Frequently asked questionsabout divorce

Uncontested means that both spouses want the divorce and that they agree, or are within reach of agreeing, on the main consequences such as maintenance, assets and children. The law presumes the marriage has broken down after the Trennungsjahr (year of separation) if both support the petition; for the divorce itself the court asks for no more.

One attorney is often enough in that situation, though not mandatory. Representation covers only the person who gives the instruction: the other spouse can consent to the petition but cannot file motions of their own, because the same firm may not represent both sides. The petitioning side must be represented in any event. An uncontested divorce can almost always be conducted entirely online.

In detail: Uncontested divorce

The two are often confused, understandably so, but they describe different things. Uncontested describes how the spouses stand towards each other: the respondent consents, there are no major points in dispute. Online describes only the route: pleadings, documents and queries run digitally.

Any form can be conducted online today, including a contested one, and meetings in person remain possible at any time without additional fees. Digitalization does not take the court hearing off anyone's hands, though: both spouses appear there in person.

In detail: Online or in person?

Yes, under clear conditions. The attorney never represents both, only the spouse who instructed them. The other remains without their own representation and cannot file motions in the proceedings, only consent to the petition. That saves the second fee as soon as there are no or few consequences to settle.

The model has a downside, and it belongs on the table: without their own advice, the economically weaker side may not learn which claims they have, on maintenance, on accrued gains, on the pension rights adjustment. Where that looms, we raise it ourselves in the first conversation.

In detail: Divorce without an attorney?

It starts with the year of separation: the marital community must have been suspended for at least one year. Living apart does not necessarily mean living at different addresses. Separation is possible within the same home as soon as table, bed and household are separate; in practice that route remains hard to prove.

It is wise to file only towards the end of that year, because a petition the court rejects because the year was not yet complete at the hearing costs time and money. Only hardship allows a divorce before it expires, for instance in cases of violence, where holding on to the marriage becomes unreasonable. We agree the right moment together.

In detail: Year of separation: when to file?

As a rule four to twelve months, counted from the petition to the order. The range follows from the content: the divorce alone, or maintenance, property and assets on top of it.

The biggest lever is usually the pension rights adjustment. Under German law it runs automatically once the marriage lasted more than three years, and the replies from the pension providers set the pace. Without an adjustment and without a dispute, much of it ends within a few months; heavily contested cases stretch over years. Speed is created early: complete questionnaires, clear disclosures, no loose ends.

In detail: How long does a divorce take?

Two items arise: attorney's fees and court costs. We bill both by statute, the remuneration under the RVG and the court costs under the FamGKG, and both hang on the Verfahrenswert (value of the proceedings). That value follows above all from both spouses' income, from their assets and from the individual matters in dispute.

The more uncontested the case, the cheaper: every additional ancillary matter raises the value and with it the costs. You receive a non-binding estimate from us before anything is filed.

In detail, with calculator: What does a divorce cost?

190 euros plus VAT. The amount is fixed before you come and does not grow with the length of the conversation or the difficulty of your case (§ 34 (1) RVG). If an engagement follows, we credit it against the total invoice, so the first consultation does not appear on top.

If income is not sufficient even for that, Beratungshilfe (advice aid) applies; for the proceedings themselves, legal aid may come into question.

Net income is the key to the value of the proceedings, and that value governs court costs and attorney's fees. It is finally set by the court at the hearing; at the latest there the exact figure counts.

In the petition the figure serves a provisional value from which the court calculates the advance on costs, and it allows us to tell you the likely costs in advance. For the self-employed the average of the last three years is usually taken. If ancillary matters such as maintenance are added, we need the figure in any case.

Three lines run apart. Separation maintenance flows during the separation until the divorce becomes final. Post-marital maintenance follows on afterwards, but only in the cases the law provides for, such as childcare, age or illness. Child maintenance is owed to a minor child or one still in education, calculated according to the Düsseldorfer Tabelle.

