Getting a divorce or dissolving a civil partnership

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When a marriage or civil partnership breaks down, both people might want to legally dissolve the bond. A married person petitions for a divorce, a civil partner applies for a dissolution. You can't apply for divorce or dissolution during the first two years of your marriage or civil partnership.

Divorce and civil partnership cases

The County Court and the High Court deal with divorces and dissolutions of civil partnerships.

The spouse or civil partner who makes the application is the 'petitioner'. They can act on their own behalf or ask a solicitor for advice.

The law concerning divorce or dissolution of civil partnership procedures and the forms are different in Northern Ireland to other parts of the United Kingdom. This area of our website provides background information and lists the relevant forms that you need to apply for a divorce / dissolution of civil partnership. The forms and procedures must meet the requirements of Article 49 The Matrimonial Causes Order (Northern Ireland) 1978, the Civil Partnership Act 2004 and the Family Proceedings Rules (Northern Ireland) 1996.

A marriage celebrated/civil partnership formed outside Northern Ireland must be verified by the production of a marriage certificate/civil partnership certificate or a certified copy of an entry into the register of marriages/civil partnerships kept under the law in force in the country that the marriage/civil partnership took place. Documents not in English must be accompanied by a translation certified by a notary public or authenticated by affidavit (see Rule 2.42 of the Family Proceedings Rules (NI) 1996).

Important

We will provide information and help you to comply with the Rules relating to the law which governs these proceedings. Our staff are not legally qualified and therefore are not in a position to give legal advice.

Grounds for divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership

A divorce petition must be grounded on one of the reasons below:

two years' separation with the consent of the other spouse to divorce
five years' separation
unreasonable behaviour
adultery
desertion

A dissolution of civil partnership must be due to one of the reasons below:

two years' separation with the consent of the other partner to dissolve the partnership
five years' separation
unreasonable behaviour
desertion

Time limits on lodging a Petition

Divorce or Dissolution of Civil Partnerships – Parties must be married or be made a civil partner of each other for two years before a Petition for Divorce/Dissolution can be lodged regardless of the ground.

Judicial Separation or Separation of Civil Partnership - Parties can apply for a Judicial Separation / Separation Order at any time after the marriage / civil partnership.

Nullity/Void - Parties can apply for a Nullity (Void) at any time after the marriage.
A Petition for Nullity (Voidable) must be applied for within 3 years of the marriage/civil partnership. If 3 years have elapsed the application must be made to the court for leave to lodge a Petition.

Starting a divorce or dissolution process

Before you commence proceedings, the petitioning party must identify that a court in Northern Ireland is able to hear the case. You will be asked in the petition to identify how the court has jurisdiction to deal with the petition and you must identify at question 3 of the petition which one of the statements below is applicable to your circumstances;

The Petitioner and the Respondent are both domiciled in Northern Ireland;
The Petitioner and Respondent are both habitually resident in Northern Ireland;
The Petitioner and Respondent were last habitually resident in Northern Ireland and the (Petitioner) (Respondent) still resides there;
The Respondent is habitually resident in Northern Ireland;
The Petitioner is habitually resident in Northern Ireland and has resided there for at least one year immediately prior to the presentation of the Petition;
The Petitioner is domiciled and habitually resident in Northern Ireland and has resided there for at least six months immediately prior to the presentation of the Petition;
The Petitioner is domiciled and habitually resident in Northern Ireland and has resided there for at least six months immediately prior to the presentation of the Petition;
Either the Petition or Respondent to the marriage is domiciled in Northern Ireland.

Being "habitually resident" means that a person normally lives in a country, however does not regard it as their home.

A person who was born here, has lived here all their life and regards NI as their home, will be domiciled here.

Personal Petitioners

If you decide you do not wish to instruct a solicitor you may find it useful to view our guide for people who want to bring proceedings without involving a solicitor. You can also contact the Matrimonial Office if you have any queries in relation to the process. Please note staff are not legally qualified and can only advise you regarding the process, they cannot provide legal advice. Further information on completing documents for divorce proceedings is also available at this link.

Lodging a petition in the Matrimonial Office

The divorce or dissolution process starts when you lodge the petition and pay the fee. You're the petitioner. The other spouse or civil partner is the respondent.

You will be required to complete and submit the following documents in order to begin the process for a divorce or dissolution process;

The petition form must be typed before lodging in the Matrimonial Office. Further information on completing documents for divorce proceedings is also available at this link.

