What is an Uncontested Divorce?

An uncontested divorce is one where you and your spouse have agreed to obtain a divorce. It assumes that the other party does not formally object to the divorce and that the Court accepts the grounds for divorce without question (which is normally the case).

Your solicitor will collect all the relevant details from you, correspond on your behalf with the other parties involved (your spouse and their solicitor, if appropriate) and prepare and file all the relevant papers with the Court to obtain a divorce.

Powells with Chawner Grey can be instructed to undertake the above for a fixed fee offering you:

• all your divorce paperwork taken care of
• guaranteed fees
• advice from an experienced divorce and family solicitor
• access to your solicitor by email and direct dial telephone
• a solicitor who explains everything in plain English

What is included in the Fixed Fee?

All costs associated with obtaining a divorce.

You will be allocated a family solicitor to handle your divorce.

You will be provided with email and direct dial contact number for your solicitor.

Your solicitor will obtain the information we need from you and send you a divorce procedure explanation. They will prepare and file all the appropriate paperwork as follows:

• A form called a 'petition' is completed by your solicitor and sent to the Court office.
• Where appropriate a form called a “statement of arrangements for children” is completed by your solicitor and sent to the Court office. It is issued and then sent to the other party.
• The other party should then fill in a type of receipt saying whether they accept that the divorce should be granted. This is copied, to you.
• Your solicitor will prepare a document called a 'request for directions for trial', for the Court. This will be supported by an affidavit which we will also prepare.
• The District Judge checks all the paperwork to establish that you have proved grounds for divorce. If this is the case the Court will give a date when the divorce will be partly announced.
• 6 weeks and 1 day later, provided there are no problems, your solicitor will make an application get the decree absolute which is the paper proving the final legal end to the marriage.

Throughout this process your solicitor will tell you when one of the above steps has been taken. In addition to the completion and filing or all the paperwork we include an allowance of 2 hours discussion with you by phone, e-mail or in person. In the vast majority of cases this is more than sufficient to deal with all the above issues.

Court fees

The divorce Court will require you to pay standard government fees. These are currently £340 payable when the petition is filed and £45 to apply for the Decree Absolute at the end of the case. These are included in our total cost for a fixed fee divorce.

Additional fees

In most cases the above follows through without difficulty. In some cases there can be additional issues to be resolved and we do charge extra for this additional work, examples can be: not being able to trace the other party, the other party denying receipt of the papers, needing to obtain a private detective and so on. Any extra costs will be discussed and agreed with you before any work is undertaken.

An example of an extra cost sometimes found is obtaining a certified copy marriage certificate. For that we charge £25 + VAT and you will also be asked to pay the fee from the Registrar for the relevant area. This fee is often £9.

Why pay a Fixed Fee?

By paying a fixed fee at the start of your case you have certainty about the costs involved. The alternative is to pay an hourly rate (£225 Partner rate / £185 Legal Executive rate / £55 Support Staff rate) plus VAT for the time your solicitor spends on your case.