D440 form: ask for a search for a decree absolute or final order
Form D440 asks the Bury St Edmunds Divorce Centre to search the Central Index of Decrees Absolute and send you a copy of a decree absolute or final order. Use it when you do not know which court dealt with the divorce, dissolution or annulment.
Fill in the D440 form with Wren
How Wren helps with the D440
Official forms are written for lawyers. With Wren you do not have to decode this one on your own, and you still follow the court’s procedure.
- Plain questions, one at a timeEach part of the D440 becomes short questions in everyday words. Answer at your own pace and come back to it.
- Help beside each questionWhat the question is asking and what the official guidance says about it, in plain English.
- The official form, filled inYour answers go into the official D440. You check it, sign it and send it yourself. Nothing goes to the court for you.
- What comes next, kept with your caseWhat usually happens after you send it, with the dates worked out from the published rules.
Time and money
- On your own
- A day or more
- With Wren
- About an hour for most forms
- Solicitor for this form
- £740 to £1,2403 to 5 hours
A solicitor’s time for the D440 can run to £1,240. With Wren it is part of £19.99 a month, and it takes about an hour for most forms rather than a day or more.
Times and hours are Wren’s estimates for a typical case, not quotes. Solicitor costs are those hours at £247 an hour, the courts’ guideline rate for a solicitor with over four years’ experience, outside London (GOV.UK, Solicitors' guideline hourly rates (in effect from 1 January 2026)). The guideline runs from £200 to £295 an hour outside London depending on experience, firms set their own rates, and VAT is added on top.
Key facts
- Official title
- Request a search for a divorce decree absolute: Form D440
- Edition
- 07.26 (3 pages). GOV.UK published the new English version with updated fees on 14 July 2026.Source: official page (external source, opens in a new tab)
- Fee
- £89 for each 10-year period searched in the Central Index. Help with fees may be available.Source: official page (external source, opens in a new tab)
- If you know the court
- Write to or email that court instead. The form gives the fee as £14 with a case number, or £61 for each 10 years searched without one.Source: official page (external source, opens in a new tab)
- Scotland and Northern Ireland
- There is a different way to get proof if the marriage or civil partnership ended in Scotland or Northern Ireland.Source: official page (external source, opens in a new tab)
Who uses the D440
Anyone who needs a copy of a decree absolute or final order and does not know the court. The form says you can also apply online instead.
When it is used
If you have lost your own decree absolute or final order, or need to check whether a marriage or civil partnership was ended, for example before asking the court to dispense with service on form D13B.
Before you start
- Both parties' full names as used in the case, spelt correctly.
- The dates of marriage and separation, if you know them.
- Any court name, case number or dates from old papers.
- The years you want searched.
How to fill in the D440
Open each part for what it asks and how to answer it. In Wren, each part is a few plain questions, and your answers fill in the form.
Questions 1 to 11: the divorce
The names of the parties, the dates, the courts and the case number, answered as fully as you can.
The search and the fee
The years to search and whether you will pay by card over the phone or by cheque or postal order.
Your details
Your name, address and phone number for the certificate and copy order.
Prepare your D440 with Wren Family
Wren Family turns official forms into short, plain-English questions you can answer at your own pace. You check everything before you send it: nothing goes to the court for you.
Get startedFree for 14 days, no card. Then £19.99 a month, with your money back within 14 days if it’s not right.
What happens after you send it
You get a certificate of the search with a copy of the decree absolute or final order, usually within 45 days after the court gets your payment. If there is no trace, you get a 'no trace' certificate.
Common mistakes
- Spelling a name differently from the case, which may make the search fail.
- Using D440 when you know which court dealt with the case.
- Searching too narrow a range of years.
Common questions
The form says petition and decree nisi. What do those mean now?
They are the words used before 6 April 2022. A petition is now an application, a decree nisi a conditional order, and a decree absolute a final order.
Where these facts come from
These are the official rules and pages this page is based on. They are listed so you can check a detail for yourself; you do not need them to use Wren. They are outside Wren and open in a new tab.