Hello

I'm in Australia and my wife is in Zurich and starting to go about divorce proceedings. It's a very amicable separation and there's no kids or assets involved. So far she's been to a lawyer who has told her the court costs will be around 3000CHF on the condition that I am there in Switzerland to settle it. The lawyer said if I'm not there then it will be more complicated and incur more costs. I feel like maybe she's not going about this the easiest and cheapest way.

Does anyone have any recent experiences they could share. I'm thinking there should be really no need for a lawyer as there is no dispute to settle.

Any help or info would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Sounds spot on, even quite a good price.

Here a list of the minimal cost if no lawyer is involved:
https://www.scheidungsagentur.ch/so-...erichtskosten/

Competent court is the one at either place of residence:
https://www.ch.ch/en/divorce-procedure/

I have a friend who recently went through a totally amicable divorce in Zurich but unfortunately even in this scenario the court must have been involved and the total costs were around 3600 CHF IIRC. But they were both resident in Switzerland at the time.

If you're now legally resident in Australia, it might be worth it to check if it's cheaper/easier to go through the divorce there and then for your then ex-wife to get it recognized in Switzerland (that'll cost a couple hundred francs plus notary/apostille fees).

I have a close friend who divorced last year in Valais. Also an amicable divorce, no dispute, they hired a lawyer but for some simple work as to file documents, contact the judge... note in this case you still have to go to the court. The total cost was around 2000 CHF (including laywer and court fee)

So my ex just messaged me and ask that I pay my half of the court costs which she says is 4000.00 CHF. Can this be right? The link below containing divorce costs is from 2016 so not exactly something to go by. I've asked her to send me some kind of official invoice. This seems super expensive especially seeing as it's completely amicable...

The court costs for an amicable divorce vary from Canton to Canton. They should be in the area of CHF 1'400 to 3'000. I would be surprised if any Canton would ask for more than this.

Maybe she submitted a divorce claim? Then the retainer invoice can be much higher, depending on the sums requested.

I do not know if you are still outside Switzerland, but depending on the court you might ask for a divorce hearing without physical presence (e.g. to agree on a telephone/videophone slot during the hearing with your wife or to have you declaration being legalized and apostilled in your country), as they only need to go sure that your agreement is fair and both of you really accept the divorce itself and the consequences you agreed on.

Simple, demand the copy of the bill?

you typically get a discount for an "uncontested" divorce processed in court. It should be far less than 4k in my opinion.

also from what I've seen, the costs are put into the document and each party billed individually - but this last part might be skipped for someone out of the country.

yep, we were billed separately. Kind of makes sense after a divorce.