How one tiny mistake on my divorce form lead to a 5 year delay – Help me fix it!

breaking_free

Hi all.

I started the divorce process back in 2019. I made one tiny mistake on the form and here I am 5 years later, no further forward  I do NOT want to screw up again so am asking your help to sanity check my actions. Below is a copy of the original divorce form I filled out. Infuriatingly, I only received the letter of rejection this year due to the court sending it to the wrong address (I kept writing to them asking why my case wasn't progressing and eventually they sent me a copy of the rejection letter). So that's where we are.

I used the 5 year separation rule as the grounds for divorce. I wrote on the form (highlighted) that the date I decided the marriage was at an end was 15/10/2014. The mistake I made was to send this form in one month before 5 years of separation had elapsed. So my application was rejected and the clerk wrote back:

If the date given at question 5 of the form D80 was a mistake the Petitioner should amend it. If the decision was indeed made on the date originally stated the divorce cannot proceed on this basis. The Petitioner should make any amendments in red and re-sign and re-date page 3 of form D80, also in red. Form D84 should also be re-signed and re-dated in red.

The Petitioner should deal with the above matters and renew the request for directions for trial.

Even though I am instructed to amend the date at question 5, that date now DOES represent a separation of over years. My gut is telling me to leave that date unchanged and simply re-sign and resend the form with the explanation I've given above. Does this seem like the right course of action to you?

onomatopoeia99

The legal landscape around divorce has changed massively since 2019.  No fault divorce is now available for marriages that have lasted at least a year and it cannot be contested by the other party.  I'm not sure the "traditional" (since 1973) grounds even still exist, or why you'd want to use them.

breaking_free

onomatopoeia99 said:

The legal landscape around divorce has changed massively since 2019.  No fault divorce is now available for marriages that have lasted at least a year and it cannot be contested by the other party.  I'm not sure the "traditional" (since 1973) grounds even still exist, or why you'd want to use them.

Because I have no idea where my ex is I had to apply for deemed service, which was granted. I have already jumped through many hoops and if I start from scratch I will have to pay another whopping fee and jump through those hoops again (trying to track down the ex, providing evidence that I have tried and failed to track him down, paying the deemed service fee yet again, and so on).

For me it makes sense to try and fix this initial mistake and go from there.
So, does anybody know for certain if I can just keep these original dates on the form and just write a letter outlining why I am re-sending the original? Or, if I need to amend all the dates and re-send the form, again with a letter outlining my reasons and requesting for the divorce to be reconsidered?

AskAsk

breaking_free said:

onomatopoeia99 said:

The legal landscape around divorce has changed massively since 2019.  No fault divorce is now available for marriages that have lasted at least a year and it cannot be contested by the other party.  I'm not sure the "traditional" (since 1973) grounds even still exist, or why you'd want to use them.

Because I have no idea where my ex is I had to apply for deemed service, which was granted. I have already jumped through many hoops and if I start from scratch I will have to pay another whopping fee and jump through those hoops again (trying to track down the ex, providing evidence that I have tried and failed to track him down, paying the deemed service fee yet again, and so on).

For me it makes sense to try and fix this initial mistake and go from there.
So, does anybody know for certain if I can just keep these original dates on the form and just write a letter outlining why I am re-sending the original? Or, if I need to amend all the dates and re-send the form, again with a letter outlining my reasons and requesting for the divorce to be reconsidered?

as you had messed the forms up before, i think it may be a good idea to pay a solicitor to advise you.  they charge per hour, so you could just pay them to advise you how to complete the form and that will not be so costly.

breaking_free

I know you mean well, but I have already sunk more money than I would like to into this. I would rather just ask on here and hope that somebody can tell me the correct way to proceed. If not, then I will take my chances and amend the forms; if I get it wrong my application will be rejected again with more instructions on how to proceed.

Does anybody know, for certain, how to proceed?

VyEu

onomatopoeia99 said:

The legal landscape around divorce has changed massively since 2019.  No fault divorce is now available for marriages that have lasted at least a year and it cannot be contested by the other party.  I'm not sure the "traditional" (since 1973) grounds even still exist, or why you'd want to use them.

If it was started under the old system, in 2019, then the petition will proceed under the old system, it doesn't just convert automatically into the new system

VyEu

You petitioned for a divorce based on five year separation, but it wasn't actually five years when you petitioned. So your petition as it is cannot proceed.

...what trial are they taking about? What request for directions for trial?

breaking_free

VyEu said:

...what trial are they taking about? What request for directions for trial?

I have no idea either. I have not had very good communications from the court - their level of instruction is not clear at all.

mybestattempt

The trial is when the the judge decides whether or not to grant the divorce. 

The decision can, in the majority of cases, be made by the judge just reading the paperwork to establish whether everything is in place so the divorce is legal.

After receiving the original petition a court direction will have been made for a trial/hearing on the papers. 

When the amendments are submitted a renewed direction for a paper trial/hearing needs to be made. So, the petitioner needs to also confirm they still want to a decision on the papers.

GDB2222

One practical approach is to ask the staff in the court office. They can give you advice on procedures and filling in forms. Once you get the paperwork right to their satisfaction, this will sail through.  

However, it may well be that the only way to rectify this is to put an earlier date for the separation. But, of course, that might not be possible without lying to the court, which you must not do. 

Besides that, after all this time, it may not be possible to continue with the original application. Or you may need the court’s permission. Do you know why the court used an incorrect address? Was it their mistake or yours? 

breaking_free

The incorrect address mistake was theirs, twice! They sent mail to an old address: I had kept them up to date with my new address and these incorrectly addressed letters were posted out many months after I had moved.