Family law – Application for Decree Absolute

February 23, 2023

The application for divorce was reformed last year with the specific purpose of removing blame from the process.  It is hoped this will encourage and assist separating couples to settle all matters outside of court where possible.

Whether your divorce is being processed under the old law or the new law there are four stages to applying for the divorce itself, which are the divorce or dissolution petition, acknowledgement of service (if a sole application is being made), decree nisistage and decree absolute.  Under the new law the decree nisi is known as a conditional order and the decree absolute is known as a final order.

Decree absolute is the final order which concludes the divorce process, it provides a legal document which is needed to confirm that your marriage has officially ended. You will need to wait a minimum of 43 days (6 weeks and 1 day) after the issue of your decree nisi or conditional order before you can apply to the court for the decree absolute.

Where an applicant is applying for decree absolute, a D36 form will need to be filed to the court. There is no fee applicable when the application is made from the applicant. The information required on the D36 form is the name of the court, case number (found on previous court documents), name of petitioner and name of respondent.

In a situation where the applicant does not apply for the final stage of the divorce proceedings, decree absolute, a respondent may need to apply instead. This involves a different procedure, filing a D11 form rather than a D36, providing notice of the application to the other party and paying a court fee of £167. The time frame where a respondent can apply for decree absolute/final order is three months after the earliest date on which the applicant could have applied (6 weeks and 1 day after decree nisi has been granted).

Where more than twelve months has passed since decree nisi, in both cases for the applicant and respondent, you will need to enclose a short witness statement in support of the application in order to explain the reason for the delay. For example, it may be that you attempted to reconcile, or you did not feel ready to be formally divorced or, as is most common, you have spent time negotiating a financial settlement. In your witness statement you will need to address the following points:

• Whether you have lived together since the decree nisi was made, and if so, between which dates.
• If you are female, whether you have given birth to another child since decree nisi was made, and if so whether you allege the child is or may be a child of the family.
• If you are a male, whether you have any reason to believe your ex-wife has given birth to a child since the decree nisi was made, and if so, whether you allege the child is or may be a child of the family.

Once your decree absolute/final order is received, you will need to keep this document safe as you will need to produce it if you remarry or to prove your marital status. Once your decree absolute application has been received by the court, your divorce will be finalised within approximately two to three weeks.

Any financial remedy claims should have been resolved prior to the application of decree absolute. This is because you and your ex-spouse may have financial benefits such as pension benefits that may be lost if one of you dies and you are no longer married to each other.

If you would like to discuss your matter, please call 0121 705 7571 and ask to speak to a member of the Family law team or email us at family@wallacerobinson.co.uk.

Amun Sunner
Paralegal – Family Department

This article is for general information purposes only. It does not constitute technical, financial, legal advice or any other type of professional advice and is no substitute for specific advice based on your individual circumstances. We do not accept responsibility or liability for any actions taken based on the information in this article. For more information, please click here.