Tiral

Hopefully someone with a definitive answer can respond.

I assume your wife started the divorce petition naming your partner and you neither confirmed or denied but didn''t contest.

On that basis I assume summary means uncontested ( speeding things up as you aren''t defending). I am also assuming that your new partner ( that''s what the original post seems to imply ) has not been asked to be joined by your wife.

Normally there is no court hearing where parties have to be present for the Petition. Unless it states a date I don''t think there would be a hearing that you would need to attend.

Thanks there is no partner involved. the Petition was for unreasonable behaviour which i disagreed with, and initially intended to defend the divorce. upon further reading i found that may be futile and costly, so wrote to the court saying i neither confirmed or denied the allegations but accepted the marriage had broken down, and being pragmatic would not defend it. i recieved the letter in a few weeks with the wording i am trying to clarify. No financial arrangements or childcare has been arranged. i thought tiral was some specific legal term, and if she is going to trial then what i needed to do.

From what you''ve said I think its trial by summary procedure as you aren''t contesting so its a sort of quick track through procedure to get divorced.

Summary sort of means without going into too much detail. Things can be assessed in law summarily without too much argument.

As you have pointed out you have conceded to the Petition so there is no need for any hearing.

Where are you divorcing - England & Wales or Scotland?

England

Prior to the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (MCA73)divorces were in ''open court''. This meant that the parties had to attend court and a judge would deal with the divorce petitions. The use of the term ''pronouncement of the Decree Nisi'' (and the Decree Absolute) actually meant the judge saying the words.

With MCA73 came the special procedure which did away with open court for divorce which simplifed the process by introducing a ''divorce on paper''. As with all court issues though you have to apply for a step to be taken and you did this using the special procedure application along with the application for Directions for trial.

I believe this is where the current confusion arises.

The Petition has been issued, the Acknowledgement of Service has been completed and the petition has applied for the next stage which is the application in support of the petition which is the same as the special procedure/application for directions for trial.

The application will be processed and the judge will decide whether the Petitioner is entitled to a decree Nisi. If the petition is considered reasonable and there is no active defence to the Petition, a certificate of entitlement to decree followed shortly afterwards with the decree nisi.

43 days later the petitioner can apply for the decree Absolute to end the marriage.

Hopefully this will clarify the process somewhat.

Charles

Thanks that really clarifies. Does this mean that the Petitioner has to now make an application for Nisi, or is this automatically processed. The letter indicated that they need to do something else.