Divorce law

[bubbly2000]

My friend has been seperated from his wife for over 6 years. She sent a letter from her solicitor, on two seperate occasions, for him to sign to agree to a divorce. He signed and took them to the solicitors office in person. Both times she pulled the plug on it. Now its been over 5 years is it correct that he no longer needs her to sign and can go ahead and divorce her. There is no property, kids etc to deal with, so would it be just straight forward. Oh and how much is it likely to cost?

[fadeout73]

Yes, he can divorce her using the simplified procedure. Its two years without consent in Scotland and five years in England. Had a quick google but its just the scottish forms i can find. He should be able to go to his local court and pick the forms up from there.

[Bambiagain]

Even after five years he needs her signature. The law say that divorce after five years can take place without consent, but the rules are a bit more complicated. If he knows where she lives or can be contacted, papers will be served on her and she has to sign them. If she doesn't, he has to prove to the courts that every effort has been made to get her to do so. I was in a situation where I knew where my ex lived but he sent back the papers marked "gone away". Fortunately he shot himself in the foot by emailing a solicitor I consulted bragging that he had been very clever and shredded all correspondence from me unread. But I had to prove to the court just what he had been doing. It took me a long time to get the divorce due to his obstructive behaviour.

[FredPuli43]

Can't myself see why his signature is needed anyway to prove service.Tonywiltshire or Barmaid may give chapter and verse, but my experience has been that In a extreme cases of personal service a process server does it for you and makes a statement that the man identified himself/signed he'd received/ was recognised by the process server from a photograph provided/ by other evidence was demonstrably the man. But in most civil proceedings a court may order substituted service which may be by registered letter to his last known address or by advertisements in newspapers or any other means it thinks fit.

If it were otherwise, every pettily dishonest individual would avoid all legal proceedings forever, and indeed, everyone would be doing it once they realised it worked! Anyway, if this man has solicitors acting, and the solicitors certifies that they will accept service, you may serve on the solicitor.

And yes, 5 years separation is enough, whether consent to divorce is given or not, to constitute grounds for divorce.

With no children involved, the other party's involvement is less, because there's no agreement needed between the parties or no order of the court required for their care and custody etc

[cathfromsaron]

it need only cost him the court fees if he has the original papers in hand and knows where she lives etc!

if there are no minor children or any assets to divide, you really don't need a solicitor at all!

[Bambiagain]

It is absolutely true that if no children or assets are concerned, then it can be done without involving a solicitor. But from my own experience I know that if the other party chooses to be obstructive they can make it long-winded and expensive. My brother is a solicitor and it is he who told me that the law and the rules are two different things. If the party being divorced obligingly signs everything, then it is relatively simple.

[bubbly2000]

Thank-you everyone. Just need to find out how much its going to cost now

[tonywiltshire]

Fred leaves little to be said, if a decree nisi (meaning unless) has been issued at the request of the petitioner and four and a half months has passed the respondent can apply for a decree absolute (then they are no longer married) to be issued. But first check why the decree absolute has not been issued it is usually done so just over 6 weeks from the decree nisi at the request of the petitioner.

If there are no children or property involved the divorce can de done without a solicitor involved and the cost will be very low, check the Internet.
If your friend has not reached decree nisi stage, or the divorce has not been started, they can petition for a divorce either through a company advertising on the Internet or by contacting your local county court for the documents. After 5 years they can obtain a divorce on the grounds of irretrievable breakdown without agreement of the other side. As Fred says the courts are used to people who try to avoid a process server, particularly where reasonable steps have been taken to locate the current address of the other party, as a last resort the court is able to dispense with service, the entire procedure should take 3/6 months