Do I need a divorce or dissolution?

If parties separate under difficult circumstances, it can be tempting not to pursue a divorce immediately. A few common reasons people do not pursue an immediate divorce include being worried about antagonising a difficult spouse, wanting a break from having to deal with a spouse and questioning whether they even need a divorce if they never intend to remarry.

While it is not a legal requirement to immediately formally end a marriage or civil partnership via divorce or dissolution, it is recommended. One of the main advantages of doing so is that you are more likely to have contact details for your spouse, whether that is knowing their address, their mobile phone number or their email address. When people attempt to initiate divorce proceedings several years or even several decades after they have separated from their spouse, one of the greatest difficulties can be obtaining contact details for their spouse for service of the divorce application.

It is not uncommon for people to relocate, change their name, and/or update their mobile number and email address. In the case of international marriages, a spouse will often return to their home country. It can be a time-consuming and costly process to initiate divorce proceedings where the spouse’s contact details are unknown, as it will normally require an asset trace to try and obtain contact details for a spouse, and often the Court’s permission will be required to serve a divorce application via WhatsApp or email if an address cannot be found. Further, if a spouse has moved abroad or returned to their home country, there may be jurisdictional issues and arguments to determine whether England or an alternative jurisdiction is the correct country to proceed with a divorce application.

While a divorce application may antagonise your spouse, you can instruct solicitors to deal with the process for you, so you do not need to have any direct contact with the other party. This removes all the stress and anxiety of dealing with a difficult spouse and more importantly, it ensures that you do not have to worry about antagonising your spouse in the future, as the divorce will dissolve the marriage, bringing the relationship to a formal end.

Further, if you do not secure a divorce or dissolution, you will be unable to legally remarry and we are seeing a steady increase in the rise of the ‘grey marriage’, so you should protect your ability to remarry in the future!

There are many good reasons for dealing with a divorce immediately, take the first step today by calling Gilson Gray.

If you need advice on  family law matters in England and Wales only, please contact Sharan at Gilson Gray for a confidential discussion.

The information and opinions contained in this blog are for information only.  They are not intended to constitute advice and should not be relied upon or considered as a replacement for advice.  Before acting on any information contained in this blog, please seek solicitor’s advice from Gilson Gray.