If you or your partner have decided that your marriage has come to an end you may be considering separation or divorce. We can help now with sound legal advice.
The Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 (also known as the ‘DDSA’) will reform the law on divorce, dissolution, and separation from 6th April 2022.
The DDSA represents the biggest reform of divorce laws in half a century and aims to reduce the impact that conflict and allegations of blame can have on families, and in particular, on any children.
The new law will remove the requirement to assign blame, by allowing one party – or the couple jointly – to make a statement of irretrievable breakdown. No evidence will be required for this beyond a statement.
It is hoped that the new law will mean that couples will avoid conflict wherever possible and reduce its damaging effect on the whole family. It will also introduce a 20-week period between the initial application for a divorce and the application for a conditional order (previously the Decree Nisi) being made.
This 20 week period will enable both parties to try to reach agreement about the arrangements for any children and financial matters without the need for court proceedings.
An application for The Final Order (previously the Decree Absolute) can be made 6 weeks and 1 day after the Conditional Order is made.
Talk to your Newcastle Law Firm today and call 0191 5806044. We are happy to have an initial chat so that we can give you some advice and address any concerns or worries that you have. We will do our best to give you the most accurate information that we can about your likely costs so that you can decide what happens next.
Here is some basic information on divorce and separation that we hope will help.
There are some things that you will need to consider when separating from your partner in England or Wales. The law relating to divorce and separation is different in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Click the arrow below for information about divorce, if you have children, if you are married or in a civil partnership and making agreements about children, money and property.
If you have children, you and your ex-partner will share the financial support of your children. You will also need to make arrangements for looking after your children.
Reaching agreement about these things is separate from doing the legal paperwork to legally end your relationship if you are married or in a civil partnership.
You will need consider how to share your money and property. If you want any agreement that you reach to be legally binding on you both, you will need to apply to the Court for a consent order within your divorce/dissolution proceedings.
The law is different regarding the division of money and property if you are not married or in a civil partnership.
Ending your marriage
If you feel that your marriage has come to an end and can rely on one of five facts to establish that your marriage has irretrievably broken down you can commence divorce proceedings in the family court.
If you do not want to start divorce proceedings or do not have grounds to start divorce proceedings but want to live separately with a view to being divorced, provided you can reach agreement about financial matters and the arrangements for any children, you can enter into a separation agreement.
Ending your civil partnership
You can legally end your civil partnership by applying to the family court for a dissolution order. The only ground to dissolve your civil partnership is that it has irretrievably broken down and this needs to be established by relying on one of four facts namely unreasonable behaviour, two years separation and consent, five years separation and desertion.
Making arrangements for children, money and property
You can usually avoid going to Court if you are able to reach agreement either as a result of discussions between yourselves or with help from a solicitor or mediator.
You will still need to send legal paperwork to the family court to legally end your marriage/civil partnership and to make legally binding agreements in relation to financial matters