Resolving Disputes in Non-Confrontational Ways

Anyone who has ever experienced divorce will tell you just how emotionally and financially challenging a time it can be, especially if things are not dealt with properly. These days, life moves quickly and when you’ve decided it’s over, you’ll want to move on quickly too.

If you and your marital partner are about to divorce, you will want to make sure your own interests are not compromised but that you can still get through the process in as little time as possible.

You need to try and put your emotions to the side and take a pragmatic approach. While this is likely to be an emotionally challenging time, it is important to try to be as pragmatic as possible if your goal is to make your divorce go ahead quickly.

There are three important things you need to keep in mind that will ensure your divorce can go through as painlessly, smoothly and quickly as possible.

Resolving Disputes in Non-Confrontational Ways

When children and finances are involved in a divorce, the best way to approach it, especially if you are looking for a quick solution, is to avoid going through the courts as best you can. As well as making the process quicker, it will also make it less stressful and less expensive.  Aside from that, getting child custody can be extremely difficult and complex.

If you make use of options like collaborative law or mediation, to agree on settlement terms with your former partner, you won’t need to get the courts involved and won’t need to wait for hearing dates..

Having the Right Grounds for Divorce

The UK legal system does not consider any divorce where there is no fault or no one to blame for the ending of the marital relationship. Therefore, you are not able to obtain a legal divorce if it is simply the case that you and your partner don’t want to continue in a marriage together.

You need to have justification that a judge would deem appropriate for the divorce to go through. This justification comes in the form of your grounds for divorce that need to be cited in your divorce petition.

The grounds of divorce you decide to cite can have a bearing on how long or short the whole process will take.

The acceptable grounds for divorce are as follows:

• Separation that lasts for a minimum of 2 years
• Separation that lasts for a minimum of 5 years
• Desertion
• Unreasonable behaviour
• Adultery

When aiming to have as quick a divorce as possible, using unreasonable behaviour or adultery (when it applies) are likely to give you the best results.

Obviously, this can cause friction but as long as you’re both on the same page and understand you’re doing it to get the divorce done quickly, you can both stay mature about the process.

All the other grounds listed will mean you need to wait at least 2 years for the divorce to be fully completed.

Another way to speed things up is the ability these days to have an online divorce. This is something you should absolutely take advantage of but if you’re not sure how, Amicable have a great guide on how to file for divorce in the UK which includes divorcing online.

Having Discussions With Your Partner and Making the Decision Not to Challenge

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons divorces are delayed is when a spouse challenges or contests the divorce. There are a number of reasons why this can happen. Including the fact that they don’t want to get divorced or disagree with the grounds, you have cited.

If you are getting divorced and one of you feel the grounds are unfair, it could be that they look to contest the divorce because they don’t want to admit any blame that they feel is underserved.

The best way to go through with a divorce, therefore, is for you both to discuss your divorce petition and ensure there is an agreement over the grounds that will be cited.

This will help the divorce move along quicker. Remember to discuss the grounds with your lawyer too before he/she issues the petition to make sure you have the best chances of a quick divorce.

By following all of these steps to the letter, you and your partner should be free and single again in the fastest time possible!