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Expat Divorce

Expat divorce (for expats living within the EU)

£1961.50

Includes all charges, VAT and court fees

Expat divorce (for expats living outside the EU)

£1750.00

Includes all charges and court fees

Our expat fixed fee divorce is for you if you want...

to get a divorce from abroad*
guaranteed fees
advice from an experienced expat divorce lawyer
access to your lawyer by email and direct dial telephone
a lawyer who explains everything in plain English

Book a fixed fee expat divorce now by selecting the appropriate box above.

What is an expat divorce or divorce from abroad*?
“Expat” refers to a situation where you or your spouse are living outside England or Wales. It can also mean when you married in another country. The divorce is obtained through the Courts of England and Wales.

A fixed fee expat divorce from Woolley & Co, solicitors includes the preparation and filing of all the relevant papers for the Court to obtain a divorce in the English Courts. It does not require you to return to the UK.

If you were born in England or Wales and consider it your ‘home’ by maintaining some kind of connection here you may be eligible to divorce using this system. This is however a complex area of law and you may need to discuss this with us before booking a fixed fee expat divorce. You can book an initial half hour free telephone appointment for this purpose.

Uncontested
The fixed fee assumes that the other party does not formally object to the divorce and that the Court accepts the grounds and the power to deal with your case (given the “expat” aspects) without too much question (which is often the case).

It is important to note that this fixed fee covers the divorce (the legal dissolution of the marriage) and does not cover any extensive advice or work with regard to any financial settlement. If you need help in this regard your lawyer will be able to provide you with a quote for this work.

What’s included in the fixed fee?
All costs associated with obtaining an expat divorce:

Our fees - £1,410
VAT on our fees - £211.50 (no VAT is payable if you live outside the EU)
Court fees - £340

You will be allocated a lawyer to handle your case from amongst our team of fully qualified and experienced family law experts.

You will be provided with email, direct dial and mobile telephone contact numbers for your lawyer and be served under the terms of our Client Charter which includes a number of guaranteed service standards offered to all clients. Most correspondence will be sent by email to speed up communication.

Your lawyer will obtain the information we need from you and send you a divorce procedure explanation. They will prepare and file all the appropriate paperwork as follows:

A form called a 'petition' is completed by your lawyer and sent to the Court office.
A form called a “statement of arrangements for children” is completed by your lawyer and sent to the Court office. It is issued and then sent to the other party.
The other party should then fill in a type of receipt saying whether they accept that the divorce should be granted. This is copied, to you.
Your lawyer will prepare a document called a 'request for directions for trial', for the Court. This may need to be supported by an affidavit which we will also prepare.
The District Judge checks all the paperwork to establish that you have proved grounds for divorce. If this is the case they give a date when the divorce will be partly announced.
6 weeks and 1 day later, provided there were no problems, your lawyer will make an application get the decree absolute which is the paper proving the final legal end to the marriage.

Throughout this process your lawyer will tell you when one of the above steps has been taken.
We include an allowance for discussion with you by phone, e-mail or in person. In addition to the completion and filing of all the paperwork we also include time for dealing with queries from the Court. In our experience judges who are not used to dealing with expat cases can often find the complex laws that apply difficult and some have a tendency to ask detailed questions needing detailed replies. We are used to helping them.

Court fees
The divorce Court will require you to pay standard government fees. These are currently £300 payable when the petition is filed and £40 to apply for the Decree Absolute at the end of the case. These are included in our total cost for a fixed fee divorce.

Additional fees
In most cases the above follows through without difficulty and the time we spend on your case is covered by the fixed fee.

In some cases there can be additional issues to be resolved and we do charge extra for this additional work, examples can be: not being able to trace the other party, the other party denying receipt of the papers, needing to obtain a private detective and so on.

An example of an extra cost sometimes found is obtaining a certified copy marriage certificate. For that we charge £25 + Vat and you will also be asked to pay the fee from the Registrar for the relevant area. This fee is in the region of £7.

Any extra costs will be discussed and agreed with you before any work is undertaken.

Why pay a fixed fee?
By paying a fixed fee at the start of your case you have certainty about the costs involved. Woolley & Co has lawyers experienced in handling expat cases and detailing with intricate questions around jurisdiction.

The alternative is to pay an hourly rate (currently from £195 plus VAT) for the time your lawyer spends on your case. We believe you should pay for the work that needs to be done, rather than the time it takes to do it.

Need more advice before booking an expat divorce?
Contact Woolley & Co on +44 (0)1789 267377 or book a free telephone appointment with one of our lawyers.