No fault divorce?

Sadly, this does not look as though it’s going to be happening for a while yet.

The family lawyers’ national organisation Resolution has long been campaigning for Britain to get up to date with its approach to divorce, and follow the policies of many other Western jurisdictions who do not require fault to be proved to get a divorce, but nothing definite has happened yet.

In fact this month has seen the introduction of a new form of divorce petition which seems to be designed to increase the hostility between separating spouses, not reduce it.

You may have heard in the media that the section dealing with adultery, which is one of the five grounds for divorce, now highlights in a somewhat inflammatory manner, the choice of naming a co-respondent. Although the page does state that “people do not generally name the person their spouse committed adultery with”, the possibility of doing so is made far more prominent in this new version of the petition.

This underlines how important it is to seek qualified legal advice about even what should be the most straightforward part of the marital separation (never mind the complexities of marital finances) as unwittingly putting the name of the person your spouse has been unfaithful with, could cause considerable delay, extra expense, and bad feeling.

Don’t cut corners, consult a family law specialist if you are considering legal proceedings in respect of your marriage.

Wednesday, March 7th, 2018 Divorce, Marriage Breakdown