How long does a divorce take?

The legal minimum in England and Wales is 26 weeks - about six months. The realistic answer is 42 weeks, which is the median for divorces completed in 2025 and the longest since records began. The average is longer still, around 68 weeks, dragged up by the complicated ones.

So: half a year if everything is straightforward and nobody dawdles. Closer to ten months in practice. Longer if there's a house, a pension or a person being difficult - and it's almost always the money rather than the divorce that's holding things up.

Here's where the time actually goes:

The five stages, and what each one costs you in weeks

Add up the statutory floors - 20 weeks plus six weeks and a day - and you get 26 weeks and a day. Nobody can shorten that. Not your solicitor, not a judge, not the two of you agreeing between yourselves that you'd rather crack on.

Need help? Our divorce support page lists numbers to call and organisations you can reach out to.

Why the real figure is nearly double the minimum

Three things, in descending order of how much time they eat.

• The finances. A divorce and a financial settlement are two different processes running on different clocks, and the second one is almost always slower. Disclosure, valuations, a pension actuary, negotiation, a consent order to be approved - that can run for a year on its own. Most people are not waiting on the divorce. They're waiting on the money.

• Court volume. The two waiting periods are fixed, but the steps between them are queued. The conditional order stage in particular moves at whatever pace the court is moving that month, and that has got slower rather than faster.

• Children. Arrangements for children don't hold up the divorce itself, but they hold up a great many people's ability to think about anything else, and they frequently delay the financial agreement that does hold it up.

Is there such a thing as a quickie divorce?

No. There hasn't been since April 2022, and there wasn't really one before that either.

The phrase comes from the old system, where a divorce citing adultery or unreasonable behaviour could move faster than one based on separation. That distinction is gone. Since the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 came into force, there is one route, one set of waiting periods, and no version of it that takes less than 26 weeks.

What you can do is avoid adding time to the floor: get the paperwork right first time, use the online service, have your spouse's correct address and email, and start the financial conversation before the 20 weeks are up rather than after.

If someone is selling you a quickie divorce, they are selling you the ordinary one.

How long does the final order take once you've applied?

Usually days to a couple of weeks. It's an administrative step - the waiting was the six weeks and a day beforehand, not the processing afterwards.

The exception is where the court queries something, or where your spouse has applied to delay it because the finances aren't resolved. Which brings us to the part nobody warns you about.

The delay you might want to choose yourself

There is a strong argument for not applying for the final order the moment you're allowed to.

Until the final order is made, you are still married - and still married means you still have the rights that come with it. Applying too early can cut across pension entitlements, inheritance rights and the tax treatment of transfers between you, all of which matter if the financial settlement isn't signed off yet.

The general shape of the advice is: sort the money, get the consent order approved, then apply for the final order. If your finances are unresolved and you're about to click the button because six weeks and a day have passed, that's the moment to get advice rather than momentum.

How long can a spouse drag it out?

This is the real question underneath most searches about timing, so here is the honest answer: not as long as you fear, but longer than they should be able to.

They cannot stop the divorce. Under the current law a respondent can't dispute a divorce simply because they don't want one. Disputing requires a proper legal basis - that the court doesn't have jurisdiction, or that the marriage was never valid - and "I'm not agreeing to this" is not one.

What they can do is refuse to engage with the paperwork, and that costs you time and money rather than the outcome. If your spouse ignores the acknowledgement of service, your options are:

• Personal service. A process server or court bailiff hands them the papers. You get a certificate of service and their response stops mattering.

• Deemed service. You ask the court to accept that they've received it and are ignoring it. You'll need to show you exhausted the other options first.

• Dispensing with service. For when you genuinely don't know where they are. The court will want evidence you've made real efforts to find them, including tracing.

• Alternative service. Serving by another route the court approves.

Each of these adds weeks and some add cost, but none of them hands your spouse a veto. The stalling that actually works is financial - dragging out disclosure, being slow with valuations, missing deadlines - and that's dealt with through the financial proceedings and, eventually, costs orders, rather than through the divorce itself.

The practical takeaway: a determined ex can add months. They cannot add years, and they cannot stop it.

What actually makes it faster

• Apply jointly if you can. Fewer service problems, fewer moments where one of you is waiting on the other.

• Get the marriage certificate ready before you start. Original or certified copy, plus evidence of any name change since.

• Use the online service. It validates as you go, so fewer applications come back for correction.

• Have the right address and email for your spouse. Service problems are the single most avoidable delay on this list.

• Start the financial disclosure early - during the 20 weeks, not after. That period is dead time otherwise, and it's the only free run at the slowest part of the process you'll get.

If you're in Scotland or Northern Ireland

Different legal systems with different timescales - the 20-week period and the conditional-and-final-order structure described here are England and Wales only. Scotland in particular has a distinct procedure and, for straightforward cases, can be quicker.

Last reviewed: September 2026. Figures from the Ministry of Justice's Family Court Statistics Quarterly. Court timescales change — this page describes the process in England and Wales.

Sources: Gov.UK divorce overview, Gov.UK apply for a divorce, Gov.UK what happens after you apply, MOJ Family Court Statistics Quarterly, Myerson Solicitors, IMD Solicitors