Getting Divorced with Kids: Everything You Need to Know

In the UK, getting a divorce will take a minimum of 26 weeks (around six months), but in reality it will take seven months or longer. In England, after you apply for a divorce and receive an acknowledgment from the court, there is a mandatory 20 week ‘cooling off’ period. This is intended to either help you decide whether or not a divorce is what you want, or to help you and your spouse make arrangements for the divorce.

We recommend that you make all necessary financial and maintenance arrangements within this window so that you don’t delay your divorce proceedings. However, if you can’t reach an agreement during this time; you can delay making your Divorce final until such time as you have resolved matters.

After the cooling off period, you can apply for a conditional order. This replaced the Decree Nisi and does NOT mean that you and your spouse are divorced, just that the court does not object to you getting divorced. From here, you will need to wait six weeks and one day before applying for the final order (which replaced the Decree Absolute). This is the final stage of the divorce process and receiving this will terminate your marriage.

What do you need to consider to get divorced when you have children?

When you’re getting divorced and share children with your ex, you will need to do a lot more than divide your assets. The following is a list of every document or agreement that you will need to arrange as part of your divorce, ideally during your ‘cooling off’ period:

Child Arrangements

You and your ex will need to agree on how you are to share the arrangements for your children. For joint arrangements (equal shared care), you will also need to agree on who is the primary caregiver (for the purposes of claiming benefits, address for schools/GP etc). Alternatively, you can have shared care without it being equal. You would then need to decide how often your children will stay with the other parent and for how long.

If you and your ex are struggling to come to a mutual agreement, or if you want the additional security of making your agreement legally binding, you can opt for a Child Arrangement Order. This solidifies your arrangements and makes them enforceable by the Court. A Child Arrangement Order can also include details on where and how you want your children educated (such as private or state school), where your children are allowed to live, or how much contact the other parent should receive.

Child Maintenance

To protect yourself financially in the divorce, you need to calculate the child maintenance due. The UK’s Child Maintenance Service uses a calculator which considers both parents’ income, the number of children, the number of nights at the paying parent’s residence, and provides the monetary amount that the receiving parent is owed.

Family Home

We would recommend also determining whether the family home should be sold; or whether one party wishes to purchase the others share. Independent Financial Advice should be obtained to determine each party’s borrowing capacity.

Pensions

All parties should request the cash equivalent transfer value (CETV) of their pensions so that it can be considered as part of the division of the assets.

Assets

You should also obtain full and frank disclosure from each other to determine what assets are available for distribution between you both.

What next?

Negotiate/Mediate

If you and your ex cannot come to an agreement between yourselves, we will always recommend mediation as a first port of call (where appropriate), but issuing Court proceedings to arrange a fair settlement may be necessary.

Consent Order

Once you’ve agreed on a fair division of assets, you will need to submit a consent order to the court. This finalises your agreements and tells the court that you have organised everything you need to, without the need to ask the Court to intervene. The Court will then review the consent order and if approved (if the Court believes it is fair) then the order will be sealed.

Proceedings

If you can’t agree then either party can make an application to the Court for assistance from a Judge to help them resolve matters.

Will

Unlike when you get married, getting divorced doesn’t automatically nullify your will, it just treats your ex as if they had died i.e., if your will states to leave everything to your (ex)spouse first, then to your children, it would now skip over your ex entirely. However, this won’t come into effect until you receive your final order, at least 26 weeks after you began divorce proceedings. It’s therefore advisable that you set up a new will during the Divorce proceedings.

This is not essential as part of your divorce, but we do highly recommend it to avoid any unwanted inheritance disputes if something were to happen to you, especially where there are children or even stepchildren involved.

Do you need a solicitor to get divorced?

Every divorce is different; it may be amicable or hostile, or somewhere in between. Even if you believe that your divorce will be mutual, and that you and your spouse are on the same page about what you want, we recommend putting everything into legally-binding agreements. By solidifying your arrangements in writing, you are protected in the future if your ex-spouse tries to change those arrangements without your permission.

Having a solicitor draft arrangements for you will mean that we are able to advise on your rights, ensure your financial arrangements are as fair to you and your children as possible, and that everything has been filed correctly. There are no requirements for you to hire a solicitor when you’re getting divorced, but the time and stress saved by having a solicitor help you is invaluable, especially when going through something as significant as divorce.

If you are a victim of domestic abuse or fear that your partner will react aggressively to a divorce, you can call Women’s Aid (for women affected by domestic abuse) or Men’s Advice Line (for men affected by domestic abuse). Wigan DIAS https://diasdvc.org/ also provide assistance and help.

If you’re interested in arranging a will, please get in touch to speak with one of our expert solicitors today. We offer 30mins free initial appointments.

Don’t wait until it’s too late. Arrange your will today.

Contact MBH Solicitors in Wigan now:

📩 mbh@wigansolicitors.com
📞 01942 206060