The UK Ministry of Justice has recently published its latest quarterly statistics for the Family Court in England & Wales. These figures show the increasing delay experienced by divorce petitions in the UK courts.
The average time from divorce petition to decree nisi was 31 weeks (over 7 months). This is an increase of 29% (7 weeks) compared to the previous year.
The average time from divorce petition to decree absolute was 56 weeks (over 1 year). This is an increase of 14% (7 weeks) compared to the previous year.
Decree Nisi is the first stage of divorce, when the court confirms that the petitioner is entitled to a divorce, that the marriage has broken down irretrievably, and that it will be dissolved unless a reason is given to the court within the subsequent six weeks. A petitioner is then entitled to apply for Decree Absolute, to finalise the divorce, after that six week period has expired.
You can read more about how long the divorce process takes in our previous blog. This includes a discussion about the impact of a financial settlement in the process.
There were 29,971 divorce petitions made during July to September 2018, up 7% from the same period in 2017. By contrast, there were 10,274 financial remedy applications in July to September 2018, down 10% on the equivalent quarter in 2017.
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