The Ministry of Justice is undergoing a £1 billion modernisation program and as part of the program it is launching an online application for divorce, thereby cutting paperwork and making financial savings for the ministry.
The ministry described their new system as pain free and less stressful for the divorcing parties.
In all honesty as a matrimonial lawyer the petition and the divorce main suit tend to be pretty stress free. It is sorting out arrangements for the children and splitting the finances that cause stress and heartache for the parties.
My concern about the online divorce is that people may go through divorce without ever sorting out the finances. If parties do not have a final order in respect of finances, at any stage in the future one party can make a claim against the other, as the husband learnt to his cost in the case of Vince -v- Wyatt. In this case the parties divorced in the early 1990s with Decree Absolute being pronounced on 20 October 1992. The wife made an application for financial remedies in May 2011…………
CATHERINE TAYLOR