Paying For A Divorce

Paying for a divorce:

At Ansham White we understand the difficulties in arranging for payment of ongoing divorce fees, this is particularly so where the other party has financial control. Similarly, in some circumstances, one party may have little or no knowledge of their partner’s financial affairs, therefore, possibly leading to you incurring further costs to obtain the necessary information.

Ways to pay for your divorce

There are numerous ways to fund your legal fees. At Ansham White Solicitors, we are very upfront and open about all aspects of our fees and will always advise you of the available options for funding your case. These can include:

  • Paying in instalments
  • Paying via a credit card (although this should only be for short-term funding).
  • Dissolving an existing asset.
  • Obtaining a Loan from a bank, this could potentially be secured against assets which you hold. In general, secured loans are cheaper than unsecured ones.
  • Creating an agreement with your spouse to use funds in their name or to extend the mortgage on your property for both parties’ benefit.

Alternative ways to pay for your divorce

Where necessary, we can also inform our clients about other litigation funding providers. Often these lenders will not require any money to be repaid until the case is over.  

What Ansham White can do to help

There are several ways that we assist clients to attempt to make their divorce more manageable this includes offering clients schemes such as:

  1. Fixed fee – this would only be available for un-contested divorces and would not normally include any resolution of finances or child arrangements 
  1. Paying us a set sum upfront and where the client is due to receive (by order) a pre-agreed lump sum from the other side, pay us upon receipt of the same.

How long does a divorce take in the UK?:

Typically, the divorce process in England and Wales takes between five to six months. However, there are a number of factors which can impact the completion time of a divorce.

This includes:

  • A lack of cooperation by one party 
  • Complicated financial matters
  • Delays at divorce centres and family courts
  • The number of hearings your matters requires

Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 the typical length of time it currently takes to get a divorce has increased quite substantially. The largest divorce centre in England and Wales (Bury St Edmunds) has reported in 2020-2021 that it is taking 20 weeks for a consent order to go from initial application to being granted. Therefore, this alone is adding on significant lengths of time to the divorce process.

Uncontested divorces can be relatively straightforward. However, where you and your spouse struggle to resolve financial matters amicably, it can cause significant delays to the divorce process as it is advisable not conclude a divorce before financial issues have been resolved.  

Please note, that typically where you have held the decree nisi for greater than 12 months, you will have to apply for to the courts for this to be extended and explain the delay. Where the courts are not in agreement with this extension, you may be made to restart your divorce application process. This can ultimately delay the process further. 

On average, ending a marriage and coming to a financial settlement takes approximately one year.

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