Ending a civil partnership

Dissolution is the legal process of ending a civil partnership, whilst divorce is the legal process of ending a marriage. The procedure for getting a divorce and dissolution are the same, except that the jurisdictional criteria are slightly different.

Jurisdiction relates to your entitlement to issue your divorce or dissolution in a particular country. The jurisdictional criteria for both processes are the same, except that dissolution has one less criterion than divorce. Jurisdiction can be a complex topic so you should seek legal advice if you are concerned that you may not have jurisdiction to issue your application

Yes. Civil partners can obtain a Judicial Separation Order just as a married couple can. This would allow you and your partner to be legally separated, but the court can make orders in respect of finances and children as if your civil partnership were dissolved. For further information about judicial separation and other alternatives to dissolution, see our alternatives to divorce page.

The option of a joint application was created to encourage a more amicable process. In a joint application, you will have Applicant 1 and Applicant 2 but otherwise, the process is almost identical to the sole application route. For example, Applicant 2 will still have to complete an acknowledgement, like a respondent to a sole application would.

In practice, we have found that joint applications can sometimes require more work than sole applications as everything needs to be agreed and sometimes an applicant will want to switch from a joint application to sole application half way through the process, which can delay matters further.