Use this section to learn about the issues surrounding the breakdown of a marriage and how to obtain a divorce. Below you will find a summary of some of the reasons for filing for divorce. If you would like more information on the divorce procedures, then click on the links in the left-hand side of the page.

In England and Wales, about 150,000 marriages are ended in divorce. This equated to about 400 every day and represents the highest in Europe.

Of the 150,000 petitions lodged with the court only about 1,500 are defended. Few are successfully defended and the invariable outcome is a decree of divorce.

The court will only grant you a divorce if a judge agrees that your marriage is at an end. The legal term for this is ‘irretrievably broken down’.

You must satisfy the court that one or more of the following is true as proof that your marriage is over:

• Adultery by your husband or wife
• Unreasonable behaviour by your husband or wife
• Desertion for a period of at least two years
• Two years separation, if you both agree to the divorce
• Five years separation, if there is no agreement to the divorce

Once you return your petition to the divorce county court you have started the divorce process. From now on you are legally known know as ‘the petitioner’. Your husband or wife who you are divorcing is legally known as ‘the respondent.’

You will need to supply copies of your marriage certificate, details of any children involved and also the name and address of any person with whom your husband or wife has committed adultery if you wish to name them in the divorce proceedings as grounds for the divorce. They are known as ‘the co-respondent’.

The courts will then post a copy of the petition to your husband or wife and any co-respondents named in your divorce petition. This is known as ‘serving the petition’.

Your husband or wife then has eight days to acknowledge receipt of the petition. If they don’t do this, the court will contact you and ask for more details and, if necessary, arrange for a court official - know as a bailiff - to serve the petition in person.

Once the petition has been served, what happens next depends upon whether or not your husband or wife contests the divorce or agrees to it. You may be asked to provide more information by the court. If you have children then the court must examine and agree with arrangements made for the children (e.g. who they are going to live with, where they are going to live, what contact they will have with the non-resident parent) before the divorce is granted.

The next and most important part of the divorce process is known as ‘the Decree Nisi’. This is the first stage of the actual divorce. It is granted only when a judge has reviewed all of the papers and is satisfied that there are proper grounds for a divorce. The judge will also check that all financial issues and arrangements for the children have been agreed or are in the process of being resolved. You may be required to attend court, but many divorces happen entirely by post.

The final stage of a divorce is called ‘the Decree Absolute.’ You can apply for the Decree Absolute six weeks and one day after the Decree Nisi. If you don’t apply for the Decree Absolute, then your husband or wife as the respondent can apply for it, but only after a further three months have passed.

When you receive the Decree Absolute, you are no longer married and are free to re-marry. The court will only grant the Decree Absolute when the judge agrees that all arrangements for the children are now satisfactory. A judge can make a final financial order before the Decree Absolute is granted, but the order will only come into force after the decree has been made absolute.

A divorce is obtained by petitioning the court for a decree of divorce. Once a divorce is granted the empty structure of the marriage is removed. Each party can move forward and rebuild their lives. There are no longer any legal restraints on either of them developing any future relationship.

A judicial separation is obtained in a similar way be petitioning the court. Once it is granted the obligations of an empty marriage are removed, yet the two parties remain married. Each can move forward and rebuild their life. Nevertheless, neither party can remarry.

However, if there are children, their welfare must be considered. A parent's responsibility to their children is for life. The children of today are the future of tomorrow.

Many people hold strong beliefs that the union of marriage is a union for life and cannot be ended other than by the death of either spouse. English law allows a party to a marriage to petition the court for a decree of judicial separation.

A decree of judicial separation ends the obligation of two married people to live together but they remain married to each other. The court has all of its powers to make orders in respect of financial matters and other issues as if there had been a decree of divorce.

Occasionally, there are financial incentives for two married people to remain married to each other. There may be pension rights to a surviving spouse or an inheritance if the marriage continues. Again, a decree of judicial separation provides a solution because it releases each party of the obligation to live with the other and does not dissolve the marriage with a decree of divorce.

Judicial separation is an option rarely considered. Emphasis is upon bringing children up in a family environment with the parents married to each other. If the parents feel no longer able to live with each other, judicial separation should be considered as the first option by the parties to emphasise their commitment to bringing up their children within marriage.