You will also need to lodge original copies documents of the following documents with the petition in the Matrimonial Office;

marriage or civil partnership certificate
an acknowledgement of service form
birth certificate for a child under 18
agreements you wish to be made a rule of court
previous court orders about your marriage or civil partnership

You must pay £326.00 to lodge a petition in court.

If you are on a low income, or if you are on certain benefits, you may not have to pay a fee, or you may be able to get some money off the fee. This is known as fee exemption or remission.

Further information on how to apply for help with fees is contained in the guidance - Do I have to pay fees?

Information on court fees is also available at Court Fees | Department of Justice.

Amending a Petition

In some circumstances the Matrimonial Office may return your petition to you for the following reasons;

All documents and copies for issuing are on the file (including original certificates);
The names are spelt correctly;
Place of marriage has been entered correctly;
Dates of marriage and birth are correct;
Habitual residence/domiciled have been selected incorrectly;
The petition and checklist has been signed and dated.

Please note this does not override or replace the judicial function of the Master or Judge who may identify additional errors in the petition and can direct an amended petition to be lodged together with the appropriate court fee (£189), it remains the responsibility of the lodging party to ensure the petition has been completed correctly.

Serving the petition

After the papers have been lodged and processed, the court will send a certified copy of the papers back to the petitioning party for them to forward to the Respondent. This is known as serving the petition. This can be done by ordinary first-class post, recorded delivery or by employing the services of a process server*.

* Details of process servers can be obtained from the Matrimonial Office.

What happens next?

Once the petition has been served, the respondent must complete the acknowledgement of service (M6) and return it to the matrimonial office. What happens next depends upon whether or not the respondent chooses to defend the petition. If the respondent or co-respondent does not complete the acknowledgement of service, service of the petition may be dealt with by other means, for example a Masters Order. The Matrimonial Office will assist you with this procedure if required.

Setting a case down for hearing

When all documentation is in order the office will invite the parties to set the case down for hearing this will require a certificate of readiness to be lodged. On receipt of the certificate of readiness form and the prescribed fee the case will be listed before the relevant court and both parties will be notified of the hearing date.

The fees for a court date are:

£407.00 in the County Court
£488.00 in the High Court

The court hearing

If the respondent consents to the petition, the petitioner will be asked to take a religious oath or make an affirmation (promise) and verify the information in their petition. If the court is satisfied with the evidence before it and with any arrangements made for the children of the marriage etc, it may grant a Decree Nisi/Conditional Order.

If the respondent defends the petition, the petitioner might need to give evidence and be cross-examined by the respondent’s legal representative. It is advisable to get legal advice if this happens.

Applying for a decree absolute

At least six weeks and one day after the decree nisi or conditional order is granted, the petitioner can apply to make the decree absolute or the conditional order final. They need to apply to the court where the divorce or dissolution case was heard.

Only when the parties receive the Decree Absolute/Conditional Order made Final, are they free to re-marry/form a new Civil Partnership. The marriage or civil partnership formally ends when:

the decree absolute is granted
the conditional order is made final

The court can make orders about finance, maintenance and property.

Three months after the initial six weeks and a day, the respondent can apply for a decree absolute or conditional order to be made final. But they can only do this with the court's permission.

The fee is £123.00 for a decree absolute or conditional order made final.

Decree absolute or conditional order is granted

When the decree absolute or conditional order made final is granted, you and your former spouse or civil partner will get a copy. This is an important document that you must keep. It proves you are divorced. You'll need the document to:

apply for a passport
marry or form a new civil partnership
apply for your pension or certain state benefits
apply for a student grant for yourself or your children
apply for a grant of probate or Letters of Administration in certain circumstances

Requesting a copy of a Decree Absolute

If you require a copy of a Decree Absolute which was granted in Northern Ireland, you must provide the relevant case reference number. If you do not have a case reference number, you are required to apply to the Matrimonial Office to have a search carried out to establish if a Decree Absolute has been granted and if so, to obtain the case reference number.

You can apply for a decree absolute by completing this form and sending it to the Matrimonial Office together with the search fee of £47.00.

Contacting the Matrimonial Office

If you have any procedural queries relating to divorce / dissolution of civil partnership proceedings, you should contact the Matrimonial Office

The Matrimonial Office postal address is

The Matrimonial Office
Royal Courts of Justice
Chichester Street
Belfast BT1 3JF

The office can also be contacted via

Phone 030 0200 7812
Fax 028 9072 5939
Email Matrimonial@courtsni.gov.uk
In person: The public counter for the Matrimonial Office is on the 1st Floor, May Street Wing of the Royal Courts of Justice building.

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