Divorce applications have reached their highest level in a decade after new legislation came into effect for couples earlier this year.
According to data from the Ministry of Justice, there were 33,566 applications from April to June this year. This follows a change in the law which came into effect on April 6, which allowed couples to get divorced without assigning blame.
The figures are at their highest level since the first quarter of 2012, as well as being a 22% increase of divorce applications compared to the same time last year. But the change is not expected to lead to an increase in divorces overall, as numbers have remained constant in other countries that have introduced the same legislation after an initial rise, WalesOnline reports .
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The update to the law also introduced a minimum 20-week period for ‘meaningful’ reflection between starting divorce proceedings and applying for a conditional order. Additionally, couples can now jointly apply for a divorce, and it is no longer possible to contest a divorce.
Under the old legislation, unless a couple had lived apart for more than two years they were only able to get a divorce if one person blamed the other for the “irretrievable breakdown” of the marriage, which had to fall into the category of adultery, unreasonable behaviour or desertion. But now couples can get divorced solely on the basis that the marriage has broken down, without needing to cite one of these reasons.
The reason for the increase in time frames has been cited as resourcing issues which have led to backlogs by the MoJ. The department added that it will not be commenting on the timeliness of new divorce cases until there have been substantial numbers of conditional and final orders, due to the new mandatory waiting periods.
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