divorce without a lawyer

My fiance has a seperation agreement in place in relation to the financial aspects of his marriage and the contact arrangements for his daughter. Is it posible for him to apply for a divorce without a lawyer? If so how easy is the process? He has been seperated for over 14 months now.

Thanks

Hi
You can get a divorce without involving sols but this is only a good idea if all the details of this are agreed and the ex is not going to contest it. Your fiance should be clear what reason(s) he is going to give as grounds for divorce. For no blame to be attached then he will have to seperated from his x for 2 years, as long as they both agree to the date this can be earlier than the official seperation i.e. if he moved out or they were living seperately in the same house before they seperated officially.

Your fiance should fill in the form called a "petition for divorce" which asks you to state the reason you wish a divorce to be granted and take the completed form and any other paperwork to back this up to a Sheriff Court in Scotland.
The court will then post a copy of the petition for divorce to your fiance and his stbxwife and to anyone named as a co-respondent (in the case of adultery).
If the stbx wife does not contest the petition,then your fiance can ask the court to grant you a divorce and a judge will look at the case and issue the Decree Nisi. You do not need to attend court for this unless requested to do so.
Six weeks and one day after the Decree Nisi has been issued, your fiance can apply for a Decree Absolute. When you receive the Decree Absolute, you are no longer married.

I would always advise getting a solicitor to check over the final details to make sure that these are fair - it will cost much more to try to change things later than if it is sorted in the divorce process. Be aware that you will still have to pay for all this but providing everything goes smoothly then it shouldn't be as much

hope this has helped and good luck with it all

Janey

In Scotland mediation is available through the lawyer mediators' group, CALM , and family mediation along with other family services is available from Relationships Scotland . It's important to have a mediator who has some knowledge of Scots family law. However, it seems in this case there is already a legally binding agreement about the financial arrangements and children so it is only a matter of divorcing and I'm not sure what mediation would resolve.

If there are no children under 16 and there are no outstanding financial matters it is possible to divorce under the simplified procedure if there has been *1 year's* separation and both parties agree to the divorce. Alternatively your partner can divorce after *2 years'* without consent. As long as the Separation Agreement is registered it is legally binding and there should be no outstanding financial matters.

The forms for the simplified procedure are available to download here . Once the form has been completed it is submitted along with a sworn statement and fee to court and if the judge is satisfied everything is order he/she will grant the divorce. Please note there is only one decree in Scotland.

On the other hand if there are children under 16, outstanding financial matters to resolve or adultery or behaviour are cited the simplified procedure is not available to your partner and he will need to use the ordinary procedure. This involves applying by writ and the rules and procedures are complicated and most people will need a lawyer to draft the court documents to the required specifications

Wow , its nice and interesting information.