Good Divorce Week - Explaining the no-fault system

On the 6th of April this year, the law in relation to divorce in this country changed to what has been described as a no-fault system.

Prior to that date, to secure a divorce a party would need to show that their marriage had “irretrievably broken down“. Further, if they did not wish to wait a period of either two or five years, they would have to allege that the breakdown was the fault of the other party  due to either their  adultery or unreasonable behaviour. So, at a time when parties were being encouraged to try and put aside grievances and emotions  to try to take the temperature out of negotiations about the end of their relationship,  one party was generally forced to formally set out their  grievances in a court document . This would regularly  reignite old  arguments and disputes .

Under the  new regime,  any possibility that one party would have to assert  that the divorce was the fault of the other was removed . Now a party need only state that their marriage has irretrievably broken down , no further evidence is required.

It is still very early to be able to say that the intended effect of making the divorce process less contentious has occurred , but certainly  from an anecdotal point of view of  this practice, this certainly seems to be the case. Parties  are now better  able  to concentrate their time and  effort   on issues such as child or financial  arrangements ,  rather than argue over who’s fault  it is that the marriage ended.

Another advantage of the new regime is that, as it  removed the opportunity to apportion blame ,it is now  possible to allow couples to apply for a divorce jointly . It is hoped that this option will  also assist in removing the chances for conflict whilst issues around the separation are resolved.

Certainly, six months on from the change in the rules of divorce in England and Wales,  there  are  good  reasons to be optimistic that this new regime  has  improved the divorce process  for the better.