A couple who retired to Bosham in their early sixties, sold the family house in Surrey to do it and now, ten years on, want to separate: that is a Chichester divorce in its most characteristic form. Later-life divorce is increasingly common, and in a district with one of the oldest populations in the south it is daily work for divorce solicitors in Chichester. The questions are different from a young family's. There are no children to house, but there are two pensions in payment, a harbourside home that cannot be split, and savings that must fund two lives instead of one.
Pension sharing dominates. Final-salary pensions from the county council, the NHS, the armed forces at Thorney Island and former London employers need a cash equivalent and often an actuary before they can be fairly divided, and sharing a pension already in payment needs care. Second homes, boats at Itchenor or Chichester Marina and interests in family farms or nurseries on the coastal plain add valuation arguments.
Younger Chichester divorces look more conventional: a house on one of the new estates, two salaries, children at school in the city, and a parent who wants to move back to Portsmouth or London. Divorce itself is no-fault and online, with a twenty-week wait before the conditional order. Where the money is agreed, a consent order records it without a hearing; where it is not, the court will expect a mediation information and assessment meeting first, and the family court that serves the area decides.
A first meeting is often free; thereafter expect a fixed fee for the divorce and hourly or staged fees for the money. Legal aid applies only where there is domestic abuse.
Chichester's divorce solicitors are listed below, verified firms first. The articles on how much a divorce costs and the divorce process explain the steps and the fees, the general divorce solicitors guide covers the basics, and family law solicitors in Chichester handle children and cohabitation.
