Since 1 April 2013 the court has been able to order a spouse to make a payment towards the other spouse’s legal costs when they are litigating the financial arrangements of their divorce.  This was possible before, as part of a temporary maintenance order, but now a ‘legal costs order’ is a type of order in its own right.

On closer inspection however it may be quite difficult to obtain such an order.  There are a lot of points on which the court needs to be satisfied before it is allowed to make an order – including the unavailability of any sort of loan to cover legal costs.