It’s a question asked by most people contemplating or going through divorce: how long will it take? New figures published by the Ministry of Justice provide an answer.
As we have explained before, a divorce takes place in two stages: from the issue of the divorce petition up to decree nisi and from decree nisi to decree absolute, when the divorce is finalised. At least six weeks must elapse between decree nisi and decree absolute, although in practice it often takes considerably longer, as parties usually wait until all financial matters have been resolved before applying for the decree absolute.
The new figures come in the latest Family Court Statistics Quarterly, for the period April to June 2017. The statistics show that during that period the average time from the date of the petition to the date of the decree nisi was 23.3 weeks, while the average time from the petition to the decree absolute was 48.2 weeks.
On a longer timescale, from January 2011 to June 2017, 34% of petitions issued reached decree nisi in the first quarter after the petition was issued and 37% reached that stage in the second quarter. Over half the petitions reached decree absolute within three quarters after the petition was issued.
These figures give an indication of how long your divorce may take. Of course, how long it will actually take will depend upon how quickly the parties and the court deal with it and, if relevant, how long it takes to sort out financial matters.
You can find the full family court statistics quarterly here.
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Image: time, by new 1lluminati, licensed under CC BY 2.0.