start of divorce

Hi guys - I am about to start divorce proceedings against my STBX on the grounds of UB.

Was just wondering what info I will need to gather to get the ball rolling. I have seen on here somewhere that I will need my marriage cert to go with the form (D8?)...

Also STBX wants to go to mediation and I know that it is something that everyone is required to attend initially but my solicitor has said that if he was me then he would be inclined to just tick the ''mediation will not work'' box due to our circumstances.

Would this be looked at unfavourably if I were to do this if it was to make it to court?

Hi Kazza

You will need your marriage certificate (not a photocopy), this will be sent in with your completed Petition.

For Unreasonable Behaviour, you will need to cite 5 or 6 examples of his unreasonable behaviour from the last 6 months or so of you having lived together as husband and wife.

I''m not familiar with your situation, but I would imagine that your sols would have very good reason for suggesting that you tick the box stating that mediation will not work.

Thanks RT, will have to dig it out.

In a nutshell, I think that it is basically due to the fact that there is relatively little by way of equity, our sole assets and sole liabilities are approximately the same.

We have 2 kids (12 and 11) - both live with me in our 3 bedroom bungalow (FMH). I have muscular dystrophy, my son also shows signs of the condition (documented in my genetics report) and when the FMH was built, it was built for with the previous owners'' father in mind who was a wheelchair user and so the hallway is extra wide as are the doorways etc... I can afford to keep the house on my own salary.

Solicitor has said that he would bet his reputation that I would end up with the house (with 100% equity - his view is that the equity is not significant enough for him to fight over as taking it to court would quickly eat any share that he may possibly get anyway), we would each keep our cars and our own liabilities.

Oh and as he is a builder by trade, he wants all of his work tools (probably worth a couple of grand) so that he can do hobbles.