Responding to the Divorce Application Petition -

[thinkingSilver]

I received the Divorce Application Petition, both via email and by post last week.
I have submitted my response.
Background- husband is applying for divorce, he earns 4 times as much as I do, most likely in another relationship but I have no evidence, he has been verbally abusive and called me names and I have called the police before for help when he badly lost his temper.

Question- on the petition, on one of the pages it says that my husband has asked the court that I should pay the costs of the divorce. I was honestly so surprised by that. Seriously?! He earns at least £130pa and he is the one who wants the divorce.
See attachment.

I rejected that, and gave my reasons. I put down a bullet point list of 5 or 6 things, most importantly the large discrepancy in income and also the case of domestic violence.

Question- Will there now be a hearing because I said that actually, he should be paying?
What will happen next?

Do you have a solicitor ?

Yes, I have a solicitor.
The two solicitors have been writing back and forth since Augustus. His solicitor sent the draft petition in Aug and at the time, asked my solicitor that I should pay half the cost.
My solicitor wrote back that he should be carrying the costs because of the large discrepancy in income. They accepted that.
My solicitor is better than his.

Part of me thinks, his solicitor made a mistake when doing the Official Petition to Divorce, forgetting that we already had the conversation and forgetting that they already said they will carry the costs.

What will happen next? Will there be a hearing because I rejected the fact that I should be paying?
**I know the costs of the divorce is minimal compared to the solicitor fees.

There won't be a hearing specifically for that no. The divorce proceeds anyway and that will be finalised as part of the financial settlement you agree

This is what I can find and it worried me.

I'd get clarification from your Solicitor.

It could be a mistake on his part. I also ticked this box when filling out the form and thought it meant I wanted stbxh to share court fees £525). Ex came back offering £750 towards my costs which obviously I took.

If you have a solicitor I'd recommend they suggest half court fees or as you say list reasons for no fees.

My ex refused the divorce petition unless I accepted half fees (remember he thought I was asking him to pay all costs).

I was the petitioner in my divorce. It was ‘fault based’ - I used unreasonable behaviour - so requested that he pay the costs. As in your case he earned in excess of 100k to my 25k - he responded that he ‘could not afford it’. I think his solicitor knocked some sense into him and he did pay in the end. I think you’ll be OK as it’s been discussed with your solicitor but do get clarification. As you say, the costs of the actual divorce are peanuts compared to the costs of sorting finances if you can’t settle amicably (voice of bitter experience here . . . )

Be careful of running up high costs of letters back and forth arguing about a relatively small cost - a couple of letters will costs more than half the divorce costs!

It's vanishingly rare for a court to make a costs order in a divorce. Typically, each party pays their own expenses. I'd not lose any sleep over it. My ex put the same!