Decree Absolute Typo Error!!! 😱 😥

Tim1965

Hi😁

I wonder if anyone can maybe advise us about this please?

Marrying young, after a ten year marriage, my brother was divorced many years ago.  Not to put too much of a finer point upon it, when he received his Decree Absolute he just filed it away safely.👍

However, recently he has been in the process of filing and decided to read through his old stuff when he came across his old
Decree Absolute...

He was then horrified to see that there was a typo giving a wrongful date of his marriage on his Decree -
which would have meant (unless you knew otherwise) that he was divorced only seven months after he was married!!!

Thankfully Little Bro does have his marriage certificate and documents giving the exact (proper) date and time of his marriage ten years before that were issued from his Registry Office on the day of his wedding, he also has a copy of the offending
mis-typed Decree Absolute with his case number on it and thankfully he is still living in the same area.

How does my brother go about getting his Decree Absolute amended?

Any helpful advice would be really appreciated.

Thanks.

Tim.👍😁

Keep_pedalling

Is it really that important? I can’t see any circumstances where this is going to cause a problem.

Brie

could have been worse.  my big bro was divorced 3 months after he was married.  and that wasn't a typo. 

Tim1965

Hi and Thanks for the Feedback!

My brother thinks that this may be important and wants to get his Decree Absolute with the correct dates on and is curious to learn what is the procedure to get this important detail amended...✒️⌨️📜

Any legal eagles out there with any idea please? 🦅🦉

Cheers!

Tim and Bro.😁👍

theoretica

Contact the office that issued it and ask what procedure they have for correcting a clerical error.

Jude57

I agree with @theoretica that your brother should contact the Court that issued the Decree Absolute and see what they say. It's likely they'll ask him to come in at an appointed time (I wouldn't recommend just turning up without an appointment unless he's willing to wait around) and to bring in all the documentation, including proof of identity. I think the matter would be easily dealt with but would probably need to be approved by a Judge before a new Absolute could be issued, although I can't see that it would need a hearing since it was the Court's error. These things happen but it shouldn't be difficult to put right.

Tim1965

Thank you theoretica and Jude57 😁 

I will pass this information on to him.

Cheers, Tim👍

TBagpuss

Contact the court, expalin the issue and ask if they can amend it. Individual courts no longer deal with divorces, he will probably have to contact Bury St Edmunds Court which is dealing with all 'old' paper applications . TAs a result, they have very long delays at present and may take up to 18 weeks to process correspondence. He may wish to phone first , starting wit hthe court which dealt with the divorce. 

When was the error made? Is it only worng on the absolute or is it wrong on the Nisi or certificate of entitlement as well? 

If it was a typo just on the absolute, then even after theis legth of time they will probably simply be able to issue a corrected on, although he may have to pay a fee to get it in front of a judge.

If the incorrect date was on the petition itself then it will be a little more complicated, however that's less likley as normally, the court would checck the petition against the marraige certificate and as a divroce cannot be started until a year after marriage, it's unlikely that it would have been overlooked if the original petition was wrong and said they had been married for less than a year. 

If he is told he needs to make a formal applciationtbhen he will probably need to use Form D11, which is a general application in divorce proceedings, but start with a call and/or letter

Ergates

If your brother feels it's important and is still on speaking terms with his ex, he might consider letting her know too (I assume both parties get a copy of the document).

TBagpuss

Both will have had a copy. If OPs brother gets it amended then the court will send a copy out to ex, but it will go to the address they have on file for her so he may want to let her know in advance so she can update her address with the court.