No fault divorce: for and against
No fault divorce may soon be on its way to the UK following in the footsteps of other countries like Canada and Australia.
Currently the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 requires one of the parties to be at fault in order for a divorce petition to proceed and that may include behaviour such as adultery, separation and desertion.
For many critics this takes a rather antiquated view of the end of marriage but supporters argue that allowing a judge to know and understand the circumstances surrounding a divorce gives them the opportunity to make a more appropriate order when it comes to things like maintenance payments and how assets are divided.
There are open questions surrounding the wider societal impact of no fault default and in particular the effect on divorce rates. While the evidence seems to suggest a spike in the years following the introduction of no fault divorce, longer term trends point to less as time goes by.
In the end however the most compelling piece of evidence is the link between no fault divorce and declining levels of domestic violence. In some studies this has been shown to go down by as much as 30%.
Any step that can be taken to achieve something even close to those results should be adopted immediately and any resistance premised on religious or social sensitivities has to take a back seat when compared to this much more literal threat.
In this week's episode of the podcast we examine a case that highlights exactly what happens when a husband refuses to let go and how this part of the law that was originally designed to help women now tends to seriously hinder them.
Episode link: http://uklawweekly.com/2018-uksc-41/
Subscribe on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/uk-law-weekly/id1137316725?mt=2