Divorce form - Application for Divorce form

Posted by jessicawilson on April 1st, 2021

If you wish to divorce your partner, you will have to fill out the divorce application form and submit it in court. However, to apply for divorce in Australia, you will need to meet the eligibility requirements mentioned under part IV of the family laws act 1975.

Before you start: The first step in the divorce application process.

Before you fill the form, make sure you are carrying all the necessary documents required to fill the form.

The second thing is to consider if you will be a sole applicant (applying independently without your partner, in which case you become the applicant and your partner the respondent) or a joint applicant (applying with your partner through mutual understanding).

The status of your application will affect your divorce proceedings.

The application for the divorce form

The first step in filing a divorce in Australia is to fill the divorce application form. You find this form online at the commonwealth courts portal or download it from the Federal circuit court website and manually type and fill in the details.

The next step: getting the divorce application form affirmed

Once you complete the divorce application form, the form needs to be affirmed by the best divorce lawyer in Adelaide or a justice of the peace. There is another option to get the form established in the presence of another authorized person.

Who is eligible to affirm the form as 'other authorized person'?

Eligibility criteria are different for every state. You will have to check out the eligibility criteria in your state to understand who is legally qualified to affirm the divorce application form as the other authorized person. In case you are overseas, your signature can be witnessed by the notary public, an Australian diplomat officer, Australian Consular Officer, or an employee of the Australian Trade Commission.

The 3rd step in the process: Filling the application with supporting documents

After you filled out the application form with all the requirements, you have to post or hand deliver the original signed document to a Family Law Registry, along with two photocopies of each document. You can check the documents you will require submitting on the commonwealth court portal.

The 4th step: receiving the court hearing dates

After you have filled the application and submitted it to the Family Law Registry, you will receive the file number and time, and date for the court's hearing. If you have applied as a joint applicant court will provide you and your partner with a sealed copy of the document – in case of a sole application, you will receive both the sealed copies that you will have to serve your partner.

You will have to serve the copy 28 days before the hearing if the spouse lives in Australia and 42 days before the hearing if they live overseas.

Conclusion:

The divorce process is tedious. There are still many questions like do I have to be present in the court? How much will the procedure cost? Am I eligible for a reduction in the fee? And many more questions require consideration, and it can get overwhelming. If you need help to understand the process better, consider taking legal advice from the best divorce lawyer in Adelaide and getting your doubts sorted.