The biggest shake-up of the divorce laws for 50 years will make breaking up quicker and easier for couples – but could leave some partners with a sense of injustice, a leading family lawyer has warned.
Ruth Jones, head of the family team at Smith Partnership, said that the introduction of the new Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 – the so-called no-fault divorce law – which comes into effect today (Wednesday) should streamline the procedure because there are less criteria to fulfil.
Under the new law, the application no longer has to include any suggestion of there being anyone at fault for the marriage being unable to continue, through reasons such as adultery or unreasonable behaviour, or because the couple have lived apart for at least two years.
Picture shows: Ruth Jones, head of the family team at leading Derby law firm Smith Partnership.
Instead, one or both partners- for the first time joint applications are permitted – can simply make a statement saying that the relationship has broken down irretrievably, which will enable the Court to make a divorce order.
The terms decree nisi and decree absolute are also being scrapped and replaced with conditional divorce order and final divorce order, with the whole process taking just 26 weeks from start to finish.
The idea behind the changes is to take out much of the acrimony that can overwhelm divorce proceedings because it removes blame and conflict in favour of co-operation and a conciliatory approach.
It will also remove the opportunity for one party to demand costs from the other and also the possibility of one spouse refusing to agree to the divorce proceedings, thus trapping the applicant in a legal limbo.
However, although many legal experts are predicting a spike in applications from unhappy married couples seeking to take advantage of the new law, Ruth said that a rush for applications had already come from couples wanting to start proceedings before the changes come in.
And she says that many spouses could feel let down by the no-fault nature of the new divorce procedure because they have no way of getting heard or recognised for the stress or emotional pain of being cheated on or for having to endure other forms of unreasonable marital behaviour.
She said: “You might expect there to be a rush after today, but in fact there is a spike now because thanks to lockdown, the existing divorce process has already been reduced to three to four months, which is quicker than under the new plan.
“As a result, and also because the Government has yet to issue the paperwork, I think it will be a while before we get an idea of what effect these changes will have had on divorce numbers and people’s readiness to start proceedings.
“It does make a number of improvements and overall it is a positive and welcome change, but I do think that for some spouses the no-fault aspect is a disappointment because they will want to feel vindicated or seek costs to make up for the years of abuse or cheating, or maybe gambling, that they have had to endure.
“Because there is no longer any fault attached to the decision to get divorced, that opportunity is now no longer open to them, and they may struggle to understand why they can no longer have their say.”
The new law sets a statutory period of 20 weeks after the filing of a divorce application and the granting of a conditional divorce order and a further six weeks before a final conditional order is granted.
However, Ruth says that the 26-week resolution period would not be achieved across the board because for many couples their divorce proceedings involve financial arrangements which will need to be resolved before the divorce finally concludes.
ENDS
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