Can you start divorce proceedings early?

WIN79

With EX's consent? Let me explain.
We have been separated for 14 months, however, they didn't leave the country (we were living in the same house but not sharing anything) until April 2014. It was a mutual split so no blame game. The earliest we could divorce i guess is waiting for the 2 years which would be December of this year, however, i was wondering if, with their consent, could you apply sooner than this to get it all over and done with. What information do you have to provide regarding the separation etc? Thank you for your help in advance.

Gloomendoom

Just do unreasonable behaviour or adultery and there is no need to wait.

Guest101

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Just do unreasonable behaviour or adultery and there is no need to wait.

Since these are legal proceedings, lying about adultery would be not such a good idea....

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Guest101 wrote: »

Since these are legal proceedings, lying about adultery would be not such a good idea....

OP talks about "they", presumably Ex plus a new partner. Possible adultery?

WIN79 wrote: »

...they didn't leave the country...

Guest101

Fruit_and_Nut_Case wrote: »

OP talks about "they", presumably Ex plus a new partner. Possible adultery?

I believe this is a gender neutral statement, not a couple statement.

OP and Spouse were living in the same house, unlikely to be (though who knows...) a 3rd party there too!

WIN79

No, no third party. Im just being impatient and dont want to wait the 2 years, then an additional 6 months or so to actually get it finalized. As they are no longer in the country it will take longer as paperwork will have to to and fro and from past experience my ex is rather, shall we say, slack!!

RAS

OK

Unreasonable behaviour - might include being "slack"

Just agree the terms you use with them and hope the judge agree too.

You can download the court forms and file yourselves.

WIN79

No, we do speak still and its fine. No animosity so I cant go down any other route than the 2 year separated consent.
I have actually downloaded the forms, but what i am getting at is i can I submit these before the official two years is up?

Gloomendoom

Guest101 wrote: »

Since these are legal proceedings, lying about adultery would be not such a good idea....

At the time of my post, it was unclear as to whether any adultery, or indeed, unreasonable behaviour, had taken place or not.

Snakey

You need to wait two years before you can do separation with consent.

What you might do is agree between you that one will divorce the other for unreasonable behaviour, and just exaggerate a few things (after all, there must have been some reason why you split up, surely "amicable" here just means the decision to split was mutual and you've managed it with as little unpleasantness as possible).

This is what my then-husband did - we were going to wait two years but he met someone else and wanted to speed things up. I wrote a letter back saying I did not agree that the allegations were true but that I would accept them without prejudice for the sole purpose of the divorce proceedings and on the understanding that they would not be repeated anywhere else. And it all went ahead on that basis.

It wasn't quite as nice as waiting two years would have been - even though you've agreed that it will happen, it's still a bit of a jolt to see all these nasty things about you written down in black and white and apparently he felt like a total heel while he was saying them all to his solicitor as well - but we managed to come out of it OK.

Gloomendoom

WIN79 wrote: »

No, we do speak still and its fine. No animosity so I cant go down any other route than the 2 year separated consent.
I have actually downloaded the forms, but what i am getting at is i can I submit these before the official two years is up?

My ex wife and I still speak years after we divorced. We used unreasonable behaviour, which amounted to nothing more than me spending too long at work and not enough time at home.