divorce in court

[vovon]

Hi there. Can anyone help me out with some advise on divorce going to court.
My partner has been separated from his "wife" for 5 years now and she started divorce proceedings on these grounds and recieved decree nisi in July. She now refuses to finish process. My partner has gone ahead after 5 months to apply for absolute but she is opposing it on finacial grounds. My partner has given full financial disclosure if all income and pensions, which is minimal and agreed for pension to go to 2 kids. She is still opposing and now we have court hearing on 18 Jan. What can we expect in court and how long will this take? Also she is representing herself. Will we all be in one room together?

Well for a start, you won't be allowed into the court room. You are not a party to the proceedings.

It is not unusual for the Petitioner not to apply for Decree Absolute until the finances are resolved, indeed any decent family lawyer would advise their client not to. It is preferable to resolve ancillary relief (financial aspects of divorce) prior to applying for DA which is the final decree and which means the parties are divorced.

Presumably the hearing on the 18th is in relation to the finances? First Appointment or FDR? or has your partner made an application for DN to be made absolute? If the later, in my opinion the application will fail as finances need to be resolved first.

I'd imagine the hearing on the 18th is the on notice Decree Absolute application.

The judge has a discretion to say yes or no. I would expect the DA to be granted.

The usual reason to delay is that the Petitioner would lose potentially valuable rights under a pension. To counter this defence, you can point out the fact that they've been separated for more than 5 years now, and if she thought that she'd lose out financially she should have done something before now (I presume she hasn't applied to the court for a fianancial order).

You can also point out the small value of his pension, and the availability of other capital to compensate her for that.

Really Collaborate? Obviously we don't know the full facts here (we never do) but the one hearing for DA I attended the DJ refused saying 'pension, pension, pension'. That was a 5 year separation petition.

I suppose it depends on the facts and actual figures and what one person may say is minimal may not be in the scheme of things.

Thanks for your input. My partner has given complete financial disclosure and according to solicitor his ex is saying she has not been given evidence of this even though it was sent to her solicitors who are "advising" her not representing her, whatever that means.
So will she need to be hand delivered this before the hearing and also she is supposed to write a statement outlining reasons for opposing 48 hours beforehand. Call me thick but I dont understand how this all works. All input required please.

As predicted hearing was adjourned for 3 monthe pending financial disclosure on both parts. 3 months on a another hearing set for 20 April where we have been told that she wil still contest but has not supplied any details asked from her.
Have lost will to live.

Where I practice she wouldn't be allowed to delay the DA for this long by failing to progress the financial side of things. Is his pension wirth very much?