Surge in divorce petitions
The Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 was passed in June 2020 and came into force on 6 April 2022 and has resulted in a decade high number of petitions being issued.
The option of a no-fault divorce aims reduce conflict, allowing couples to focus on important issues like children, property and finances.
Neither party now has to assign blame for the breakdown of the marriage. The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that there was a 22% increase in petitions being issued, compared with the same period of time the previous year.
Some of this increase will have been due to some couples, holding on, until the new law came into force, and it is anticipated that this will gradually slow down. Due to the present uncertainty in relation to the cost of living crisis, for some couples, quite simply, they cannot afford to divorce and separate their joint finances.
Whilst couples can petition jointly, only 2 in every 10 applications were joint. It is taking longer however, for the paperwork to be dealt with. From start to finish, there was an increase of almost 2 months in the time it took. The ministry’s report has put this down to resource issues. This may improve over time.
