Fact sheet: Divorce and Financial remedy online
Updated 17 April 2024
Applies to England and Wales
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The Divorce and Financial remedy online service allows members of the public and legal professionals to make an application to legally end a marriage or civil partnership and resolve the associated financial issues.
The service supports the government’s approach to family justice, avoiding conflict wherever possible and reducing its damaging effect on children.
To develop the service, we worked with organisations including:
- Resolution
- The Law Society
- Chartered Institute of Legal Executives
The service allows people to apply jointly for divorce and provides step-by-step guidance on the application process. It also links to support services so that personal applicants can find the help they need as their application progresses.
1. Headline figures
Between October and December 2023, the online divorce service received 23,517 applications made under the new law.
2. Main outcomes
The divorce service aims to make the process of applying for a divorce as straight forward and intuitive as possible for personal applicants and legal professionals.
We’ve achieved several main outcomes so far, including:
- creating a ‘lead applicant’ for joint applications
- built in guidance prompting applicants for missing information
- step-by-step guidance to help applicants at every stage of the application process
- automatic notifications updating on the progress of applications
3. How the service gives divorcing couples control over the process
Before the online divorce service was updated people could not apply for a joint divorce. This meant that separating couples did not have a way to organise their affairs in a non-confrontational way.
The online divorce service allows couples to apply for joint divorce and includes a lead applicant for the process. The service gives divorcing couples control over the process and builds in time for reflection and future planning.
People can now make applications for financial remedy using paper forms or our online service. Legal professionals must use MyHMCTS to make consented and contested applications for financial remedy. The process of applying for divorce and financial remedy is now fully online which means people can make, submit and pay for their applications from any location and at a time that’s convenient.
4. Feedback
Karen Dovaston, Interim Chair of the Law Society Family Law Committee, said:
I liked the old online divorce service which has been improved and added to as it has grown. But the new service feels like the now ‘fully formed child’ of the old version, and I’m sure there will be further tinkering to make it even better.
The best practice, in my view, is always a reflective one which looks to improve all the time. While there was the occasional teething problem, which is always understandable with a new system of this scale, we have valued HMCTS’ openness and honesty with us in developing this solution.
To remain as a paper-based process by default is no longer a viable option for any modern-day public service, and the new system goes to show the strides that have been taken over recent years.
5. Further information
Personal applicants can apply online for a divorce.
Legal representatives acting for clients can find guidance on how to use the online divorce service.
Find out more about how we developed the online divorce service on our blog.
Find statistics on the divorce and financial remedy service.
6. Contact us
Email the team if you have a query about the online divorce service.
The project team cannot answer queries about divorce applications.
The data included on this page is drawn from either management information or Ministry of Justice (MOJ) official statistics. Management information reflects the data held on our case management system, and is subject to change. Official statistics are fully quality-assured and form the agreed definitive position.