New divorce law: minimum of 20 weeks and removal of unreasonable behaviour etc…were you aware?

[MayMorris]

I was on another post here about time taken between petition and absolute. Another poster said she’d achieved it in around 3 ish months, I responded that mine had completed in less than 90 days too. I petitioned under unreasonable behaviour as my ex was long term mentally I’ll and decided to stop complying with medication (we’d been married 30 years and he’d been I’ll for last 20). Without his meds I was always focus of his delusions and it was a safeguarding issue for us to remain under same roof. I’m pretty sure courts expedited it perhaps because of this, and also becuase surprisingly we sorted things out very amicably.
I knew the law was changing to no blame and 6 months
But on curiuososity I looked up about new law.
I am shocked to see that the ONLY grounds for divorce now are no blame, and it means ALL couples have to wait a 20 week cooling off period before they can apply.
Am I right to be shocked that this has passed me by, and that formpoeple in abusive marriages this is a real problem. Having to wait 5 months before you can start seems really dangerous
Am I missing something? Obviously it doesn’t effect me directly but I am just shocked

I think it’s 5 months to the Decree Absolute (or whatever the new term now is). You can still sort all financials etc as quickly as possible. Not sure what the significance of the Absolute is other than a piece of paper?

Decree absolute is final legal separation- you cannot get your financial agreement ( consent order or other) “sealed”,until absolute. Whist you can draft agreements before then, they don’t get submitted till after Nisi and then sealed at absolute. The nisi is the provisionally agreement by courts that you can divorce, but it is not until after 41 days (old process) of cooling off you can apply to make it final and legally binding.
So absolute is MOST significant bit!
So my divorce petitioned on 5th April, nisi mid May, absolute end June.

If I’m reading it right under new process, there is now a minimum of 20 weeks between application ( what was raising the petition - my 5th April) and “conditional order” ( what was called Nisi). You now have to wait an additional 6;weeks for “final order” ( what was the absolute) when all financial orders are sealed and child agreement are approved.

So 6 months minimum, even if there is no backlog before final and before the earliest you can get financial consent sealed

That’s double the time it took mine- I couldn’t have managed that, my ex was psychotic and was ignoring medical advice.

My 5 months before you can start in first post was wrong, was wording as reading. But it is an absolute minimum fov very one of 6 mths regardless of urgency now

But there’s nothing preventing a couple from separating, so how does the extra time really cause someone a problem?

I’m not being obtuse - I genuinely can’t see what difference it would make to most divorces?

I’m reading the original consultation paper and they’d make one statement about concerns of increasing minimum times in case of unreasonable behaviour (as was) where abuse or safeguarding issues are present
“ In particular, domestic abuse support groups suggested as short a time as practicable. “
That’s it- no response to this. It’s as if no one ever could divorce in less than 6 months before anyway- which is just not true.

Not sure why this has got to me so much, I’m thinking back to what it was like prior to me petitioning and then waiting for consent before he’d agree to sale of home, then having to wait till absolute before we could actually move, seperate and be safe, I’m feeling a bit Ranty about it

Yes, about to do this myself on weds.

@PaterPower

But there’s nothing preventing a couple from separating, so how does the extra time really cause someone a problem?

I’m not being obtuse - I genuinely can’t see what difference it would make to most divorces?

Do most seperate and leave their assets in hands of other party with no legal protection. I’m not hearing “most” people do that. A lot can’t afford to until assets split following orders drafted at least. My ex refused, not unreasonable I think, to just walk out the house until we’d got a clear drafted agreement ready and with solicitors. Even though it was amicable and we did the agreement ourselves just using solicitor for legal speak. I certainly wouldn’t have walked out and left him to sell the property- he didn’t have mental functionality for that- he was delusional.

I believe the length of the "thinking period" has been introduced by way of a concession to those against the new law believing it will encourage divorce. As if there's no blame, you can now divorce in 6 months instead of the previous two years.

There's various other things in the new law - such as joint petition, no blame, online process, lack of contestation - that mean for a great many people the process of ending their marriage will be simpler and less drawn out.

@WhatsitWiggle

I believe the length of the "thinking period" has been introduced by way of a concession to those against the new law believing it will encourage divorce. As if there's no blame, you can now divorce in 6 months instead of the previous two years.

There's various other things in the new law - such as joint petition, no blame, online process, lack of contestation - that mean for a great many people the process of ending their marriage will be simpler and less drawn out.

Yep, I know this. We were going to wait for no blame divorce last year but it was delayed. I’m fully supportive of the reduced time frame vs old 2 year…and absolutely agree with anything to reduce acrimonious drawn out legal process. All that is a very good step forward.

My concern is that it removes any and all options to get divorced in less than 6 months in the case of domestic abuse, or my case of potential safe guarding. I’m not the only one who needed to divorce in a hurry for really essential reasons and got it in 3 months.

Is it the play off because of consent ? Ie under the old law if the other person didn't agree to "fault" you were less likely to be able to actually go through with the divorce ? So if in an abusive relationship, 6 months would be quicker if the other partner doesn't agree and if abusive that could be more likely ? I see your point here though.