How long for a divorce to go through

I_told_you_so

I wonder whether anybody knows how long for a divorce to go through the courts these days ?
My partner is in the process of getting divorced from his ex.
He received the petition in October last year, signed and returned it within the 7 days requested.
He has not heard anything since.

The divorce is proceeding on the 2 year separation clause with both agreeing.
It is going through the new Divorce Center in Southampton.

Is it normal not to hear anything in almost six months ?

gingercordial

No, it shouldn't take that long.

I had much the same with mine as I signed and returned the petition then heard nothing for months. I asked him and he said he knew no reason for the delay. Then a couple more months passed and it turned out he hadn't done the next step which is applying for the decree nisi. The forms had been sat on his desk the whole time so god knows why he told me he didn't know why there was a delay!

So has his ex actually filed the forms for the next step?

After he actually pulled his finger out and did that my decree nisi came through within a couple of weeks, and the absolute after the required six week gap.

I suppose if there's a new centre there might be a backlog but I can't see it adding that much time to things. I would think it far more likely a form hasn't been filed.

TBagpuss

It shouldn't, but it might.

Southampton has huge delays at the moment, and the court has to do two things - (i) send the completed acknowledgment to your partners ex, and (ii) deal with her application for Nisi. They are currently taking around 5 weeks to process things which are sent to them but were taking longer before christmas and in my experience even the 5 weeks they are quoting is optimistic.

So assume somewhere between 10 - 14 weeks from the date they will have received the acknowledgment , plus however long it took for his ex to complete and send back the forms.

Southampton is currently sending out documents for orders which were made in mid-to-late January. However, they have also been using non-family staff to try to manage the excess work (they didn't get any extra staff when the SW divorce centre was set up) so it's also entirely possible that someone has put it in the wrong place so it hasn't been dealt with.

Your partner could telephone the court (make sure he has the court ref no (starting SO15D) to quote) - they should be able to tell him whether the application has been received. If so, he'll just have to be patient. If they say they haven't then he could contact his ex to ask when she submitted it, and to let her know the court says they haven't received it. Tht way, if she's overlooked it, she can send it in, if she sent it in over 5 weeks ago she can chase the court, and if she never received the acknowledgment she can chase that.

steph2901

Mine took 16 weeks from start to finish, I did it myself direct through the court.

I_told_you_so

Still heard nothing, tried to phone court and told 'wrong number' , for divorces now call this number....
Call it and after going through a number of options at the end it just rings with nobody answering.

Really unbelievable.

lauretta

Why are YOU doing the chasing on this? His call, surely...and if you did get through, they wouldn't tell you anything.

Personally, I wouldn't start a new relationship by sweeping up after someone else's emotional baggage. It sets an uncomfortable precedent!

jackieblack

steph2901 wrote: »

Mine took 16 weeks from start to finish, I did it myself direct through the court.

Timescales obviously vary depending on which court, mine has taken over 6 months (dealing directly and all documents returned by myself and stbx within 48 hours of receipt)

I_told_you_so

lauretta wrote: »

Why are YOU doing the chasing on this? His call, surely...and if you did get through, they wouldn't tell you anything.

Personally, I wouldn't start a new relationship by sweeping up after someone else's emotional baggage. It sets an uncomfortable precedent!

:rotfl:, I didn't try to phone the court, he did.
He couldn't get through as nobody was answering the phone there.
He then phoned the solicitor who agreed it was a bit odd that there were no news and said he'd chase it up and drop him a line. Still nothing. (Which isn't surprising if the solicitor uses the same phone number to get through to the court....)

As I have already gone through a divorce he keeps asking me why his is taking so long, something I can't answer as mine went through in 6 months start to finish.

pigpen

Mine took 11 months.. all straight forward because everything else was sorted in mediation.

I did wait 10 weeks for the absolute after the nisi because solicitors all went on holiday!

I_told_you_so

Can't believe it, but finally received letter from Court , date for decree nisi is set for the 19th of April now.
So it would be almost 7 months just to get to decree nisi stage.
I think that is an appalling time scale, considering it will be another minimum of six weeks after that to get to decree absolute.

We also had a look at Wikivorce forums and found that my partner is not the only one who has such a problem with Southampton Divorce Center. They appear to have enormous backlogs with several thousand applications still waiting to proceed to Decree nisi.

Just an update in case other MSE forum members are affected or interested.

mintymoneysaver

Beginning of April to end of July start to finish, no solicitors.