Completion of Divorce Petiton/ A little help plse

1)I am a bit stumped about what to put down in para 3 - court jurisdiction.

I have read the guidance notes but they just confuse me.

My husband and I have now lived in England for 3 1/2 years and are still living here ( Previously lived in South Africa) so clearly the English court has jurisdiction. But which paragraph refers in the guidance notes. Would it be (a), (d) or what ? I see you have to write in exactly as set out, upon which para you intend to rely. We are both british citizens.

2)At what stage does form A (application for ancillary relief) have to be lodged is it together with the petition. We have both agreed on capital asset split and periodic maint. There are no children involved. I have left all orders open in the petition have only croseed out the children ones.

3) This could be a major problem but I sincerely hope not. We were married in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia as it was then (35 years ago) .All I have is a certified photostat copy of original marriage certificate. It will be virtually impossible to obtain a copy as you can imagine ! This photocopy seemed to be acceptable when he applied for his British passport. What happens as this could be mean us never being able to obtain a divorce

1 - (a)

2 - Form A can be lodged at any time - either with or after the petition. However, if you have an agreement you do no need to file form A, you can simply file your Consent Order + statement of Information, once you have your Decree Nisi. This will work out cheaper as the fee for Form A is £210 and for lodging a consent order only £40!

3 - usually the original is requuired. If the copy was a certified copy provided at the time of the marriage this may be acceptable. You may have to apply to the court for a specific direction - the relevent rule is r.2.6 (2) of the Family Proceedigns Rukles 1991 which states

unless otherwise directed on an applictiona made ex-parte, a certificate of the marraige or civil partnership to which the casue relates shall be filed with the petition

Any application would need to be accompanied by an affidavit setting out what steps were taken to obtain an original certificate. If you are acting in person it may be best simply to apply askign the court to accept the copy and to lsit the matter for a 5 min. directions appt. to clarify exactly what the Judge will require. I would suggest in the first instance that you write to the church/registery office where you were marreid and to the Zimbabwean Embassy to ask how you may obtain a duplicate - if you get a response saying it isn't possible you will then have something to show the court!

Do let us know how you get on.