Apply for a divorce: Online service goes public

The President of the Family Division Sir James Munby and the Chief Executive of Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service Susan Acland-Hood have written to judges and staff today with details of the new online divorce application process which has now been made available to the public.

They say:

“As part of our £1bn reform programme to modernise the courts and tribunals service, we have been developing a simplified and intuitive online application process for divorce, which can be used by anyone without legal representation wishing to apply for a divorce across England and Wales, making the process easier to understand for separating couples.”

Henry Hood, head of the family law team at Hunters, noted:

“The savings made by the public service are remarkable and presumably achieved by having an entirely administrative process operated by Court staff with no judicial involvement whatever. This is however at odds with having a divorce process that, in relation to behaviour petitions, requires that judicial involvement.

“Perhaps this, more than any other argument, will persuade the Government to support the campaign to introduce no fault divorce, on which it has so far sat on the fence.”

Read the full articles in Family Law Week and New Law Journal.