Requirements and process

This page explains what the court must be satisfied about before it grants a divorce, and the steps along the way. Article numbers refer to the Civil Code.

The conditions the court looks at

Divorce is granted on a joint demand by both spouses, or by one spouse against the other. The court must be satisfied about all of the following (article 66B).

1. You have lived apart for long enough, or you are already legally separated. The law gives two ways to meet this condition:

• By how long you have lived apart. If you apply together, you must have lived apart for at least six months out of the year before the proceedings began. If one of you applies against the other, you must have lived apart for at least one year out of the two years before the proceedings began. Either way, the time does not have to be unbroken: periods of living apart can be added together.
• By being already separated. If you were separated by a contract or a court judgment on the day the proceedings began, that is enough.

2. There is no reasonable prospect of reconciliation.

3. You, your spouse and all your children are receiving adequate maintenance, where maintenance is due, taking account of your circumstances (see article 57). Spouses can give up their own right to maintenance. Maintenance fixed in a separation judgment or contract counts as adequate.

None of this depends on blame. The spouse who applies does not have to say that the other was at fault (article 66D). Whether a particular living arrangement counts as “living apart” depends on the facts, so it is worth talking through before you apply.

Asking the court’s permission, and mediation

Where you are not already separated by a contract or a judgment, the divorce does not start with a trial. It starts with an application to the Family Court for authorisation to proceed, and then mediation (article 66I, and the Family Court Proceedings Regulations, 2026, regulations 17 to 19).

• The application. The spouse who wants to proceed files an application with the court. With it, they file a sworn note listing their assets and liabilities (including the community of acquests, the matrimonial home and any debts), an income statement for the previous three years (for an employee, the FS3), and their proposals for dividing property and for the care, custody, residence, access and maintenance of the children, including health, education and activity costs.
• The reply. The other spouse is told about the mediation sessions, and must reply to the proposals within 20 days, with their own proposals and the same documents.
• The mediator. The court summons you both before a mediator. The mediator is chosen from the official list.
• The sessions. The mediator generally schedules at least six sessions within eight months. The period can be extended by up to four more months, by agreement or by the court for a good reason, and mediation that is unsuccessful may be ended earlier.
• What happens in mediation. The mediator first tries to see whether the spouses can reconcile. If not, the mediator helps you try to agree the terms: the care and custody of your children, access, maintenance, who lives in the matrimonial home and how the community of acquests is divided.
• What is said stays private. What is said in mediation, including proposals and reactions to them, cannot be used as evidence. Evidence of assets obtained from banks and other institutions can be used afterwards.
• If you agree on some points, the court can issue a decree on them. If you disagree on others, such as maintenance or the children’s care, either of you can ask the court to decide them in the meantime.
• When mediation ends. If it succeeds in reconciling you, the case is closed. If it does not, or the time limit runs out, the mediator tells the court and the court grants the authorisation to proceed.

What is said in mediation cannot be used as evidence in the divorce proceedings (article 66K).

Your children

Where the court thinks it necessary, it can appoint a children’s advocate to represent the interests of your children, and it can hear the children themselves if it considers this to be in their best interest (article 66I). The court can also order the parents to give information about the payment of children’s maintenance.

The court’s decision

Once the court is satisfied that the conditions in article 66B are met, it hears and decides the other demands made in the case and pronounces the divorce (article 66C). The decree or judgment is pronounced in open court. The court also orders the Registrar of Courts to tell the Public Registry, so that the divorce is recorded (article 66A).

Other matters decided in the same case

If you are not already separated, the spouse who applies can ask, in the same application, for anything that could be asked for in a separation case, such as arrangements for the children and maintenance. The other spouse can raise the defences that would be available in a separation case. While the case is going on, the court has the same power to make temporary orders as in a separation case (article 66D).

If you have already started a separation case

Either spouse can ask, at any point before the separation case is adjourned for judgment, for it to be treated as a divorce case instead. The court then checks that the conditions for divorce are met. The evidence already given stays in the case (article 66F).

How long does it take?

The law now sets time limits for the main stages, but they are limits, not predictions, and they can be extended for good reason.

• Mediation: generally at least six sessions within eight months, extendable by up to four months, although mediation that is unsuccessful may be ended earlier.
• After mediation: once the court has given its authorisation, a spouse has two months to start the divorce case, unless the court allows longer for a serious reason.
• Evidence: the court allows up to six months for the applicant to file evidence, then up to six months for the other spouse, again extendable for serious reasons.

How long your case takes in total depends on whether the divorce is agreed, how much you disagree about, and the court’s calendar. We will give you a realistic picture at your first conversation, without promising a result or a date. The next page, contested and consensual divorce, explains how an agreement can change the picture.

What it helps to bring to a first meeting

• your marriage certificate, or the details of where and when you married;
• identity documents for you and, if you have them, for your spouse;
• the names and birth dates of your children;
• an outline of your income, savings, debts and property;
• any separation judgment or contract, and any court orders already made.