Making the decision to end your marriage can be a difficult one and although there are many factors to consider, one of these factors will be the cost of a divorce. Whilst cost will not be the most important consideration, it will feature, and therefore it is vital that you are clear about the cost implications.
First and foremost, you should decide what grounds you will use in your divorce and whether you will be the petitioner or the respondent. To an extent, this really depends on the state of your relationship with your spouse. You may have to wait at least two years if you are going down the separation route, or possibly even five years if your spouse won’t agree to the divorce. This means that you have time to save up to cover the costs of your divorce.
There are a number of costs involved in a divorce. The first are the court fees. In England and Wales, these fees currently stand at £410. If you are on a low income you might be eligible for help with these fees. This is the cost of commencing the process of your divorce.
The next decision you will need to make is whether you need legal representation in your divorce. Whilst some people opt to go through their divorce without legal representation, there is a chance that if you do this, you will miss out an important element of your settlement. This could result in missing out on an element of the financial settlement, such as division of a pension, or you may miss putting an important settlement in place which could affect you in the future.
Most solicitors offer fixed fee divorces which can help you to have a better understanding of your legal costs and providing your divorce is straightforward, you should be eligible for a fixed fee option.
Divorce laws and the cost of a divorce are different depending on where you are in the UK, so it is important that you seek advice from a specialist family law solicitor to obtain exact details about your divorce and the legal cost involved.
This information provided in this article is not intended to constitute legal advice and each relationship breakdown requires careful consideration in our view by a fully qualified Solicitor before decisions are made and before you embark on a certain course of action.
Shak Inayat
Solicitor
0207 183 2898
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