How are debts owed to family members dealt with in divorce proceedings?
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From 6 April 2022, new legislation has bought significant changes in the divorce process.
The Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 replaces the previous “five grounds” for divorce, and therefore allows couples to divorce without assigning fault. This change also applies to a civil partnership dissolution.
The Law Society believe that by couples not having to apportion blame for the breakdown of their marriage, they are able to instead focus on key practical decisions involving children or their finances and look to the future.
Further to the ability of a divorce to be granted without blame, there are two further major changes:
Couples can make a joint application for divorce – supporters of the new legislation argue that this provision removed an in-built imbalance that undermines attempts to split amicably; and
20 week cooling off period – the new legislation gives a 20 week period between the initial application and the conditional order, followed by a further six weeks between the conditional order and final orders. Therefore, a divorce will now take around six months or more to complete, compared to the average four month period under old law.
The introduction of the new legislation also means that the divorce process can be done completely digitally, via the Government website which aims to save further time and costs.
If you wish to book in for an initial consultation on your divorce and separation, our family solicitors are based in both Wolverhampton and Cradley Heath and serve clients across the West Midlands. For all new enquiries, please call 01902 328 355 or complete our online enquiry form and a member of our team will respond.