No Fault Divorce: It’s finally happening!
The Government has recently announced that the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 is coming into force on 6 April 2022. This long awaited reform (originally scheduled to be brought into effect from late Summer 2021) will allow married couples to divorce without assigning blame to their spouse. If a married couple have been separated for less than two years and wish to divorce, under the current legislation, the only facts to rely upon within the divorce petition are either one spouse’s adultery or their unreasonable behaviour. In both scenarios, this means that one party essentially has to blame the other for the marital breakdown.
This new Act will help to reduce the emotionally fraught process by taking away the blame element and allowing parties to send to the court a statement confirming that the marriage has irretrievably broken down. It will also introduce an option for parties to issue a joint divorce application.
Whilst we would have hoped for the enactment to have proceeded as planned this summer, it is certainly welcome news that we now have a fixed date and we will be able to advise our clients accordingly.