LEGAL
Sweeping changes to divorce law removes the ‘blame game’ toxicity of the current system. By Samantha Jago
NO FAULT DIVORCE On the April 6th 2022 divorce law in England and Wales was overhauled and brought in line with many other international countries, simplifying the system so that blame does not have to be allocated and parties can rely on a simple statement from either one spouse, or both, that the marriage has broken down due to no fault of either party. REMOVING THE BLAME GAME DURING DIVORCE Previously, there was only one ground for divorce, that being that the marriage had irretrievably broken down. To satisfy the court of this, the Petitioner to a divorce had to prove one of five factors to file for divorce, being: adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion of two years, separation of two years with consent to divorce, and separation of five years without consent. In broad terms, blame must be attributed to the other party for the marriage break down unless a spouse was willing to wait for two years, still having to get the consent of the other,
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or five years with the risk of defences being raised. This resulted in both parties getting off on the wrong footing, with parties blaming the other for the breakdown of the marriage and, therefore, setting a hostile tone from the outset of the proceedings. On April 6th 2022, the Divorce, Dissolution, and Separation Act of 2020 came into force. This means a simple statement from either one spouse, or both, that the marriage has broken down due to no fault of either party, has been introduced.
These changes also ❛❛ apply to the dissolution of civil partnerships ❜❜
