On 6 April 2022, no-fault divorce will become law in England and Wales.
Family lawyers and others have been campaigning for decades for a ‘no-fault’ option to be available to people wanting a divorce. The legislation, described as the biggest ‘shake-up’ of family law in almost 50 years, was first announced in 2019.
The changes come after the 2018 Supreme Court case of Owens v Owens, in which a wife’s divorce petition was turned down after she failed to prove one of the five grounds, forcing her to live in an unhappy marriage until at least 2020.
Here, Surjit Verdi, a Director with Palmers and Head of our Family Law department, outlines the key points you need to know.
What is no-fault divorce?
Under current laws, a spouse must attribute one of five grounds for divorce – such as adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion, or two to five years of separation – before a court can legally grant a divorce, meaning couples could not fully disentangle their finances, re-marry, or make a fresh start. As a result, their lives were left effectively in limbo.
No-fault divorce will remove this obstacle, which has frequently been blamed for forcing couples to play the blame game and creating unnecessary conflict between divorcing spouses. Instead, people will simply apply for a divorce, either individually or jointly.
Will it also provide a ‘quickie-divorce’ option?
The no-fault divorce process will still provide time for couples to consider their decision to divorce. There will be a a six-month mandatory waiting period to give couples time to reconcile. It will also no longer be possible to contest a divorce and it will be sufficient for one party to the marriage to declare that it has broken down irretrievably.
The language used on official documents and in the courtroom will also be changed to remove both outdated terms and those that have baggage associated with conflict. An example of the latter is ‘petitioner’, which will become ‘applicant’.
There will also be more general changes to the process, once again designed to lessen the chances of unnecessary conflict plus ones intended as a safeguard against people divorcing too quickly. These include the introduction of a 20-week minimum period from the start of proceedings to the issue of a Conditional Order (currently known as a ‘Decree Nisi’).
What is the benefit of no-fault divorce?
Experts argue that the requirement to attribute blame can often cause more harm than the divorce itself. It is expected that divorcing couples will be able to spend more time focusing on the future, such as the wellbeing of their children and how finances can be split.
To find out more about our family law services, including separation and divorce, please contact us.