Divorce Fees in Nigeria
There are no fixed fees for divorce in Nigeria. Getting a divorce is an intensely personal and procedural process, and as such it varies from person to person and situation to situation. So if you are reading this article in order to get a definite figure for how much your divorce will cost in Nigeria, then unfortunately you will be disappointed, as that is not what this article will provide. Rather, what we will attempt to do is identify the things you need to factor in when trying to estimate what your divorce will cost.
First, which kind of marriage are you dissolving?
Before anything else, work out which regime your marriage falls under, because it changes the cost picture entirely.
If you had a statutory marriage — a marriage under the Marriage Act, with a certificate from a marriage registry or a licensed place of worship — it can only be dissolved by the High Court of a State (or of the FCT), under the Matrimonial Causes Act. You cannot simply sign an agreement to end it. There must be a court judgment.
If you married under customary law, dissolution does not go through the High Court and the Matrimonial Causes Act does not apply. Customary marriages can, in principle, be dissolved without going to court at all, following the requirements of the relevant custom. We would still strongly encourage you to obtain a formal dissolution from the Customary Court in your area, because an informal ending can create serious problems later around property, inheritance and remarriage. Either way, the cost is typically a fraction of a High Court petition.
If you married under Islamic law, dissolution is governed by Islamic personal law and handled by the Sharia courts in the states that operate them.
The rest of this article deals with statutory marriages, since that is where the costs are highest and the questions most frequent.
Estimating the cost of a divorce
There are two sets of fees to think about — court fees and professional legal fees.
Court fees are the statutory charges payable at the registry for filing your petition and the various applications that go with it. The exact amounts vary from state to state, and each High Court publishes a scale of fees you can ask the registry for. These are non-negotiable. One useful thing to know: for matrimonial causes, the whole of Nigeria is treated as a single jurisdiction, so a petition can be filed in the High Court of any state, not only the one where you live or married. Fee scales and how quickly a registry moves do differ, though a court can transfer a petition elsewhere if the venue you chose causes real inconvenience to either party. Your lawyer can advise on whether filing elsewhere makes sense in your situation.
The second set of fees are professional legal fees. Here is a point worth correcting, because it is widely misunderstood: you are not legally required to be represented by a lawyer. A party may appear in person, and there is certainly no rule that both spouses must have lawyers. That said, matrimonial proceedings are technical and the consequences are permanent, so most people are better served by getting representation. What matters for your budget is that you are paying for your own lawyer, not for two.
A lawyer will assess the work likely involved in representing you and quote on that basis. Ask for the fee arrangement in writing, and ask specifically whether the quote is a fixed fee for the whole matter or covers only a stage of it, since a divorce runs through more than one stage. The factors below are what shape that quote.
Whether the petition is defended
This is the single biggest driver of cost, and it is largely outside your control. If your spouse does not oppose the petition, the matter can move through the court comparatively quickly and cheaply. If your spouse files an Answer contesting it, or a Cross-Petition seeking their own reliefs, the matter becomes full litigation — witnesses, cross-examination, adjournments — and the costs rise accordingly. Where a defended matter can be settled on terms during proceedings, that is almost always the cheaper path.
How long you have been married
If your marriage is less than two years old, you cannot simply file. Section 30 of the Matrimonial Causes Act provides that proceedings for dissolution shall not be instituted within two years of the marriage except with the leave of the court. Obtaining that leave is a separate application, with its own fees, its own affidavit evidence and its own hearing — so a very early divorce costs more, not less. There are exceptions where the petition is founded on wilful failure to consummate the marriage, adultery, rape, sodomy or bestiality, or where the matter comes by way of cross-proceedings.
The fact you rely on
There is only one ground for divorce in Nigeria: that the marriage has broken down irretrievably. But you cannot simply assert that. The court will hold the marriage to have broken down irretrievably only if you satisfy it of one or more of the eight specific facts set out in section 15(2) of the Act — for instance, that the respondent has committed adultery and you find it intolerable to live with them, that the respondent has behaved in a way you cannot reasonably be expected to live with, that the respondent has deserted you for at least one year, or that you have lived apart for the relevant period.
Some of these facts are far harder to prove than others. Adultery, for example, requires evidence, and note that the adultery alone is not enough — you must also establish the intolerability. Facts requiring detailed proof mean more evidence-gathering, longer hearings and higher fees. Where the parties have simply lived apart for the requisite period, the case is usually simpler and cheaper.
Children
Where there are children of the marriage, the court takes extra care. Their welfare is paramount, and where a child is under sixteen the court will not make the decree absolute unless it is satisfied that proper arrangements have been made for their welfare, advancement and education. That means additional material for the court and, frequently, contested applications over custody and access. This adds to the complexity of the case and, in turn, to the fee.
Reliefs sought
When a party files for divorce it is usual to ask the court to grant certain ancillary reliefs — custody of children, financial maintenance, or orders for the settlement of joint property and assets. These are often the most contentious parts of a divorce and frequently require substantial evidence, including documentary proof of income and assets and sometimes expert valuation. The more reliefs you seek and the more they are resisted, the more the case will cost.
Serving your spouse
An often-overlooked cost. If your spouse is outside Nigeria, or has moved without leaving an address, or is deliberately avoiding service, you will need an application for leave to serve out of the jurisdiction or for substituted service, plus the practical cost of effecting it. This catches a lot of people by surprise.
Experience of the lawyer
Lawyers, as with other professionals, become more experienced and knowledgeable the longer they have been in practice. If you hire a lawyer who has been practising for 2 years and pay a certain fee, you cannot expect to pay a lawyer of 20 years’ standing the same amount for the same work. More experienced lawyers are generally more expensive to hire, and that is simply a fact of the market. Your divorce will therefore cost more or less depending on who represents you. Experience can also cut the other way on total cost, though — a lawyer who knows the terrain may resolve in six months what a less experienced one takes two years to do.
One more thing on timing
Even a straightforward divorce is not over when the judge rules. The court first makes a decree nisi, and the marriage is only fully dissolved when that decree is made absolute, which happens three months later provided no appeal is filed. Budget for that second stage, and do not plan a remarriage around the date of the decree nisi.
So those are the main factors which come into play when estimating the cost of a divorce in Nigeria.
We hope you have found this information helpful. We have provided this information for general informational purposes only and we do not intend it to be legal advice. No lawyer-client relationship is formed nor should any such relationship be implied. This answer is not intended to substitute for the advice of a qualified lawyer. If you require legal advice, please consult with a qualified lawyer.
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