Six months after the change in divorce law – where are we now?

From 6th April 2022, the law on divorce changed and couples can now get divorced on a “no-fault” basis. This has led to the number of divorce applications reaching their highest level in a decade. Six months has now passed and this article reflects on the change in law and the effect this has had on divorce rates.

To get a divorce in England and Wales under the previous law, the marriage must have irretrievably broken down. To demonstrate this, you had to confirm one of the following:

• The other person had committed adultery
• The other person has behaved in such a way that you couldn’t reasonably be expected to live with them
• You’d been separated for two years, and the other person agreed to the divorce
• You’d been separated for five years
• The other person had deserted you for at least two years

Unless you had been separated for at least two years, couples had to blame the marriage breakdown on one partner’s behaviour. This is no longer for no-fault divorce. The new application form contains a statement in which you simply confirm that the marriage has irretrievably broken down, with no requirement to apportion blame.

This is a very positive change as it takes away a significant confrontational element of the process. Divorce can be a difficult and stressful experience for many couples, which wasn’t helped by the requirement to make allegations of blame against the other party.

Under the new law, one can either make a sole application for divorce, or a joint application with their spouse. The grounds to object to divorce proceedings are now more limited, which makes the process more straightforward and predictable.

The new law introduces a minimum period of six months, so it’s now not possible to get divorced in less than six months. Firstly, one party (or both parties together) needs to make the divorce application. 20 weeks after the application has been issued by the court, the applicant(s) can apply for a “Conditional Order” (confirming that they want to proceed with the divorce). The applicant(s) then have to wait a further six weeks before the court can make a “Final Order”, which formally ends the marriage.

Most applications are now dealt with online, although this depends on the particular circumstances of the application.

The Ministry of Justice reports that there were 33,234 applications for divorce in April – June 2022, including for dissolution of civil partnerships. This was an increase of 22% from the same quarter in 2021.

However, these figures aren’t necessarily a cause for alarm. Some people chose to wait until the new law was in place to issue divorce proceedings, so that they were able to start the process without alleging fault on the part of their spouse. This was expected and will likely have inflated the figures. For the majority of couples, it is very unlikely that the decision to get divorced in the first place was a direct result of the change in the law.

It is possible that we have now passed the peak of applications following the change in the law. It will be interesting to see how the change in the law has affected people’s decision to divorce after a further six months have passed.

By Zoë Livadeas, Trainee Solicitor at Irwin Mitchell.