Filed the papers now what?

Hi all
I submitted the Petition a week last Friday to the local court. I am hoping this is a straight forward case, we have agreed we both want the divorce bt i have had to file for grounds of unreasonable behaviour as we have only been seperated 10 months.
The court said if no complications will take an average of 4 and a half months. But what is the actual process.. they said my ex should receive the forms within a week. if he signs and does as he should how soon will we know if the judge has passed them or not?
Thanks x

p.s. I have filed without a Consent Order... only just read about them do we need one? we own a flat toegther that he is keeping , there is no equity and we agreed he would pay to have my name taken off the mortgage, other than that there is nothing else.

The divorce suit is dealt with separately from the finances which you can deal with at any time after the Petition is issued - even after the Decree Absolute is granted.

In relation to the divorce, once the acknowledgement is received by the court, you will be able to apply for the next stage which is to obtain the Decree Nisi. Once that is granted, you have to wait 6 weeks and 1 day before applying for the Decree Absolute.

If you want to sort out the finances, you can try to agree these and deal with the matter by way of consent order. If they are not agreed you have to issue an application for Ancillary Relief.

The divorce is fairly easy to deal with - the hardest part is getting the petition right. If the petition is accepted, the rest should be self-explanatory after perusing the guidance on this site and any leaflets they may have at your local court.

The Ancillary Relief part is best dealt with by a solicitor. Even if you have an agreement you need to have an order drafted otherwise it may not reflect the agreement that you have reached. This site offers a fixed fee service to draft an agreement - I would suggest you use that if you are able to agree settlement terms.

Charles