Cross-Border Divorce

We were instructed by the Wife who married Husband in 2006. Husband was a seaman with the merchant navy stationed in Canada. The Wife was a dentist. They separated in March 2010.

They had no children. Both were from Pakistan originally. The Wife came to the UK in 1990. The Husband came for the marriage but had spent only six months in the UK since.

We advised the Wife that there was only one ground for divorce; that the marriage had broken down irretrievably. We discussed reconciliation; the Wife said that there was no prospect of this.

We considered whether the court has jurisdiction. Article 3 of the Council Regulations established that the Wife as the Petitioner had been habitually resident in England and Wales for the requisite period of time and had changed the UK to her domicile of choice.

We advised her that she had to prove by giving evidence in writing that the marriage had broken down by using one of five facts set out in Section 1 a-e Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. These are:

1. Adultery – there were no third parties involved.
2. Two years separation with consent – this was not the case and she did not want to wait.
3. Five years separation without consent - this was not the case.
4. Desertion – this was not the case.
5. Unreasonable behaviour – this was the most appropriate fact. The Wife gave examples of Husband’s behaviour that she found unreasonable. We explained that this was a subjective test.

We explained the procedure for a divorce:

1. Draft the divorce petition based on unreasonable behaviour. We discussed claiming that the Husband pay the costs. The Wife did not want to do this so the claim for costs was deleted.
2. We explained to her that the Family Law Protocol sets out that the husband should be given notice of the action that we were about to take and that we should try to agree the particulars of unreasonable behaviour with him to keep matters amicable. The Petition was sent to him giving him seven days to contact us. This we did. He did not respond.
3. The papers were sent to the court. The notice of issue was then granted. We explained to the Wife the rules of Service,  explaining that if he does not respond we would have to instruct a process server in Canada to serve him personally.
4. The Husband returned the acknowledgement of service confirming he would not defend it.
5. The application for directions for trial completed. We explained that this was asking the court to place the papers before the Judge. We completed the affidavit in support of the petition. We explained that this was the document she would swear on oath that the contents of the petition were true and that she wished to proceed with the divorce.
6. The Court then issued the certificate of entitlement to a decree and subsequently the Decree Nisi
7. We applied for the decree nisi to be made absolute once six weeks and one day had expired from the date of the decree nisi.

The parties were divorced within four months.