Responding to a Divorce Application

What You Have Been Sent and What It Means

When one spouse applies on their own, the court issues the application and it is served on the other, by the court or, where you are outside England and Wales, by the applicant. Under Part 7 of the Family Procedure Rules it must arrive with a form for acknowledging service and a notice of proceedings, which carries your case number, your reply deadline and, in an online case, your access code.

Replying is not an argument about fault. Since 6 April 2022 section 1 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 lets either or both parties apply for a divorce order on the ground that the marriage has broken down irretrievably, so disagreeing with your spouse's account of the marriage is not the same as disputing the divorce: see our no-fault divorce page.

The order comes in two stages. A divorce order is conditional in the first instance and cannot be made final before the end of six weeks from the conditional order, and the applicant cannot confirm that they wish to continue before the end of 20 weeks from the start of proceedings. That timetable, in section 1(4) and 1(5), is the window for settling money and property: see conditional and final orders.

The same reply rules apply, with adapted forms, to civil partnership dissolution, judicial separation and annulment. On a joint application neither of you is a respondent, but each joint applicant must acknowledge receipt of the notice of proceedings within 14 days.

Your Deadline and the Two Ways to Reply

Rule 7.7(1) gives the respondent 14 days beginning with the date the application was served to file an acknowledgement of service. Work to the date in your notice of proceedings, not to the day the post arrived.

GOV.UK sets out two routes, and which one applies depends on whether a solicitor is acting:

• Reply online, with the access code on your notice of proceedings, if you do not have a solicitor.
• Reply by post on form D10, to the address on the form, if you do.

The acknowledgement must be signed by you or your legal representative, give an address for service and indicate whether or not you intend to dispute. An address for service is the United Kingdom business address of a solicitor acting for you or, where none acts, an address at which you live or carry on business.

Where there are reasonable grounds to believe a party is living in a refuge, rule 6.23A has the court direct how documents are served and forbids the refuge's address, name or identifying details being disclosed to the other party or their solicitor.

Served outside England and Wales, rule 6.42 gives a longer period: 21 days, 31 days or the Practice Direction 6B period, depending on the country.

Disputing the Divorce: the Legal Grounds

You can disagree with the divorce only if you have a legal reason. GOV.UK gives the example of living abroad where the court in England or Wales has no power over the case, and says you cannot disagree because you do not want a divorce. The rules match that: outside nullity proceedings a case becomes a disputed case only where an answer disputes the validity or subsistence of the marriage, or the jurisdiction of the court, or where the respondent files an application of their own.

Jurisdiction turns on connection to England and Wales, not on where you married. For a marriage of a man and a woman, section 5(2) of the Domicile and Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1973 gives the court jurisdiction only where, on the date of the application:

• both parties are habitually resident here, or were last habitually resident here and one still resides here
• the respondent is habitually resident here, or, on a joint application, either party is
• the applicant is habitually resident here and has resided here for at least a year immediately before the application was made
• the applicant is domiciled and habitually resident here and has resided here for at least six months immediately before the application was made
• both parties are domiciled here, or either party is

If none applies, jurisdiction can be put in issue. Different bases apply to a same sex divorce (Schedule A1 to that Act) and to a dissolution (section 221 of the Civil Partnership Act 2004). Where proceedings are already running abroad, which court should deal with the divorce is a separate question: see international divorce.

To dispute, say so on the acknowledgement of service, then file and serve an answer on form D8B within 21 days of the date your acknowledgement was due; GOV.UK gives a shorter period, 21 days from getting your notice of proceedings, so work to the earlier date. A fee is payable: the amount is on the GOV.UK page on disagreeing with a divorce, and help with fees may be available. Once an answer is filed the case must be listed for a case management hearing within six weeks, so expect to attend court.

A respondent who wants a different order, a nullity order for example, must apply within the same 21 days unless the court gives permission later.

Money, Children and the Final Order

Agreeing to the divorce is not agreeing anything about money. Property, savings, pensions, maintenance and the arrangements for the children are decided separately: an agreement becomes binding through a consent order, and where you cannot agree the court can make a financial order. See our financial settlements and arrangements for the children pages.

Section 10 of the 1973 Act gives a respondent a protection that is easy to miss. Where the conditional order was made on a sole application, or a joint one the other party has withdrawn from, you can ask the court to consider your financial position after the divorce. It must not then make the order final unless satisfied that the applicant need not make financial provision, or that the provision made is reasonable and fair or the best that can be made. The court can still make the order final if there are circumstances making that desirable without delay and it has a satisfactory undertaking from the applicant about the provision they will make. Section 48 of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 does the same in a dissolution.

Timing matters for a second reason. Under section 28(3) a person who remarries or forms a civil partnership after the marriage has been dissolved cannot then apply for a financial provision order or a property adjustment order by reference to that divorce. Pension entitlements can change too, which is why pensions on divorce advice belongs before the final order.

How Responding to a Divorce Works

For a respondent to a sole application the sequence is usually this.

1. Read the notice of proceedings and the application, note the deadline and check the names, the marriage details, the address used for service and the basis given for jurisdiction.
2. Decide whether you accept that the divorce will proceed or have a legal ground to dispute it, and take advice first, because the acknowledgement asks you to state your intention.
3. File the acknowledgement of service by the deadline, online with your access code or by post on form D10 where a solicitor acts for you.
4. If you are disputing, file and serve the answer within 21 days of the date your acknowledgement was due.
5. If the divorce itself is not in dispute, use the 20 week period to exchange financial disclosure and negotiate, in mediation or through solicitors.
6. Your spouse may apply for the conditional order once 20 weeks have passed from issue and the time for the acknowledgement or any answer has expired; the court must be satisfied every application was properly served.
7. Apply for your financial order before the final order. Where your spouse does not apply for the final order, section 9(2) lets you apply three months after the earliest date they could have done so, on form D11.

When Legal Advice Is Especially Important

Most replies are straightforward. Advice from a family solicitor earns its cost where:

• the papers never reached you, or the deadline has passed
• you were served outside England and Wales, proceedings are running abroad, or an overseas divorce has been granted and its recognition in England and Wales is in question
• there is domestic abuse: call 999 in immediate danger, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is 0808 2000 247, and our domestic abuse and injunctions pages explain protective orders
• your permission to stay in the UK is based on the marriage, which our family immigration solicitors deal with
• there is a business, a pension of real value, property abroad or a wide gap between your incomes
• you believe the marriage was void or voidable, a nullity question rather than a divorce one
• you cannot agree where the children will live or how much time they spend with each parent

How RakLAW Solicitors Can Help

We act for respondents as well as applicants. RakLAW Solicitors is at 42 Shad Thames, London SE1 2YD, in Southwark and a short walk from Tower Bridge, and the firm was founded by solicitor Rakesh Prajapati. We are privately funded and do not offer legal aid.

On a reply we read the papers, file the acknowledgement in time and say plainly whether a dispute has a legal basis. Our divorce and separation hub covers the rest of the process and our family law fees page explains how we charge.

To talk it through, call 0203 345 2000 and book a free 15-minute consultation.