Civil Partnership Dissolution Solicitors in London

What is civil partnership dissolution?

A civil partnership gives a couple the same legal rights and responsibilities as marriage. That is why, if you want to end your civil partnership, you need to go through the same formalities as divorce proceedings. However, the legal process is called civil partnership dissolution rather than divorce.

If you do not formally end your civil partnership then you cannot enter another civil partnership or marry.

If you have decided to end your civil partnership or your partner wants to do so, you need expert legal advice from civil partnership solicitors before:

• You leave the family home (if you have not already done so)
• You reach a financial settlement with your civil partner
• You start civil partnership proceedings as the country where you start the proceedings and the timing of the dissolution proceedings can have an impact on your financial settlement

Grounds for dissolving a civil partnership

There is only one ground for dissolving a civil partnership – your relationship has broken down irretrievably.

The grounds for dissolution changed at the same time as the introduction of no-fault divorce in England and Wales.

Unreasonable behaviour and civil partnership dissolution

Your civil partnership solicitors no longer need to go into the reasons why your relationship has ended in the dissolution application. There is no requirement to prove unreasonable behaviour or for your civil partnership solicitors to say that you have been separated from your civil partner for two years before filing the dissolution application.

How to dissolve a civil partnership

To dissolve a civil partnership, you need to make an application to the family court. The dissolve civil partnership application can be a sole application or made jointly with your partner.

If the application is by a sole applicant, the court sends the application to the other partner (called the respondent) with a request to complete an acknowledgment of service form to confirm that they will not be disputing the dissolution of the civil partnership.

The respondent can only dispute the dissolution on limited grounds, such as court jurisdiction or the fact that the civil partnership was not legally valid. For example, if you had a civil partnership ceremony overseas in a country where civil partnership is not legal.

If the dissolution is agreed and the court is satisfied with the paperwork a conditional order is made. There is a minimum 20-week waiting period between the dissolution application being sent to the court and the conditional order being pronounced. Once the conditional order is made there is a further six-week wait before your civil partnership solicitor can apply for the final order ending the civil partnership.

Agreed civil partnership dissolution proceedings

Most dissolution proceedings are agreed as your civil partnership dissolution solicitors can only challenge an application for the dissolution of your civil partnership if there are jurisdiction issues. For example, if there are already ongoing court proceedings in another jurisdiction to end your civil partnership or you do not accept that the courts in England and Wales have the jurisdiction to end your civil partnership.

If you need guidance on agreed dissolution proceedings our civil partnership solicitors in London can assist you with:

• Information on civil partnership rights
• Advice on whether you should apply for the dissolution as a sole applicant or jointly with your partner
• Assistance with paperwork to file the dissolution application or to respond to an application made by your partner
• Guidance through the dissolution process including obtaining a final order to dissolve the partnership
• Assistance with reaching an agreement on parenting arrangements for children or representation in a child arrangement order application
• Legal advice on financial settlements and the drawing up of an agreed consent order after successful solicitor negotiations or family mediation. If an agreement cannot be reached, we can represent you in a financial settlement application

How long does a civil partnership dissolution take?

A dissolution application takes around six months from the date of the application until your partnership is dissolved. It takes about six months because the law requires set gaps of 20 weeks and six weeks delay during the proceedings to allow time for reflection. These cannot be shortened even if both you and your civil partner are adamant that your relationship has irretrievably broken down and you want a quickie dissolution.

Although it takes around six months to dissolve your civil partnership it is possible to agree on child custody and contact and a financial settlement sooner than that. A civil partnership solicitor should provide legal advice before you reach agreements over finances or parenting plans to ensure your short and long-term interests are protected. Any financial agreement needs to be converted into a binding financial consent order during the dissolution proceedings.

How much does it cost to end a civil partnership?

Our civil partnership solicitors provide fixed fee dissolution services if you are ending a civil partnership and the application is agreed by your partner.

If you need legal advice on financial settlements or child custody or contact when you are ending a civil partnership, our civil partnership solicitors in London can provide you with a quote based on your circumstances. For example, you may want us to convert an agreement into a financial consent order or require representation in financial proceedings with complex jurisdiction issues or assets held overseas.

Our specialist civil partnership dissolution solicitors in London can talk you through how we can help you and provide cost and timescale information tailored to your situation.

International families and civil partnership

Provided you meet the jurisdiction rules for starting dissolution proceedings in England, the dissolution application can be made, even if one or both of you are not British citizens or if the civil partnership ceremony took place overseas.

As the rules on civil partnership dissolution and UK court jurisdiction are complex, it is best to get civil partnership UK advice quickly from specialist civil partnership solicitors in London if there is likely to be more than one country in which dissolution proceedings can be started.

The decision about where to start the dissolution proceedings can have a massive impact on the financial settlement. That is why it is so vital to get the best international family law advice on your civil partnership rights and dissolution options.

Civil partnership and financial settlements

A civil partner has the same financial claims on dissolution of a civil partnership as a married person in divorce proceedings.

A civil partner will be able to claim maintenance as well as make financial claims over the family home, pensions, any business assets, savings and investments. Those claims are open-ended and can be made after the civil partnership has been dissolved. To stop future potential financial claims, you need a financial clean break order. This order can be made by agreement or after one of you has applied to the court for a financial settlement.

Get in touch with our civil partnership dissolution solicitors in London.

To discuss dissolving your civil partnership, we can talk with you at our offices, over the phone or online via Web Conferencing such as Zoom or Skype. To get the expert legal advice you need, contact our civil partnership solicitors for civil partnership advice.