The subject of Divorce and family breakdown is a depressing one, especially coming so soon after the Christmas and New Year festivities. Every year, however, law firms across the country see a January influx of clients seeking advice upon the breakdown of their relationships, whether that be marriage, civil partnerships or long term relationships.

The reasons for relationship breakdown at the start of the year are varied. A recent survey of the legal profession by national accountancy firm Grant Thornton found that the top three reasons for divorce in 2010 were parties saying that they had simply fallen out of love, extra-marital affairs and unreasonable behaviour. However when this is translated into Divorce Proceedings parties are unable to divorce simply because they have fallen out of love with each other.

There is, in fact, only one ground for divorce, or the dissolution of a civil partnership. That ground is that the marriage has irretrievably broken down – i.e. there is no prospect of the parties reconciling. That fact can be proven by one of five facts for divorce or one of four facts for the dissolution of a civil partnership. These are that a party has either behaved unreasonably or has committed adultery (divorce only) known as the fault facts. Alternatively the parties can divorce without alleging fault if they have been separated for at least 2 years prior to the divorce petition being presented and both parties consent to the granting of a divorce, or separated for at least 5 years prior to the divorce petition being presented, in which case consent is not required.  Finally there are rare cases when one party has deserted the other and cannot be traced.

The need to prove the breakdown of the marriage by reliance on one of these facts is of no assistance to couples who have simply fallen out of love. If these couples wish to divorce they either have to separate for two years prior to issuing divorce proceedings or, as is becoming increasingly common, rely on allegations of unreasonable behaviour which may not be wholly true, or if are true have not, if truth be told, brought about the breakdown of the marriage. As a result there are now increasing calls on the Government for no fault divorce to be introduced.

Every year the Office of National Statistics releases information concerning divorce records from the previous year. The latest set of results show some interesting trends. In 2010 divorces were granted to 119,589 couples. Of those divorces around 83,000 arose from marriages which were the first marriage for both husband and wife. The divorce rate rose for the first time since 2003, however the figure of 119,589 divorces remains substantially lower than the record year, which was 1993 when over 160,000 couples marriages were ended.

At Curtis we offer a complete family law service dealing with Divorce, Financial and Children matters. The department is overseen by Matthew Becker, a partner at the firm.