The Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Bill received Royal Assent on 25 June 2020 and is due to come into force on 6 April 2022. This will result is significant changes for both divorcing couples and family practitioners alike.
In this article, we will highlight the key changes to both the law and procedure.
The new legislation will:
Currently, the Petitioner needs to demonstrate that their relationship with the Respondent has irretrievably broken down. The only way to do this is to establish that one of the following five facts exists:
Under the new legislation, the Petitioner will assert that the relationship has irretrievably broken down but there will be no need to prove this.
A Respondent is required to confirm whether they consent to the divorce when completing their Acknowledgment of Service. This requirement has been criticised as in some cases it has allowed domestic abusers to exercise further coercive control over their victim. That said, the ability to contest a divorce is rarely used (less than 2% of cases).
The new legislation removes the possibility to contest a divorce but all divorce applications could still be challenged on the bases of jurisdiction, the legal validity of the marriage, fraud or coercion and procedural compliance.
Currently, the divorce petition will be filed by the Petitioner and served on the Respondent. This, along with the 'blame culture' supported by the requirement of the five facts presents a confrontation approach to the divorce process.
The new procedure will enable couples to jointly file the petition. This can be helpful for couples where the decision to separate is a joint one and neither party is to blame.
We often find that whilst some clients are familiar with the terms 'Decree Nisi' and 'Decree Absolute', they often do not know what they mean. In most cases further explanation is required. These terms will be replaced with 'Conditional Order' and 'Final Order' which more accurately describe the relevant staged of the divorce process.
From issue of the petition to granting the Conditional Order, the period of reflection will be a minimum of 20 weeks. Thereafter the Final Order cannot be granted in less than 6 weeks from the date of the Conditional Order.
The process will take around 6 months. In reality this is not too dissimilar to the timescales that we estimate for our client's now. However, the new procedure requires the parties to take a pause rather than simply wait for the court to process the application.