiff or process server.
This is no big deal, except that you’ll have to pay the fees for this (at least £100). If you don’t want that expense, make sure you respond to the application within two to three weeks if you think your spouse is going to be in a hurry to push things through. If they have a solicitor, you could ring, or write to them, and say you need time to take some advice and you will respond in x weeks – you decide, take control!
That gives you time to recover from the shock of the application and to decide if you need any help with responding to the application.
Be aware that if you get a solicitor to respond for you, they are putting themselves on the court record and the court will send all future documentation to them rather than to you – and you will be paying them handsomely to forward it to you. Be clear in your own mind, and with any solicitor you speak to, if it is just advice on the application that you want, or whether you are asking them to take over your whole divorce.
Please note that a divorce does not end the financial relationship between spouses. A financial clean break (or any other financial order) requires another application in separate proceedings. You can apply for this as soon as you’ve received a court number for your divorce application – or at any time, even many years, after the final order in your divorce proceedings.
