If you feel you are able to complete the divorce forms yourself, then with this service, we would simply provide you with advice and assistance and check that you have completed the forms correctly.

You would have the benefit of our assistance with minimal costs compared to a “fully managed” divorce. You would be acting in person, as we would not be formally on the court’s record as acting for you but we would provide you with guidance at every step of your divorce.

If you are not sure whether this service will suit your needs, please call one of our family solicitors, Miss Vincent or Miss Booth on 01926 422 101 as we can still help and offer you another level of service to suit your needs.

What the package includes:

• Providing you with the correct forms if you are not able to download them from the court’s service.
• Checking the divorce petition, statement of arrangements for children once you have completed them and notifying you of any changes required
• Once you have received your spouse’s acknowledgment of service from the court, assisting you in completing and checking your application for decree nisi, affidavit of evidence and exhibit
• Assisting you in completing your application for decree absolute
• Providing you with “standard” letters so you can write to the court to lodge the relevant forms
• Providing you with expert help, assistance and guidance until you are divorced.
• Email/telephone support to progress your matter

What the package does not include

• Advice on financial matters, such as a clean break etc. this would be charged separately
• Face to face meetings – there would be a separate charge for meetings based on an hourly rate. If you wish to have a meeting with one of our family solicitors, then please contact our family team to arrange a mutually convenient appointment. It may well be that our fully “managed divorce” would be more appropriate to you in this case.
• Court attendances/hearings – if you ask the court to make an order that your spouse pays for the costs of your divorce and this is disputed, there may be a court hearing for the judge to decide whether a costs order should be made. We can represent you at such hearings, but this will be charged separately.
• Advice on defended divorce proceedings for which a separate charge will be made.
• Translation fees in the event that your marriage certificate is in foreign language. The court will require not only the original marriage certificate but also a certified translation. A quotation will be obtained for your approval before the expense is incurred.
• Court fees and oath fees
• Process server service/ Bailiff Service of the Divorce papers upon your spouse, application for deemed service, dispense of service or substituted service. It may be necessary to have the papers served personally upon your spouse if he or she fails to return his or her acknowledgement of service to the court once he or she has received the divorce papers from the court or to make a separate application to the court. This would be charged separately. Please see our leaflet “service of documents and deemed service“

How much will it cost?

Our costs

We will charge you a fixed fee of £400 + VAT (£480 in total) for the above service which you can pay by cash, cheque, transfer or debit/credit card. Please however note that there will be a 2% surcharge for credit card payments. If you wish to make a card payment, then this can be done when we first contact you. Alternatively, we can email you our bank details upon request to enable you to make a transfer.

Disbursements

The fixed fee does not cover disbursements which you will have to pay. These are as currently follows:

• £340 mandatory court fee when you file your divorce petition and, if you have children, your statement of arrangements for children, with the court.
• £7 oath fee when you swear your affidavit of evidence – NB this is however normally free of charge at court.
• £45 court fee when you apply for your decree absolute – this will finalise your divorce.

We will give you an estimate of fees for any other services you require, which is not included in this service.

If you decide not to proceed but work has already been incurred, then we will charge you at our normal hourly rates and refund any balance due to you.

Next step

Once you have ordered, we will contact you to complete your purchase. When your purchase is completed, we will email you the relevant documentation to enable you to:

1. Download, complete and return our Divorce Questionnaire. We will endeavor to contact you within the next working day and will let you have our “standard divorce pack”.
2. Complete our Evidence of Identify Form which is at the back of the divorce questionnaire and return the required documentation along with our divorce questionnaire.
3. You can then complete your divorce petition/statement of arrangements for children (if applicable) and return the same to us, so we can ensure everything is correct and notify you of any changes we believe are required.
4. We will then assist you to progress your divorce at every stage.

For further information, please contact one of our family solicitors, Severine Vincent on 01926 422 101 or visit our Contact page. Alternatively, you can send Severine a message direct using departments contact form.