Changes to Divorce Petitions

On 17^th July 2017, it was announced that the court rules that govern the conduct of family proceedings will be changing.  The main impact is how divorce and financial matters will be dealt with.

The main change is the Divorce Petition.  The format of a Divorce Petition will change completely.

When do we start to use the new Divorce Petition?  We start to use it from 7^th August 2017 and there is a transitional period such that the new Petition has to be used  from 4^th September 2017.  The courts have been told to reject any “old style petitions” after that date.  Therefore, anything that the Court is processing after 4^th September 2017, even if it was dated before 4^th September 2017 will be rejected by the courts.

We, at Thomson & Bancks will be using the new Petitions as soon as we can so as to ensure there are no delays for our clients.