‘Quickie’ divorces rob couples of chance at reconciliation

Divorce lawyers are backing a Government scheme to make it much easier for couples to split.

Each year, an average of 100,000 divorces take place in the UK but one in ten couples do not complete proceedings.

Christian Institute Director, Ciarán Kelly, warned, “Speeding up the divorce process robs those couples of any chance of reconciliation”.

Quick divorce

In January this year HM Courts and Tribunal Services announced it would spend £1 billion to transform the court system, including making divorce available online.

Co-op Legal Services, one of the first firms to trial the scheme, said the time taken for a divorce had fallen by 83 per cent, from an average of 12 months to just eight weeks.

In May, a revised version of the scheme was rolled out across England and Wales.

Undermining

The changes enable solicitors to complete entire divorce proceedings online, on behalf of their client.

The Co-op claimed that a digital divorce service is much more convenient as couples can “start their divorce from home”.

But Ciarán Kelly said, “Allowing people to divorce from the comfort of their own homes completely undermines the seriousness of this sad process”.