New divorce procedure uk

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Can anyone please detail the new divorce procedure .
Or at least answer the following:-

eg if a consent order (or any communication/ documents sent) - how is it sent? Via post/ email ?

do either parties ever have to go to a solicitor or anywhere in person? Or can it all be done online?

1 house and children

I have tried and failed numerous times to end my relationship. The fear of spiralling cost and the unknown is draining me.

i am not entitled to help with fees.

thank you

Look at amicable.io for information, and to assess whether you want to do a free fifteen minute call with them.

We got divorced for the total sum of the online fee which was £590 or something. Everything online. No solicitors.

We were able to agree a fair split of everything which we both felt ok with. He kept his v good pension and I had more of the house equity. I’ve been told that was not the best decision but I’m ok with it.

Kids were adults.

We went through mediation which is cheaper than a solicitors and allows you to discuss and confirm all the splits. If it were to end up in court you have to have attempted mediation first anyway (if someone were to refuse it looks bad on them in court)

The mediator can then create a draft agreement that you can either use to complete the online divorce and financial consent order yourself or send to a solicitor for them to do for you.
If you have children and these are discussed in the mediation then you should be able to get a £500 voucher from the government to support those mediation sessions (it's not means tested).
We had an initial mediation session each and then 2 or 3 sessions together where we had filled in our disclosure forms and talked through and agreed things. Those were paid for and the £500 deducted. Then we paid for the draft agreement.
After that I did get a solicitor to complete all the actual forms so that they were correct. I think it cost more than it should have as they were basically just copying the draft agreement over, but I knew I'd be the one to have to do it all as my ex would ignore it and I wasn't in the right mental space to be confident doing them.
If you contact a mediator then they'd be able to give you an estimate on costs for their services and we did it all online on video calls.

Good luck OP...I'm a little bit further down the line. This is maybe a silly question but are mediators legally trained? And how would you go about finding a good one?

My consent order was done with a solicitor but I never got anything in the post, all electronic.

My ex didn’t want a solicitor so had to sign to say he was giving up that right despite my solicitor advising it. I think this is because I did have legal representation though? You don’t need a solicitor you can do it all yourselves online, but a local firm offered a fixed fee financial consent order and I felt more comfortable having a solicitor help (and I got a good deal, all my inheritance back I put into the property, maintenance plus half of all childcare fees/clubs until end of full time education, kept my own pension which was bigger and he kept his).

Starting the divorce online was about £600, then I paid something like £1k for the consent order. I then had property fees to cover for change of name etc and buying him out but it wasn’t extortionate. Consent order finalised January 2024 so not too out of date.

I don’t believe they are, and it can vary how good they are.

I used one for a neighbour dispute once and he was brilliant. But it depends on if the other person is prepared to come to the table or not. My ex is anti confrontation, didn’t want to go to court, but I used a solicitor to give me the confidence I had covered all bases and it made me feel well supported. I made sure I went to a woman, mine left part way through and I got moved to a partner and kept on the same fee rate. Both of them were fantastic.

Mine had been as she had stepped away from the stress and gone to mediation.
Mediators are supposed to understand the law though as they are there to advise what the court will look at/think about if it were to go to court.
They should know what would be asked and what the potential outcomes are. I believe that many have some form of legal training in the area that they deal in, but it's not a requirement. You can ask that before signing up with one though.
Solicitors are there to fight for you personally, which is why they cost more. Mediators are there to support you with no bias towards either party.