Applying for absolute

[Sweetie1980]

i am currently going through a divorce that has been going on since 2020. My ex has made the process very difficult. I only have until October to apply for absolute and it’s unlikely we have agreed finances and children . Do I have to explain the delay ? Anyone been through similar ?

Don’t get absolute until finances and children are agreed.

Sorry, meant to add, you should ask your solicitor, obviously, for pros and cons.

I was wondering if I have to explain the delay to a court as it’s been a year in October since I got nisi. I did the divorce via gov.net but have a solicitor for finances .

You have to write a statement to explain the delay for the judge. You can google standard phrases ( search for applying for decree absolute after 12 months) but if I remember rightly should include that you have a signed and agreed financial consent order with date, you’ve not had a child since nisi, and if you’ve lived together since nisi with dates. Warning though, over 12 months and the absolute takes a bit longer to come back - mine was paper based and the court has had it for 2 months now :(

Maybe you should repost this in legal - someone with knowledge about family law etc. may be able to advise you.

My solicitor (who handled all of my divorce from the initial separation) advised me not to pursue the Absolute before the finances and children were legally finalised. I think it was primarily to avoid any later claims on me financially or disputes about the arrangements re. access and child support and, luckily, I was able to get those finalised before applying for the Absolute. In fact I would not allow the Absolute to proceed before this had all been done, but I appreciate you seem in a different position with other priorities perhaps.

I really wanted to get a final arrangement in place otherwise I couldn’t see the point of an Absolute on the ‘marriage’ paperwork when other matters were still to be decided.

There was over 18 months between our nisi and absolute due to my ex dragging it out beyond belief. My solicitor had include a statement to the courts but it was very straight forward and unlike a previous poster, actually came back really quickly (this was in july time this year)

My absolute was longer than the year from the nisi. Mainly due to the delay on the financial order being agreed. My solicitor got me to sign a document about this to accompany the application.