Divorce in Hungary

Why hire a divorce lawyer in Hungary?

If you decide to manage your divorce in Hungary on your own without a lawyer, it is better to prepare for a nightmare: long procedure, paying for things you don’t need, and missed opportunities. At the same time, a Hungarian lawyer specialised in international divorce cases can make your divorce in Hungary hassle-free faster and cheaper.

Smooth procedure

You can file a divorce claim by yourself to the court, but it will mostly depend on luck if it will be accepted by the judge or not. There are mistakes that can be made very easily if you don’t know the rules, and these mistakes can result in very long and tiring procedure.

For example, there was a case, where the Hungarian husband of our foreign client handed in a claim without a lawyer. He was late from the first court hearing, and the judge dismissed his divorce claim. The husband appealed, and the appeal procedure took more than half a year, without any result, because the first instance decision was correct.

What is worse, we could not file a proper divorce claim representing the wife, because there was an ongoing appeal procedure. Finally, after 1 (one) year we could file a new divorce claim on behalf of the wife, and we closed the case in 3 (three) months. That’s why should you hire a lawyer if you do not want to waste time & money.

Knowing your rights

If you do not have lawyer, the judge will inform you only about your basic rights, and he will not tell you any legal possibilities or tactics. He won’t give you legal advices, and won’t consider neither your time nor your money.

Just to give an example, in Hungary you can choose together with your spouse the law governing your divorce. If you do not choose law, the judge will apply the law designated by the Hungarian international private law, so it can be the case that your divorce is governed by a foreign law, depending on the nationality and last common place of living of the spouses (e.g. Chinese, or Thai law, etc.).

It is clear, that in case of foreign applicable law, the whole divorce procedure will be much more complicated, because at the beginning, the judge has to obtain the true translation of the foreign family law from the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, etc. which takes times.

However, if you have a Hungarian lawyer experienced in international divorce cases, she will inform you about the possibility to choose law, and your case will be resolved easier and faster.

Less language difficulties

Needless to say, that in Hungary the language of the court procedure is Hungarian.

It is true that you can use your mother in the court procedure, because the judge will provide you an interpreter for free, and he will get the court decisions officially translated into your language for free.

But you have to know that official translation of court decision can take more months, in addition it will be hard to understand sometimes what the judge wants to say or ask, because of the legalese: the judge uses words, terms and expressions that are not really used in everyday life, and you will not understand what they mean.

At the same time a Hungarian lawyer specialised in international divorce cases will explain the situation to you in a simple way, so that you know what to do to close the case as soon as possible.

Easy to get information

If you would like to know details about your case, how it is going, when will be the next court hearing, or you want to know, if there is anything new happening, it is harder to get information from the court without lawyer.

Even if you find the phone number of the court, and you speak Hungarian, court administrators are often reluctant to give information throughout the phone.

However, a lawyer who interacts with the staff of the court every day, and who probably knows the judge and his secretary personally, will get the necessary information very fast.

No worries about administration

A divorce procedure means lot of administration: paying the court duty, handing in the claim, attaching the proper documents, handing in declarations, making statements the judge request, etc.

But you don’t have to worry about it, if you have a lawyer!

Your lawyer will do the all of the administrative tasks: uploading your divorce claim via electronic channels, keep in touch with the judge, keep in mind the deadlines, draft declarations, and you will only need to provide information and document to her.

We hope that after reading the above now you are convinced to hire a divorce lawyer in Hungary!