Are you representing yourself and have received a Divorce Petition when your spouse has a Solicitor acting for them? Is there a claim that you pay the Divorce Costs in the Petition?

1. The first consideration is who has signed the Divorce Petition? If the Petition is signed in the name of a firm of Solicitors then read further. If the Petition is signed by your spouse then read my previous article.

2. The second consideration is what is the nature of the relationship between yourself and spouse. If it is civil then I would suggest that you speak to them to see if you can agree who pays for the Divorce Costs. Often it can be agreed that you share the costs of the Divorce.

3. If you are not able to speak with your spouse, I would suggest that you telephone or write to your spouse's Solicitor on a "Without Preduice" basis. As this article is written on the basis that you agree to the divorce it is the issue of costs that is in dispute, I would suggest that you say that you agree to the the Divorce Proceeding on the basis that the claim for costs will be either withdrawn or that the costs are divided equally between yourself and your spouse. You will need to ascertain the amount of costs so that you can agree to pay 50%.

4. What are the Divorce Costs? These are the costs that your spouse incurs to obtain a Decree Absolute of Divorce which include the costs of their Solicitor and the Court Fees. Where you spouse is privately paying, the Costs can vary dependant upon what their Solicitor charges. The total costs could amount to between 800 and 1000 pounds in total as the court costs alone are 450 pounds, so it is wise to deal with the claim for costs, before the Petition proceeds.

5. If an agreement as to costs is reached then you just put the brief details of the agreement in the costs section of the acknowledgement of service form.

6. What if no agreement can be reached. I will deal with this in another article soon. Good luck.