Originally, the government had planned to implement these changes in autumn 2021, but this has now been delayed. What does this mean?
The Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 reforms the divorce process. Under the new legislation, the ground for divorce or dissolution remains the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage or civil partnership, but there will be no need to rely on any of the existing ‘facts’ when commencing an application for divorce or dissolution. This means that couples will simply need to prove that the marriage has broken down and cannot be saved.
Under current laws, unless a couple lives separately for at least 2 years they can only get a divorce if one person blames the other for this irretrievable breakdown of their marriage, and this must fall into the category of either adultery or unreasonable behaviour. These blame-based options are two of 5 legally recognised reasons for the breakdown of a marriage under current laws. This means that unless a couple has been separated for at least 2 years, one person must document examples of the other's behaviour during the marriage and present this as evidence to the court. The court will then decide whether they believe this behaviour resulted in the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage.
According to statistics released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in 2018, the most common reason for divorce in England and Wales was due to behaviour, accounting for 46.1% of all divorces granted. The use of 'no fault' provisions is becoming more common and is now used more frequently than those granted upon adultery petitions (10.1%). Soon, 'no fault' will be the only way to proceed with divorce applications. However, there is a change set to take place in April 2022.
The new legislation will:
- Replace the ‘five facts’ with a new requirement to provide a statement of irretrievable breakdown
- Remove the possibility of contesting the divorce
- Introduce an option for a joint application
- Make sure the language is in plain English, for example, changing ‘decree nisi’ to conditional order and ‘decree absolute’ to final order
It is hoped that by removing the need to rely on any fault it will help to reduce conflict between couples who may have been encouraged to rely on a fault-based fact to progress the divorce or dissolution proceedings and allow them to focus on other issues such as financial matters or children.
The implementation date of the Act has been postponed to April 2022. This has been done to ensure that the necessary developments and amendments to the Court rules, including the creation of practice directions, are completed. Additionally, system changes to the online service will be implemented to ensure that the reforms are fit for purpose.