Divorce court fee hike

Unbeknownst to family law practitioners until the very last minute, the Court fee for issuing a Divorce Petition will increase from £410 to £550 with effect from Monday 21 March 2016.

The increase is significant and likely to hit clients of average means hard. The mentality seems to be that if people have a strong enough wish to be divorced then they will come up with the cash. How is it fair that clients going through a probably unavoidable and certainly devastating marital breakdown are in effect taxed by such an increase?

Anyway, that is the decision and so from next week our Fixed Fee Petitioner divorce will cost £788.80 (comprising our fees of £199.00, VAT of £39.80 and the Court fee of £550.00).