Where several claims meet too little money, the order of priority decides: children first. Post-marital maintenance can be limited or capped only under narrow conditions. Which of it carries in your case, we calculate concretely.

In detail: Separation & maintenance

Both parents care for the child roughly equally, that is, about half and half. A true Wechselmodell (shared care model) begins only at that equal split; anything below it remains extended contact. It is lived either as a commuting model, where the child moves between households, or as a nesting model, where the child stays and the parents move. The yardstick is always the child's welfare.

The court can order shared care even against one parent's will if it best serves the child's welfare. On money, one misconception is persistent: equal care does not mean maintenance split in half. Both parents are liable proportionally to their income, which makes child maintenance laborious to apportion.

In detail: Shared care in Frankfurt

With property, law, economics and tax interlock. Four routes are open: sale with division of the proceeds, one partner taking it over, offsetting it through the equalization of accrued gains or, as a last resort, a partition auction. Taking it over often preserves the familiar surroundings for children.

What matters is keeping two levels apart: under the statutory matrimonial property regime, assets are equalized, not physically divided; the reference date for the calculation is service of the divorce petition. Where necessary we formally demand disclosure of the other side's assets, and much can be settled in advance in a notarized divorce settlement agreement. Which of the four routes works is usually decided by the financing: whether the bank will keep the taking-over spouse on the loan alone comes before the question of who would like to keep the house.

In detail: Assets & accrued gains and Matrimonial home, property & household goods

Yes, without further ado. Karcher Rechtsanwälte works throughout Germany, based in Frankfurt-Gallus. Which court has jurisdiction follows from where you live, not from our address; we may appear before every family court in Germany.

In detail: Does my divorce lawyer have to be local?

Not necessarily in Frankfurt. Which family court decides follows a fixed order of priority (§ 122 FamFG): first the place where one spouse lives with the shared minor children; otherwise the last joint residence, provided one of you still lives there; failing that, the residence of the person the petition is directed against. So it is not automatically your own home town. Where your case runs we clarify bindingly before the petition is filed, and we appear for you throughout Germany.

At the hearing itself both spouses appear in person (§ 128 FamFG). Not even an online divorce takes that single step off your hands.

In detail: How does a divorce work? and The court hearing

Not automatically Frankfurt: the court follows from the order of priority in § 122 FamFG, depending on the case the children's home, the last joint residence or the other side's residence. For Offenbach, Bad Homburg, Hanau or Königstein the local Amtsgericht has jurisdiction. We represent you before each of them, from the office in Frankfurt's Gallus district and throughout the Rhine-Main area.

You do not. The entire engagement can be conducted digitally: the first consultation by video, documents securely online, the correspondence through us in any case.

Prefer to come in person? Our office is in Frankfurt's Gallus district, within walking distance of the Europaviertel, and a meeting there costs you nothing extra. The only place you must appear is the courtroom at the divorce hearing.

Yes. We accompany you through separation and divorce in German, English and Spanish, in Frankfurt or online. Both foreign languages have a concrete reason: Dietrich Karcher worked for years from an office in Granada and spent a longer period in the United States. For international and binational couples in the Rhine-Main area, that takes the language barrier out of an already hard step.

Yes. As long as one of you is habitually resident in Germany, a German family court has jurisdiction: with a residence in Frankfurt, the Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main. A marriage validly concluded abroad is recognized in Germany for that purpose. Which legal system governs the divorce follows from European conflict-of-laws rules; we examine that point at the outset.

In detail: Married abroad, divorced in Germany?

Your residence decides, not your passport. If you live in Frankfurt, the Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main has jurisdiction over your divorce, regardless of your nationality. Whether German or foreign law applies to the divorce follows from the Rome III Regulation; often the applicable law can even be chosen.

In detail: Which law applies to the divorce?

As a rule, yes. If you are habitually resident in Frankfurt, you may file here even if your spouse lives abroad. Do allow for a little more time, though: serving the petition abroad takes longer than within Germany and pushes the first hearing back.

In detail: International family law