All guides

The court fee is £628 and everything above it is optional. Every route priced side by side, from a £690 DIY divorce to a contested case with no ceiling, and where paying more genuinely buys you something.

Most divorcing couples spend £1,500 to £10,000 per person in total. Hourly rates run £150 to £350. Full breakdown of what each stage costs and how to keep the bill down.

Fixed-fee solicitor packages range from £500 to £1,000+ VAT for a consent order. What each price tier buys, what it skips, and how it compares to every other route including ours.

Most couples who agree do not need a solicitor. Mediation suits near-agreement. A solicitor is right when finances are complex. Every route compared with honest costs and honest limitations.

No. You do not need a solicitor to get divorced in England and Wales. Whether you should depends on the complexity of your finances and whether you both agree.

If you suspect your spouse is hiding assets, you need a specialist family solicitor. What the court can do, what a specialist costs, and what to ask at the first meeting.

If your combined assets exceed roughly £1 million, or include a business, trusts or complex pensions, you need a specialist family solicitor. What that costs and what to ask.

A consent order is what makes your divorce money agreement legally binding. What each route costs in 2026, whether you can write your own, and the drafting mistakes that get orders sent back.

They are not alternatives: a clean break is a clause inside a consent order. What a clean break dismisses, when it is not achievable, what drafting one costs from £179 to £799 plus VAT, and the Supreme Court case that shows what happens without one.

The statement of information you file with a consent order, walked through question by question. What each box wants, where the arithmetic trips people up, and what to send it with.

There is no 50/50 starting point. The court gives first consideration to any child under 18, then works from needs. The five outcomes for the family home, Mesher and Martin orders in full, and the mortgage problem that sinks agreed settlements.

Regular payments from one ex-spouse to the other, and not an automatic outcome of divorce. How courts in England and Wales actually decide, and how a clean break works instead.

The legal minimum is 26 weeks and 1 day, and half of cases take 39 weeks to the final order. The statutory waits, what the courts' own figures say, and the parts of the delay that are worth choosing.

Decree absolute is the old name for the final order. What the 6 April 2022 reform changed, the real timeline, and why applying for the final order before the money is settled costs people more than the divorce did.