When will the centres be in operation?Some divorce centres are already fully or partly live. The transfer of divorce work is being
phased in to the centres, and the current plan is that each of the divorce centres will be fully
operational as follows:
- North East: November 2014
- North West: February 2015
- Wales: January 2015
- Midlands: February to April 2015
- South West: February to April 2015
- London and South East: April to October 2015
What do these changes mean for court users?The key change is that all divorce petitions and financial remedy applications should be sent
by post to one of the centres rather than your local court, with the exception of urgent
applications that require immediate issue.
It is possible to attend in person at one of the centres to issue a petition with or without a
financial remedy application where there is a counter service in operation, but this will not
gain any advantage in terms of the way the application is handled subsequently.
Counter and drop box facilities for each HM Courts & Tribunals Service region are as
follows.
- North East: There is a counter service at Bradford, Harrogate and Durham. At
Doncaster a counter service will be in operation for urgent pre-booked appointments
only.
- North West: The Liverpool divorce centre does not have counter service, but a drop box
facility is available.
- Wales: Neath, Newport and Wrexham all have counter services in operation.
- Midlands: A counter service will be in operation at the Divorce Centres in Nottingham
and Stoke for urgent applications only.
- South West: No counter service is available at Southampton. Applications can be
posted in the post box outside the building, which is emptied twice a day.
- London and South East: A counter service is available at Bury St Edmunds.
Is the application process changing?The application process will remain unchanged but all uncontested petitions will be prepared
and made ready for initial decree nisi consideration by a legal adviser based at the centre.
The legal advisers will be supervised by district judges on site, who will handle any
contested applications, annulments and judicial separation applications. Legal advisers will
not handle any financial remedy cases.
What if I need a hearing?The centres are points of entry for divorce applications. However, if a hearing is required this
will be listed at a local hearing centre and court users will have the opportunity to indicate
where the hearing should take place, for example, at the same court as any Children Act
application, more locally to where the parties reside, or at a more central location when the
parties live in completely different areas.
The Family Procedure Rules Committee will be considering changes to the D8 petition form
and Form A financial remedy form so that a preferred hearing venue can be requested, if
one is required (please see the list of hearing venues at Annex A). If there is any dispute
over the venue for hearings, this will be dealt with in the usual way by a district judge at the
divorce centre.
How do civil partnership dissolutions fit into this?In time, civil partnership dissolution applications will also be required to be sent to the same
centres, but the timetable for this is not yet confirmed. However, civil partnership work at
Newcastle has already transferred to Durham, and in the Midlands applications will be dealt
with at both Nottingham and Stoke as soon as implementation is complete.
What are the catchment areas for each Divorce Centre?The Family Court is a single jurisdiction without the previous geographical boundaries of
county courts, so ‘catchment areas’ are no longer a legal entity, but do help HM Courts &
Tribunals Service to manage the distribution of business (although in Children Act cases the
child's place of residence does determine the designated family judge area in which the
case should be heard). The Family Court catchment areas are based on local authority
boundaries with each designated family judge area and region being made up of a collection
of local authorities.
Court and Tribunal Finder will be the source of information on catchment areas and all
points of entry for all family cases. It is currently being updated so that any search made
under divorce application will indicate the correct point of entry. Court and Tribunal Finder
searches by postcode rather than the local authority they reside in as research has indicated
that more people know their postcode than the relevant local authority.
https://courttribunalfinder.service.gov.uk/search/Can I continue to issue divorce applications at my nearest centre?There are no legal changes that prevent you from issuing to a particular centre; however we
would encourage bulk users to continue to send any batches of multiple applications to the
nearest centre in their region, to avoid any delays.
How will Financial Remedy applications be dealt with?Financial remedy applications, particularly those where parties are seeking a consent order,
will mostly be handled by district judges located at the divorce centres.
Where the application is contested or requires a hearing it will be listed, where possible, at
the applicant’s preferred hearing venue.
Where a financial application has been referred to a local hearing centre the divorce petition
will also be transferred to the local court hearing centre. However there may be occasions
where it is suitable for the petition to continue to be processed at the divorce centre
depending on the stage of the divorce proceedings.
In the Midlands, financial remedy work will not transfer to the divorce centres until later in the
year when further information will be provided to court users.
Complex financial remedy applications that are appropriately dealt with in a specialist
financial unit may be issued within the Financial Remedy Unit at Central Family Court upon
completion of the relevant certificate.
Are there circumstances where a legal adviser could consider a consent
order?No. Legal advisers do not have the power to handle financial remedy applications.
What happens if a party wishes to attend the pronouncement of the Decree
Nisi or the respondent wishes to be heard on the question of costs?The Family Procedure Rules Committee are considering an increase to the notice period for
costs orders in undefended proceedings from two to fourteen days and to include the court
and all parties in the service of the notice. This will enable arrangements to be made for the
transfer of cases to local court centres for the purpose of any hearing about costs.
Subject to the rule changes outlined above being agreed, if a party wishes to attend the
pronouncement of the Decree Nisi they will need to notify the court setting out the reason for
their attendance.
How will urgent applications be dealt with?There are no legal or other changes (no changes have been made or are currently proposed
to primary or secondary legislation) which affect the ability to issue urgent petitions, for
example where there is a jurisdiction race.
All family court venues that have district judges on site, including the Central Family Court,
will continue to accept urgent petitions and applications, and will retain the facility to issue.
The Family Procedure Rules Committee will consider whether the D8 form should be
amended so that matters of urgency can be articulated.
What is the procedure for filing a Children Act application where there are
already on-going divorce proceedings?Children Act applications should be sent to the point of entry for the designated family judge
area in which the child resides as this is defined in law. The point of entry will usually be the
Designated Family Centre for the designated family judge area. If either the divorce or the
financial remedy application requires a hearing then arrangements can be made for this to
take place at the same venue as the Children Act case if necessary. When a hearing is not
required they will be administered separately.
Has the process for undertaking a Divorce Search changed?HM Courts & Tribunals Service are looking at simplifying the search facility for divorce
generally, though this work is at an early stage. In the meantime there is no change to the
current search service.
What is the process for dealing with applications to vary or discharge?For vary and discharge, applications should go to the divorce centre - they will be redirected
to local venues if necessary.
How are these changes being communicated to court users?Because the implementation dates of the divorce centres is being staggered, each HM
Courts & Tribunals Service region has taken responsibility for ensuring communications
have been provided to local users. Communications are being delivered via a number of
different channels, including posters displayed in local courthouses and letters sent out to
regular court users.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service has also worked closely with Resolution. A bulletin outlining
the changes has been issued to its members and all concerns and questions raised by its
members have been fed back to HM Courts & Tribunals Service for clarification.
We hope that this Q&A document has been helpful in clarifying a number of points, and we
will continue to update this document during the course of implementation.
If you have any questions you can contact Paul Stewart (
paul.stewart@justice.gsi.gov.uk) or
Emma Petty (
emma.petty@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk) at HM Courts & Tribunals Service.
Alternatively, if you prefer to raise issues anonymously, you can contact Rachel Rogers at
Resolution (
divorcecentres@resolution.org.uk) who will be happy to pass your query on.
A list of List of Divorce and Financial Remedy Hearing centres is available to download here.
