12. 4. 2024

Divorce proceedings in the Czech Republic – What to expect from the court hearing

This article has been rewritten in line with the new legislation introduced in 2026.

A marriage in the Czech Republic may be divorced only by a court. This article provides general information about the divorce court hearing and also explains when the parties might expect a divorce without a day in court.

Contractual, amicable and contentious divorce

The 2026 change in divorce law introduced significant changes to the Czech divorce law. A marriage may be divorced in the following ways:

Contractual divorce is possible if (1) the marriage has lasted for more than a year, (2) an agreement on custody of minor children was concluded and approved by a court and (3) an agreement on settlement of marital property, housing and ex-spousal support has been concluded. The court may render a decision without evidentiary hearing.
Amicable divorce takes place when both spouses state their willingness to divorce but fail to reach agreements necessary for contractual divorce. The process is straightforward as the 2026 change of divorce law no longer requires the court to make a ruling on what was the reason of the marriage’s failure.
Contentious divorce is limited to situation whereby one of the parties claims existence of extraordinary reasons for denial of divorce.

In contentious divorce, a detailed evidentiary hearing must take place to determine whether extraordinary reasons for denial of divorce exist. Article 755(2) of the Civil Code states the following:

Even though the cohabitation of the spouses is disrupted, the marriage cannot be dissolved if the divorce would be contrary to
a) the interests of the spouses’ minor child who has not attained full legal capacity, which is given by special reasons, whereby the court shall determine the child’s interest in the continuation of the marriage, if necessary, by consulting the guardian appointed by the court for proceedings to regulate the child’s circumstances for the period after the divorce, or

b) the interests of the spouse who did not contribute significantly to the breakdown of the marriage by violating marital obligations and who would suffer particularly serious harm as a result of the divorce, provided that exceptional circumstances favor the preservation of the marriage, unless the spouses have not lived together for at least three years.

A typical reason for denial of divorce may be a situation of a gravely ill person who is dependent on help of their long-term spouse.

Contractual divorce is not only better on personal level, but it also provides the following procedural benefits:

Number of proceedings: If child custody and divorce agreement is not reached, the parties are left open to litigation through a succession of separate proceedings (each with a different judge). These may concern (1) child custody, (2) spousal alimony, (3) ex-spousal alimony, (4) settlement of marital property, and possibly other, e.g. (5) settlement of co-ownership (typically concerning property gained together before the marriage). Most of these don’t run concurrently but in sequence, making a divorce up to or even more than a half-a-decade enterprise with multitude of court hearings in each. Meanwhile contractual divorce allows for all issues to be solved by a written agreement of the spouses and finalized in a very short court hearing of about 30 minutes. Beginning 2026, both child custody & divorce are decided in a single proceeding, further speeding up the whole process).
Lack of appeal: Judgement approving agreement of the parties on divorce cannot be appealed. Even in a case where there is clearly no real reason to deny a divorce, the combination of requirement for evidentiary hearing regarding existence of reasons for denial, requirement for detailed reasoning of the judgement and possibility of an appellate review may lead to a lengthy process.

Your day in court

This article deals only with divorce, not with any of the possible divorce-related proceedings.

These are the main options of what you can expect from “your day in court”:

Contentious divorce: Lengthy court proceeding (even longer if translators are present) with detailed testimony of the spouses. The spouse may also propose other evidence to prove existence of extraordinary reasons to deny divorce, e.g. witnesses, police reports, infraction or criminal records, video evidence, etc. The judge will usually try to have the case closed during a single court day, however there is also a possibility of multiple court hearings taking place.
Amicable or contractual divorce with a court hearing: Expect a short ( ~ 30 minutes) court hearing where both spouses will be asked to confirm their decision to divorce.
Amicable or contractual divorce without a court hearing: The 2026 change in divorce law allows the judge to render a divorce judgement without hearing “if spouses’ attendance would be associated with great difficulties or if the spouses’ consent to the divorce and agreement on the permanent, profound, and irreparable breakdown of their marriage are evident from written submissions or consistent statements made by the parties during the proceedings, the authenticity and veracity of which the court has no doubt.” In order to facilitate this, I recommend that both parties are represented by a separate attorney each. This will allow the judge to easily deliver correspondence and judgement. Moreover, the attorneys will make sure that all the paperwork is correct.