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Should it be necessary, you can change the grounds on which you have applied for a divorce by filing what is known as an amended petition.

In order to do this, you will need a copy of your original petition. Furthermore, if the courts have not requested that an amended petition be filed, then you will also need to request their permission to submit one.

Once you have obtained a copy of this document and, if required, the court’s permission, you will need to edit it by hand and with a red pen.

The first thing that you will need to do is write ‘AMENDED PETITION’ on the front of the document then underline it. You should then underline the sections that you wish to edit (these will be the sections referred to as ‘The fact(s)’ and ‘Statement of case’ if you are changing the grounds for divorce) and correct them. All of these amendments will need to be made by hand and with a red pen only.

Once this has been done, you should resubmit your petition to the relevant county court along with the amendment fee of £95.

Whilst the steps outlined above can be utilised in order to amend a petition for any reason, it is advisable that you ensure that this document is as accurate as possible at the time of submission so as to lessen the likelihood of you needing to amend it as this will not only cost you more money, but can complicate matters too.

More often than not, people need to amend this document because their spouse does not agree with the information that they have provided to support their application such as the date of separation, examples of unreasonable behaviour or details of adultery – hence the title of this post.

If you and your spouse are on speaking terms, then this can be avoided if the two of you can agree what information will be written into your petition beforehand. If you do, then it is far less likely that the Respondent will take umbrage with its contents, meaning that you should not need to change the grounds for your divorce and, therefore, your petition.

Unfortunately, this is not the only reason why it may be necessary to amend a petition as many other mistakes are common when people complete their own paperwork. If you’d like the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your documents are all accurate and in order, then why not contact Quickie Divorce and see how we can help you today.