Official UK Apostille Service - Court Documents
County Court Document
Court of Bankruptcy Document
Decree Absolute
Decree Nisi
Family Division of the High Court of Justice Document
Grant of Probate
High Court of Justice Document
Last Will and Testament
Sheriff Court Document
Any of the documents above must have been issued by one of the following:
- County Court
- Court of Bankruptcy
- Family Division of the High Court of Justice
- High Court of Justice
- Sheriff Court
They can only be legalised if they have:
- the original seal or ink stamp of the court
- the signature of a court official
- authentication from a solicitor or notary public
Please note that there could be a delay in the legalisation process if the document is signed by a court official. This is because the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) may not have a specimen of the signature of that particular official in their database. In this case, the FCO will contact the court to ask for confirmation of the signature. The FCO will only issue the apostille once the signature is confirmed, so the delay will depend on how long the court takes to reply to the FCO.
If you want guarantee that your document will be legalised without delays, we can provide solicitor or notary public authentication of the document. We work with solicitors and notaries whose signature specimen are definitely in the database.
Photocopies of these documents can be legalised, as long as they are certified as a 'true copy' by a solicitor or notary public.
The solicitor or notary public must:
- state what they are certifying (true copy, original document, witness signature etc)
- use their own personal signature, not the company name
- date the certification
- state their company address
In addition, when a document is authenticated by a notary public from England, Northern Ireland or Wales, the notary public must affix their notarial seal and apply their embossed seal.
Please note that some authorities abroad will not accept copies of certain documents, even though they can be legalised here. If you want to make sure a copy will be accepted, contact the foreign authority concerned.
