What do you think about it? AIBU in thinking it may result in more divorces / or be a good thing?
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Spouses will no longer have the right to contest divorces under reforms that will stop people from being trapped in unhappy marriages.
At present husbands and wives are entitled to fight an application for divorce, forcing their partner to wait five years if no split can be agreed. The new law, to be announced today by David Gauke, the justice secretary, is to be introduced within three months.
Under the new arrangements, as soon as one partner initiates the divorce it cannot be stopped by the other party and a split can happen within six months.
The most widely reported case involving a contested divorce centred on Tini Owens, 68, from Worcestershire, who says that she is trapped in a loveless marriage. Last July the Supreme Court ruled that Ms Owens had failed to demonstrate that her relationship with Hugh Owens, 80, a mushroom farmer, had irretrievably broken down because of his unreasonable behaviour.
The ruling meant that under existing law she must wait until 2020 for the marriage to end on the ground that they will have been separated for five years. The new legislation will also include an end to fault-based divorce, meaning that couples no longer have to play the “blame game” to end their marriage quickly.
At present couples have to apportion fault for the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage, usually citing “unreasonable behaviour”, even where they agree to a divorce. One party must blame the other for the breakdown of the marriage, with adultery or unreasonable behaviour being the most common reasons. Desertion is also legally accepted but it is rarely cited.
There is cross-party support for the reform. The government’s bill fulfils a key part of The Times’s Family Matters campaign, run with the Marriage Foundation.
Mr Gauke said: “While we will always uphold the institution of marriage, it cannot be right that our outdated law creates or increases conflict between divorcing couples.”
Sir Paul Coleridge, founder of the Marriage Foundation and a former High Court family law judge, expected that religious groups would criticise the new law for allegedly opening the floodgates to divorce, but he added: “The current law does not prevent people from getting divorced; it just keeps them in marriages they do not want to be in.”
Aidan Jones, the chief executive of Relate, a relationship support charity, said: “The fault-based system led parting couples to apportion blame, often making it harder for ex-partners to develop positive relationships as co-parents.”