On 13 June 2019, the government followed through with its stated intention to bring into effect the most significant reforms of divorce law in a generation by introducing to Parliament the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Bill.
The draft legislation intends to reform the legal requirements and the process for divorce, dissolution and judicial separation as currently set out in the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 and the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (for same-sex couples). The government minister has stated that that the changes aim to encourage a forward-looking, non-confrontational approach between separating couples, and to limit the damaging effect on children of family breakdown.
The Bill retains the sole ground of divorce as the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage, but removes the requirement to evidence it with one of the five "facts" required by the existing law, replacing this with the provision of a statement that the marriage has irretrievably broken down. No evidence to support the relationship breakdown is required under the new legislation. In addition to allowing one party to initiate divorce proceedings, the Bill also allows both parties to make a joint application where the decision to divorce is mutual.
However, central to the draft legislation is that the new law would remove the possibility of contesting the decision to divorce and therefore the family court will take the statement of irretrievable breakdown as conclusive evidence that the marriage has irretrievably broken down and therefore that the divorce must proceed. The draft legislation therefore addresses the significant problems noted by many family lawyers with the current operation of the divorce petition process, as highlighted in the Owens v Owens [2018] UKSC 41 case, examined brilliantly in this piece by my colleague at Coram Chambers, Georgina Rushworth.