A short guide to divorce paperwork for fathers:

The very process of applying for a divorce will result in a divorce; this is inevitable, so if your solicitor recommends a cross-petition, then please recognise this as useless posturing... the UK divorce courts operate on a "no guilt" principle, so you and your wife are equal even if she has slept with the Man Utd Fan Club while you've been putting in the overtime. Morality has been suspended - in the eyes of the law she is just as good a parent as you are, better in fact!

The divorce paperwork looks complicated but your solicitor should be able to lead you through it. If you are going to do it "DIY" then most forms can be found on the web and for example wikivorce.com has a structured collection.

If you do not know exactly what her assets are, then this will cost time and money as the solicitors will have to find out, including swapping "Supplementary Questionnaires" between each other. Solicitors love doing this as it increases their fees exponentially. Again, this is something to be avoided if at all possible. In fact you only have to reply twice and you can ignore any further questions if you reasonably feel that sufficient information has already been given.

Conversely you can only challenge twice with a right to a reply, so make sure you get your requests in correctly, for example your wife will have to submit Bank Statements covering the last 12 months but make sure your lawyer specifies from the start that your wife submits bank statements PLUS details of credit card expenditure AND that both account for expenditures of £500 and over. If you have to keep going back you may forfit your right to an explanation of what she has been spending on.

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