This last week, the Ministry of Justice issued the new draft divorce bill for Parliament to consider. So, what does it say?
It makes it clear that it will be an application for a divorce order that is applied for, so goodbye divorce petition.
The only ground for a divorce will be that the marriage has broken down irretrievably, which is the same as before but having to give a reason – adultery, behaviour etc.- is all gone and all that is needed is a written statement in the proper court format saying the marriage is over, effectively.
You’re still going to get the divorce in two parts – a conditional order (not sure if they are going to keep the name decree nisi) and the the final order (again, not sure if they will keep the name decree absolute).
You can ask for a divorce by making a joint statement that the marriage is over or one of you can make the statement. This looks similar to the process now where a statement in support of the petition is given, when asking the court to make the decree nisi, or first part of the divorce. The difference is that it can be done jointly.
The big difference here is that there is a mandatory waiting period of 20 weeks from the time the divorce is applied for to the time you can ask for the conditional divorce order. Then, there will still be the 6 weeks mandatory waiting period before a final divorce order (decree abolute) will be made.
So, it is expected it will take at least 26 weeks from starting divorce proceedings until they can be finalised. That deals with the argument of the old quickie divorce….. that doesn’t really exist but seems to cause outrage anyway.
We still have a way to go. Click here to find out how a Bill is turned into law.
If I can help you to navigate the current and new law, contact me.