The latest divorce statistics from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) have shown the lowest divorce rates since 1971.
In 2018 there were 90,871 divorces for opposite-sex couples, a decrease of over 10% compared to 101,668 divorces in 2017. Family Law experts say the findings are "not a true reflection" of the current divorce landscape.
Unreasonable behaviour was once more the most common reason for opposite-sex couples divorcing in 2018, with almost 52% of women and almost 37% of men petitioning on this ground.
Our Family law experts believe the statistics show that other issues such as the on-off legislation on no-fault divorce and cuts to law courts are likely to blame.
Zahra Pabani, family law partner, said “The drop in the divorce stats are two things at once: firstly they’re not a true reflection of divorce in the UK; secondly they’re symptomatic of the challenges family law faces at the moment.
“With no-fault divorce repeatedly being on and off the legislative table, it has left divorcing couples in limbo. I’ve had clients say to me, ‘I’m not going to get divorced yet because I’m waiting for no-fault divorce to come in’ – and it would suggest that some unhappy couples are biding their time leading to a lower divorce rate.
“Once no-fault divorce comes in, we believe divorce rates will increase just as they did in the 1970s when new legislation was introduced.”
The ONS also noted that an administrative backlog is partly to blame for the drop and that rates will most likely be higher next year.
Zahra continued: “The reality is that the courts have suffered through numerous funding cuts, and court employees are increasingly overworked and understaffed – delays are therefore inevitable and until this remedied, it will likely skew future statistics.”
Published: December 2019
A monthly briefing from Irwin Mitchell
December 2019
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