The legal consequene of admitting adultery

You only normaly pay costs in divorce if you do not consent. Not consenting in divorce is a sure fired way of loosing money. Divorce has got nothing to do with money. Chris.

It is important to understand that there are 2 separate processes. (The wikivorce Step By Step divorce guide has more detail on this).


One process is the legal divorce (ending of the marriage) which is pretty straightforward. If he admits adultery he will normally end up being liable for the costs of this element (perhaps a few hundred quid). It is quite common for the respondent (i.e. your partner) in divorce to say "I will admit to the adultery if you agree to share the costs". It is worth trying this as the costs are small and his wife would very likely be advised by her sol to accept this compromise and get on with the process. But if she is stubborn - just accept to pay the couple hundred quid and move on. There is very little point defending/fighting over this part of the divorce process as there is nothing to gain.....no upside.....just added costs and delays.


The second process is ancillary relief proceedings where the two sides battle (or negotiate) over the money. This is more complicated and costly. Each side could run up many thousands of pounds in legal bills. Admitting adultery had no bearing on the outcome of this process (no blame) and no bearing on the costs of this process (in general each side these days has to foot their own legal bill).

Sorry this is not that clear cut.
It depends on the judge!
I am divorcing my ex for adultery.
I sort full costs for the divorce and was awarded 50%. The only reasons given for this was that my ex is declaring himself bankrupt and also that he turned up at court to contest the request.
At my hearing - in the other divorce cases being contested where the respondent did not attend costs were given to the applicant.

Be preared to pay costs forthe divorce part only - this should be no more than £750 inc VAT. However if you delay things like my ex did the overall costs can escalate.

The costs for the children and the fiannces are handled elsewhere and currently I am expecting to pay my own - unless my ex slows everything down again!

Sorry this is not that clear cut.
It depends on the judge!
I am divorcing my ex for adultery.
I sort full costs for the divorce and was awarded 50%. The only reasons given for this was that my ex is declaring himself bankrupt and also that he turned up at court to contest the request.
At my hearing - in the other divorce cases being contested where the respondent did not attend costs were given to the applicant.

Be preared to pay costs forthe divorce part only - this should be no more than £750 inc VAT. However if you delay things like my ex did the overall costs can escalate.

The costs for the children and the fiannces are handled elsewhere and currently I am expecting to pay my own - unless my ex slows everything down again!

I think he is going to opt for paying half her court costs which should be around £300
Am I right?

That sounds about right

Taylr14,

It does appear everything depends on the judge. I suspect the reason costs were awarded against the party that did not attend court was because the judge's nose was put out of joint, they're important people you know - and you'd better show them that you know and appreciate it.

I'm also divorcing my x for adultery and frankly, so fed up to the back teeth with the whole procedure that I can't help thinking that it has all been deliberately set up so as to wear people down.

The trouble is that it only wears down the good and the reasonable of us - the nutters, fanatics and absolute s**ts seem to shrug it off and the only place for them to get their comeuppance is at the final hearing, where the judge is just as likely to ignore their behaviour as to take it into account.

Despite all the frustrating antics of my xtb, the costs of my divorce are to be decided at the final hearing. I am not getting my hopes up, as at no time have I ever been given any indication that the principle of fairness has been present in the whole sorry process.

Anyway, be prepared for a long hard slog and remember that anything the two of you may agree is one less thing to argue about which will make the divorce cheaper, if not quicker and less stressful.

Best of luck to everyone!