The present law on divorce dates back to 1973 and it is widely recognised that it can cause problems for parties when they divorce since they very often have to rely upon introducing unreasonable behaviour to end up being divorced.  This has, for a very long time, been considered to be divisive and harmful to parties, when in reality a husband and wife have drifted apart and there is in fact no acrimony.

The new law passed it’s reading in the Houses of Parliament on 2 September and is on its way to the committee stage and becoming law, hopefully during the latter part of 2020/2021. When the  new law is in place it will mean that the current law, where one party often has to blame the other for the breakdown of the marriage will cease and instead a divorce may proceed on the basis of no blame. This will remove a degree of unpleasantness which can blight the relationship between a husband and wife unnecessarily.

It is our view at Blythe Liggins that the new law, when it is implemented, will not make divorce more common.  Neither will it mean that divorce is any easier, it will certainly not make divorce any quicker since even under the proposed new law the divorce process will still take 26 weeks.  However, it should make divorce less acrimonious which will allow people to move on with their lives and to reach agreements in connection with their children and finance and property in more orderly and constructive ways.

This new law is long overdue and the Family Department here at Blythe Liggins look forward to the introduction of the new law.

CAPTION: Andrew Brooks, Partner and Head of the Family Department