New Divorce Law Reform – an end to the ‘blame game’
After centuries of stagnation, it was announced on 25 June 2020 that the law in relation to Divorce was being modernised. This modernisation was after years of deliberation where all divorces had to be one party’s fault (unless you rely on separation) and this subsequently gave rise to the ‘blame game’. Whilst going through a divorce was stressful enough, this only made couples more hostile towards one another and subsequently meant that, in many circumstances, the relationship had already broken down, making it difficult to agree arrangements for the children or the finances of the marriage.
Fortunately, the passing of the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 on June 2022 is going to change the law dramatically. This Act came into effect on 6 April 2022. We summarise below what it will mean for couples who divorce after these changes come into effect.
Previous Divorce Law:
The law pre-April 2022 did not allow for married couples to start divorce proceedings without apportioning blame to the opposing spouse. The only way that one could obtain a divorce without apportioning blame was to wait for two long years and for the opposing spouse to consent to the divorce. This meant that if a married couple sought to divorce on amicable and ‘blame free’ terms they would have to be in an unhappy marriage for two years and hope that the opposing spouse would agree.
The alternative to this route would be that the parties separate for five years which would abolish the need for consent. However, for a couple to remain married but separated for five years’ is far from ideal.
For an immediate divorce, parties would have to rely on the ‘blame game’ to provide that their marriage has irretrievably broken down. This would mean that you would have to prove that one spouse has committed adultery or behaved in such a way that the other cannot reasonably be expected to live with them.
As one can imagine, the opposing spouse would have to agree that they either committed adultery or behaved unreasonably. Thus, in most scenarios, the parties are forced to air their ‘dirty laundry’ and in most cases this adds fuel to the already burning fire. The system also made it easy for opposing spouses to easily defend the divorce or cross-petition which lead to Court hearings, meaning there were often significant delays and excessive costs.
So, how will the new law change the outdated current system?
The new law will mean that instead of attributing blame to one party, a married couple can mutually (or individually) state that the marriage has irretrievably broken down as the sole ground for obtaining a divorce. This major change would mean that the spouse applying for the divorce will simply need to state that the marriage has broken down without having to give evidence or examples of ‘unreasonable behaviour’ or ‘adultery’ if there is no requisite period of separation. Therefore, the old fashioned ‘facts’ system which required ‘blame’ or ‘separation’ has been abolished.
This means that parties can divorce in a much less acrimonious fashion, thereby allowing them to concentrate on resolving other aspects of their divorce such as the child arrangements and financial settlement, without the need to blame each other.
