Divorce

The breakdown of a marriage can be a very stressful time. Whether one party is at fault, or you have just grown apart, we can advise you of the best way of bringing the marriage to an end. 

The law in relation to ending a marriage had been little changed since 1973. There were some developments, particularly with the introduction of civil partnerships and same-sex marriages, but the ending of these largely mirrored the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, the statutory provisions that provided the rules for legal dissolution of marriage. 

This all changed in April 2022 when The Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 came into force. This sets out radical changes to the way marriages and civil partnerships are brought to an end. This new legislation was intended to make the ending of a marriage or civil partnership much more straight-forward and there is now no need to apportion blame, as has been the case previously. 

The process for divorce is now dealt with online. Although intended to be more straight-forward, it often takes longer to reach the final divorce order. This is because there is a 20 week period of reflection between the issue of proceedings and the date that the applicant can apply for the conditional divorce order.