Uncontested divorces
An uncontested divorce is one in which you and your spouse work together to agree on the terms of your divorce. You either agree prior to the divorce on how to divide your assets or there are no assets and, if there are children involved, which parent will become the parent of primary residence and which will be the parent exercising contact rights in terms of the Children’s Act.
We will draft a settlement agreement wherein we deal with maintenance, medical aid, joint parental rights and responsibilities, division of the joint estate or calculation of accrual.
Our fees for an uncontested divorce are R 5000.00
Click here and complete the divorce questionnaire. We will then confirm the fee, attend to the FICA requirements and after you have made initial deposit of 50% of the fee, we will provide you with the draft papers for consideration. We will then appear with you on the day of the divorce in court.
Contested Divorce
A divorce is contested when the parties are not able to agree on the division of their assets, and, when minor children are involved, who will be awarded primary care and residence and what amount of maintenance, if any, will be paid to the spouse and/or the children. It is then usually left to the court to decide how to deal with the issues in dispute.
A contested divorce may take anywhere between three months and three years, or more, to conclude.
In contested divorce cases we work on an hourly rate which we agree on with our client’s in advance. In most of our cases we can obtain a contribution cost order against the other spouse in the initial Rule 43 application.
The Process
Where to start
A divorce action is instituted by the issuing of a summons. A divorce summons is unique in that it must be served by the sheriff personally on the defendant.
A court has jurisdiction in a divorce action if one or both parties are:
• domiciled in the area of jurisdiction of the court on the date on which the action is instituted; or
• ordinarily resident in the area of jurisdiction of the court on the said date and has/have been ordinarily resident in South Africa for a period of not less than one year immediately prior to that date.
Procedure for Opposed divorces
If you have served a summons on your spouse and they contest any portion of such divorce based on either maintenance, primary residence of the minor children or division of assets, it would be considered a contested or opposed divorce.
The opposed divorce process consists of various stages:
• pleadings (Summons, Plea and Counter Claim)
• application for and set down of trial date
• discovery of documents
• further discovery and particulars
• pre-trial conference
• trial
• judgement
In opposed divorce proceedings, the attorneys may engage the services of various experts, who will be questioned in an open court under oath. Expert witnesses often come at huge cost and can include:
• forensic accountants, to examine the couple’s assets;
• industrial psychologists, to determine a spouse’s employability for maintenance purposes;
• actuaries, to determine the quantum and duration of maintenance contributions or child support;
• private investigators, to gather information and dig up damaging evidence; and
• child-care experts, to assess who the children should live with.
