How to Get a Copy of Your Decree Nisi or Conditional Order

How to Get a Copy of Decree Nisi or Conditional Order

Part of: Divorce Specialists

You get a copy of a decree nisi from the court that dealt with the divorce. Since 6 April 2022 the same document has carried a new name, the conditional order. Before you pay for one, check what the person asking actually wants. A decree nisi only records that the court sees no reason why you cannot divorce, so you stay married until the last step (GOV.UK: apply for a conditional order or decree nisi). If somebody needs proof that a marriage has ended, this is not the paper that proves it. Our divorce specialists assist and advise when a deadline sits behind the request.

This guide covers England and Wales, and the route is the same on both sides of the border: one Act of Parliament, one fees order and one family court system cover both countries, so a divorce dealt with in Cardiff follows the same steps as one dealt with in Carlisle. It explains who holds the document, what the court charges, and why the request so often names the wrong one. Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own systems and their own routes to a copy.

Which document has someone actually asked you for?

Almost nobody hunts for this paper because they want it. Somebody else has asked: a lender, a pension administrator, a register office, an employer abroad. Three documents come out of one divorce. The request usually names the wrong one, because the person asking has heard the old words rather than read the file. Some older letters call it the divorce decree nisi, which muddles it further.

Work out which of the three they want before you spend anything. A copy of a decree nisi will not satisfy a register office, however neatly it is printed. Our guide to what a decree absolute is sets out the last step and the separate copy service that covers it. The no-fault divorce guide explains why the names changed in 2022.

Who holds your decree nisi, and which court do you ask?

One file, one holder. Your copy of a decree nisi comes from whoever keeps that file, so start with how the divorce ran rather than with a search for a national service.

• Count the digits in your case number. GOV.UK splits the question on that one detail: a 16-digit case number points to the Divorce Service Centre, and anything shorter points to the court that handled your divorce (GOV.UK: check which court you should apply to).
• You divorced through the online service. Sign back in to the account you used and look for the order among your case documents. Our guide to checking a divorce application status covers getting back into an account you have not touched for years.
• Yours is an older paper case. Then it stayed with the court that dealt with the divorce, and that court still holds it. Use the GOV.UK court finder if you cannot remember which one it was.
• A firm dealt with the divorce for you. The court sends orders to whoever acted in the case, so ask them first. That is usually quicker and cheaper than asking a court.

An annulment works the same way, because nullity cases sit on the same court files and follow the same two-stage shape. Our marriage annulment guide covers where that differs.

How do you request a copy of decree nisi paperwork?

There is no online form for this one. GOV.UK publishes a copy service for the order that ends a marriage, and nothing equivalent for the middle stage. So you fall back on the general right of a party to take a copy from their own file (FPR 2010, r.29.12(3)). In practice that means a written request to the court holding the case.

1. Find the case number. It appears on every letter the court sent. Sixteen digits points to the Divorce Service Centre; anything shorter points to the court that dealt with the case.
2. Name the document, not the stage. Ask for the conditional order, or for the decree nisi if your divorce began before 6 April 2022. Give the date the court made it, if you have it.
3. Say who you are on the file. Rule 29.12 lets a party take a copy. Give your full name as it appears on the application, and your address.
4. Expect to pay the copy fee. £14 covers ten pages or less, so a short order normally falls inside it.
5. Check the copy before you pass it on. Look for the court’s seal and the right date, because a third party who rejects the document sends you back to the start.

None of those steps tells you whether the order you are chasing is the one that will satisfy the person waiting. That part is worth settling first.

What does a copy of decree nisi paperwork cost, and what is a sealed copy?

Statute fixes the fee, not the court you write to. Fee 8.1 of the Family Proceedings Fees Order 2008 charges £14 on a request for a copy document of ten pages or less, then 50p for each subsequent page. Fee 8.2 charges £14 for a copy of a document supplied on a computer disk or in other electronic form (Sch.1). Court fees move, so check the current family court fees before you send money.

A sealed copy matters because of what the seal does. That mark is how a lender or a registrar knows the page came from the court rather than from a scanner. A photograph of your own copy carries no seal. That is why it comes back. So ask the court for a sealed copy in those words, rather than leaving it to be guessed at.

One more point catches people out. The starting point is that nothing on a family court file goes to somebody outside the case without the court’s permission (FPR 2010, r.29.12(1)). That rule opens with its own exceptions, and one of them matters here: r.29.12(2) says a copy of an order made in open court will be issued to any person who requests it. Do not hang a deadline on it. The right that is certain is the one in r.29.12(3), and it belongs to you as a party. So plan on being the one who asks.

What if you cannot find the divorce paperwork at all?

Then the national search exists, but read what it searches. Fee 7.1 buys a search of the central index of decrees absolute and final orders kept at the Principal Registry of the Family Division, for a ten-year period, at £89. Fee 7.3 buys the same search of the index kept at a designated family court or district registry at £61. Neither indexes the middle stage, so a search cannot produce a copy of a decree nisi.

What the search does produce is the order that ends the marriage, which is usually what the person asking needed anyway. Our guide to what a decree absolute is walks through that route in full. You apply on form D440. The Divorce Unit posts a certificate of the search with the copy, and GOV.UK says that usually takes about 45 days after the court gets your payment. If nothing turns up you get a “no trace” certificate instead (GOV.UK: get a copy of a final order or decree absolute).

Here is where the middle stage earns its keep. The search form asks for the date and the court of the conditional order or decree nisi, because those details narrow the years a clerk has to read. So the document you were chasing turns out to be the fastest way to find the one you actually need.

Before you ask for a copy of decree nisi paperwork: are you on track?

The route splits on one date: when the court issued the divorce application. Choose the side you are on, then tick what is already true.

What goes wrong when you send the wrong document?

The damage is rarely the fee. A copy of a decree nisi solves nothing if the person waiting needed the other order. It is the week you lose, and what sits in that week.

• A register office sends you home. GOV.UK says the final order or decree absolute is what you need if you remarry or have to prove your marital status. The middle stage will not do, and you book the appointment again.
• A financial order sits in limbo. Orders made on divorce take effect only once the court makes the divorce final (MCA 1973, s.23(5)). Send the wrong paper to a pension administrator and a transfer everyone thought complete can stall.
• The twelve-month mark passes. GOV.UK says to apply within 12 months of getting the conditional order or decree nisi, otherwise you will have to explain the delay to the court (GOV.UK: finalise your divorce).
• Nobody ever ended the marriage. Chasing paperwork years later can be the moment it emerges that no one applied for the last step, so the marriage never ended. Every arrangement that assumed otherwise then needs a second look.
• The copy arrives unsealed. A scan of an old letter is not a court copy, and the third party reading it will say so.

How do our specialists assist and advise?

Our specialists assist and advise from the first conversation. They work out whether a copy of a decree nisi is even the right thing to order, which court holds it, and whether the deadline behind the request is the real problem. Where nobody took the last step, they explain what that means for a remarriage, a mortgage or a pension. They also set out what has to happen first. A free initial consultation is a conversation with a specialist who gives you initial advice on your circumstances; it does not include drafting or reviewing anything.

Frequently asked questions

General information about the law in England and Wales, not advice on your circumstances.

Practical tip

Before you pay any court fee, ask whoever wants the document to name it and give the date they need it by, in writing. That one reply usually settles whether you are chasing the middle-stage order or the one that ends the marriage, and it is a great deal cheaper to find out before the fee than after it.

Garry Steedman, Family Law Consultant (Divorce, Children & TOLATA)