Is it easy to divorce when separation deed is done

My husband and I separated almost 5 years ago. We had a deed of separation drawn up and I bought him out of the marital home, finances were sorted out (pensions etc..) and maintenance payments and access arrangements for the two children were organised. We are still friends and both with other partners now and want to divorce. Is it straight forward to do now finances and children are sorted out, i.e. do a DIY divorce, or would it be best to go through a solicitor even though we are both happy with the arrangements?

Getting a divorce after 5 years separation, assuming you are both willing to do so, is fairly simple.

As for the finances, if you are happy that's great - a judge would want to ensure that the arrangements are fair to both parties.

There is a good summary on what options you have to sort out the three main elements (divorce, finances, children) in this guide .

From the info you provide it should all be straight forward because:
a) you both agree to the divorce
b) you agree on the finances
c) you agree on the child residence and contact

You don't need to do anything formal about the child residency/contact because as long as you are in agreement there is no need to fill any forms, tell the court, or involve solicitors.

The obvious choices for the divorce itself are to either DIY the divorce (see DIY guide ) or get a low cost solicitor managed service .

For the finances - you can use the existing Separation Agreement as the basis of a legally binding Consent Order, this cannot really be done yourself so consider a service such as the wiki solicitor managed consent order .

This page explains the benefits of using a solicitor .