He''s contesting grounds - what happens next?

Hi this is my first time posting and I was wondering if anyone could help. I thought I was nearly coming to an end with sorting out my divorce. I am divorcing my husband for unreasonable behaviour, sadly based on incidents of his domestic violence. I have police incident numbers,he has a caution on record where he admitted assault, a witness in the form of my teenage daughter (unfortunately.)

He was sent the Petition some time ago. My solicitor has just phoned me and gave me the following information so quickly and abruptly that I am left feeling very confused. I tried to phone back to get some clarification but the office is now closed, so I am left here overnight in limbo. This is what I have been told: My stbx is not contesting the divorce but is contesting the grounds. He has sent a 3 page letter to the court which my solicitor claims is ''just garbage'' denying my allegations of domestic abuse and blaming me entirely for the divorce. My solicitor said, I shouldn''t worry about it, I just need to come in and sign something, I can''t even recall what it is.

But I''ve got all these questions now.... how likely is it that the court will now want a hearing to get proof of the grounds? (Which I can certainly supply, but isn''t this all going to get rather costly?) I just basically wanted to know what I should expect to happen next.

Many thanks for any help or advice you can give.

Hi Francesca & welcome to wiki

Its quite common on grounds of UB that the other party do not agree with the statements of fact, what they can say is that they agree the marriage is over, but they do not agree with the statements.

It shouldn''t affect your divorce proceeding, but you may want to check with your sol if you have requested the respondent to pay costs - if so, if this is still going ahead.

Please take a look at this website - it offers some support for victims of Domestic abuse.
refuge.org.uk/get-help-now/help-for-women/recognising-abuse/

Keep safe

WR x

Thank you, White Rose. It''s a relief to hear that you don''t think it will affect the proceedings, that was my main worry. My solicitor did apply for him to pay the court costs. In principle I believe he should, however, I''m not going to be too stubborn over that point if it means causing further unnecessary delay or costs. I just want this to be over.

Thank you for the website link.

Francesca x