Divorce

mandi

Hi all,

Has anyone managed to divorce their ex, without the use of a solicitor?..

been meaning to get around to mine for a long time now, and I know it is possible to do it yourself.. I really feel loathe to pay extortionate solitiors fees, when the settlement will be clean, and uncontested...


Thanks

Mandi

Helen_from_yorkshire

A friend of mine and her then husband divorced amicably wtihout the use of solicitors. I think they contacted the Court for the appropriate papers and applied to the Court. If my memory serves me correctly, I think they both had to prepare an Affidavit which had to be witnessed by a solicitor for a small charge.

I think the process is more difficult if you have children.

Becles

As long as both parties agree on the reason for divorce, split of assets and care of children, you can do it all without a solicitor.

The court will give you all the forms for free and will help you fill them in if needed, although they cannot offer advice.

Make sure you get a Financial Consent Order too. It means a clean break with your finances, and neither can claim on the other in the future if there is an inheritance, lottery win etc.

Mine was all DIY and it saved a fortune.

hjb123

Hi,

In some shops, such as WHS, you can get a pack by 'Lawpack' called Divorce. This would enable you to sort out the divorce yourselves, it has all the necessary forms. I used to work for WHS and remember when we first started to stock them wondering how many of those would sell!

Philippa36

I went to a solicitor first to get advice and paid a huge fee of £177.00 for his secretary to write a short letter stating what i needed to do - advice I could have got free from the courts. There were typo's through it and our names were incorrect! I did the rest of it myself, contacting the court and getting the forms sent out to me. It is pretty straight forward and I was finally granted my decree absolute before Xmas. If I had known before, I would never have spoken to a solicitor in the first place. Request the forms first and then if you have problems contact your local CAB.

Good luck

wazza

Becles wrote:

As long as both parties agree on the reason for divorce, split of assets and care of children, you can do it all without a solicitor.

The court will give you all the forms for free and will help you fill them in if needed, although they cannot offer advice.

Make sure you get a Financial Consent Order too. It means a clean break with your finances, and neither can claim on the other in the future if there is an inheritance, lottery win etc.

Mine was all DIY and it saved a fortune.

which court do you get the forms from. Magistrate or crown?

Helen_from_yorkshire

Crown I think.

Helen_from_yorkshire

Crown, what am I on about - no, not Crown, you will need to get the forms from the County Court but that doesn't necessarily mean the nearest County Court in your county, your nearest County Court could be one in another county.

Becles

Have a look on here to find your nearest court:
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/HMCSCourtFinder/

I did mine through a County Court.

suki1964

I got our papers for my hubbys divorce offline free of charge (they now charge) and the courts were well impressed - better then the ones they issued they said.

As long as you are agreed on child care then its very simple procedure

kit

My friend got a divorce pack for about a tenner from WHSmiths and done it herself... it was fine... they sorted out the finances between themselves and all went well.

I started my divorce about a year before her and I'm still waiting for it to happen.... she's been divorced about 6 months now, I've been trying for over 2 years.... guess what.... I'm using a solicitor!