Divorce Costs

So you’re going through the first stages of Divorce and want to know the costs involved in your divorce.  Well it all depends on how complicated your divorce is and especially on what you and your partner can agree on.  The more you agree on the cheaper your divorce will cost as solicitors’ usually charge their clients on how long they spend on your case.  Before you go ahead with your divorce through a solicitor get an estimate quote from more than one so you can compare these quotes as well as getting the solicitors’ hourly rate as this is usually how they work out your quote.

Paying for a solicitor to deal with your case is not the only cost you will pay.  Your solicitor may ask for payments dealing with property valuations, barrister fees etc.  If you are the petitioner – the partner who wants the divorce you will have to pay the court fees.  You may not have to pay these court fees if you:-

• Get public funding i.e. legal aid or
  
• The court exempts you from paying as they can see you can’t afford to pay the court fees.

Some of the questions you may want answering regarding the costs involved in Divorce are shown below:-

Can I recover the court costs from my partner?

If you and your partner agree that you split the costs equally or they pay the costs then that’s fine.  The court can order your partner to pay the costs but this is unusual and doesn’t usually happen.  The best thing to do is make sure you the petitioner knows what the court fees will be and budget for them.

I can’t afford the court costs, what can I do?

If you can prove that you can’t afford the court costs and you fulfil the rules of the court then you will gain public funding.  This will cover your divorce proceedings and the proceeding against money and children.  These are called Legal Help, Approved Family Help and Legal Representation.
Its not only Divorce proceedings you can get help for but for Mediation too.

Solicitors’ Divorce Charges

There are three main legal issues in Divorce in England these are:-

• The Divorce itself-getting the divorce and mainly the decree absolute which will enable you and your partner to remarry.
• The issues involving the Matrimonial Property-deciding who gets the house, who pays for the maintenance if any will be paid.  This is called ‘Ancillary Relief’.
• The issues involving children-to gets residence, access rights, contact rights, who pays maintenance and how much etc.

The main disputes usually in divorce involve the Matrimonial Property where both parties can’t agree who gets the property and if maintenance is to be paid by one party.  A solicitor will usually charge this and the children issue on a one time basis as he/she won’t know how long this may take it may only take a couple of hours but others can take months, which requires more legal input taking more time and money.

Most divorces these days are agreed by both parties and therefore the divorce is not contested and proceedings.  If the divorce is contested by one party it would be charged as the same as any other contested matter i.e. matrimonial property and children.  If the divorce is not contested a more or less fixed fee is charged to the parties.

Once the court fees have been paid which are shown below, you will need to pay your solicitor for their legal work.  This cost will vary but you should have an idea due to you obtaining quotes when you chose your solicitor.  It’s usually around £400 plus VAT, adding on your court fees the divorce will cost around £800.

Court Costs

The first cost if the divorce isn’t contested is the obtaining a divorce and paying the court fee. 

• To issue a divorce petition this costs £300 and is to be paid to the county court. 
  
• To obtain your decree absolute a fee of £40 is to be paid.
  
• The affidavit which is to be sworn by the Judge during your court proceedings is free but if your solicitor does this they may charge a fee. 
  
• So the court fees for a divorce usually cost around £340.

If the Respondent-the person who receives the divorce from the Petitioner doesn’t respond to the petition issued it may be necessary to arrange a personal service where a bailiff visits the petitioner.  This does incur additional court fees and maybe legal costs also.

You can share these costs with your partner if they agree; usually the respondent pays no legal costs in obtaining the divorce, it is totally up to the couple themselves to decide this factor.  If the divorce is amicable usually both the petitioner and respondent are happy to pay half each of the divorce costs. Sometimes the respondent is the wife and may have children and have no job and therefore the petitioner will pay the costs with no problems. 

 Acknowledgement of Service

If the respondent returns the acknowledgement of service to the court without agreeing the subject of costs, the court usually makes the order for the respondent to pay the divorce costs.  The petitioner and his solicitor will take great pride in this as they know they will not be paying the costs and the costs may be higher than expected.  The best thing to do is agree and bear these costs in mind.

Legal Advice & Assistance 

If you are on Income Support or receive such benefits you may be able to have a limited form of Legal Aid called ‘Legal Advice & Assistance’, it helps if you have no significant matrimonial assets.  If you do and the petitioner recovers these then the ‘Ancillary Relief’ proceedings the Legal Aid Board will recoup their costs from you by the means of the ‘Statutory Charge’.

Questions to ask your solicitor regarding costs

When you meet with a solicitor for the first time you need to discuss the costs that are involved in your divorce:-

• How much the solicitor will cost
  
• Hourly rate of solicitor
  
• What the divorce proceedings cost

Solicitors’ aren’t physic and cant know exactly what will happen in your divorce proceedings and therefore you will need to keep in mind unexpected costs i.e. the divorce taking a lot longer than thought, divorce becomes complexed etc.

Minimizing Divorce Costs

Keeping all your paperwork organized will help minimize costs, make sure you know what form is for what and exactly what costs you are paying for.  In a divorce a solicitor may do conduct research if you do this yourself you can save costs as solicitors’ charge for this.  Some of the information solicitors’ research is gaining information about your mortgage; loans etc. so if you gather this information for them you can save money.

As solicitors’ are paid by an hourly rate if you have an argument with your partner and you phone the solicitor to tell them remember they will be charging you for this so is it really necessary, phone a family member or a friend instead it will be a lot cheaper.  Only phone when you need legal advice that is straightforward, if it isn’t go in person and make an appointment.