Divorce applications

A rise in the divorce figures was inevitable. Many clients had held off for the change in the law as they didn’t want to allocate blame and wanted a more amicable approach. We have just come out of a pandemic, during which many marriages broke down. With the economy now in dire straits, further increases are likely. As the saying goes, when money goes out the door, love flies out the window! The new online process makes divorce easier. However, the complexities of finance and children remain the same. I don’t think divorce is encouraged, but it certainly is more acceptable in society. Looking at it from the Asian community’s perspective, divorces are more common, and perhaps not having to allocate blame is a welcome relief for many who want to exit marriages. I would be interested in seeing the figures in 6 months. The new process, is certainly easier, and clients are able to do this online themselves. However the surrounding circumstances of finances and children and their complexity remains the same. I don’t think that there is an encouragement of divorce, but it certainly is more acceptable in society. Looking at it from the Asian community perspective, divorces are more common, and perhaps not having to allocate blame is a welcome relief for many who want to exit marriages. I would be interested in seeing the figures in 6 months.

This is the snowball before the avalanche. A number of these cases were due to couples holding back divorce petitions until the new legislation came into force, but the real driver has been the impact of lock-downs and now financial problems putting ever more pressure on relationships. Expect divorce figures to go up even more, especially next year. Historically, we have always seen increased divorce rates during recessions and this financial crisis is proving the rule. We are seeing a significant increase in enquiries leading to us having to rapidly expand our family law team to manage them all. And divorces are only the tip of the iceberg. Non-married couples are separating at an equally fast rate but without the same legal protections of married couples. With the current market volatility affecting pensions and potentially property values, this is also one of the most complicated times to divorce in recent history. DIY divorces could prove to be very costly as people try to save legal costs and proceed without an expert understanding of what, and how much, there is to share. Expect to see a new year flood of separations as couples who have stayed together over Christmas then separate.

Divorce applications in England and Wales have reached their highest level for a decade. 33,566 divorce applications were made between April to June of this year. This is largely due to the no-fault divorce legislation, which came into force on 6th April 2022. Many couples opted to wait until the new legislation was implemented to issue proceedings. This was often on the advice of their solicitor where applications were not urgent, to prevent the possibility of the divorce being contested. In contrast to the old divorce regime, there are only very exceptional and limited grounds on which to contest a divorce under the new regime, including jurisdictional grounds. Crucially, the new legislation also allows separated couples to go through divorce proceedings without assigning blame. A statement of irretrievable breakdown of the marriage made either individually or jointly being conclusive evidence. The ability to make joint applications for divorce also appealed to many couples, who wanted to divorce in the most amicable way possible. The strain of the last two years from the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns coupled with the cost of living crisis has also contributed to the high level of divorce applications. These numbers are only set to increase, particularly as we are also now in the grips of an economic crisis.”

The new no fault divorce does make things simpler to complete a divorce, which is a good thing. It works well for those who can seek agreement on financial and children's matters. However, the average length of time for a divorce remains significantly over one year with financial disputes and children's matters taking most time. The current Court system for family matters continues to struggle to cope with dealing with matter with serious backlogs and the IT systems within the Ministry of Justice really coming up short to serve customer at what is a very stressful time. Fair result believe there needs to be a radical overhaul of the courts system, make financial settlements much easier with systems that enable less argument and contention and to that the courts should penalise financially through greater court fees those that wish to simply use the court as a vehicle for dealing with matters that should be resolved by negotiation. Simplifying the divorce process is one thing but if people cant agree on financial matters, the divorce doesn’t actually get agreed any quicker.