Family Law – developments for 2016
As we start a New Year, the Head of Kiteleys Family Team, Colin Mitchell, considers what changes might come into effect during 2016 which affect families:
Support for relationships in difficulty – on 11 January 2016, the Prime Minister David Cameron, announced that Government funding for relationship support will be doubled, for organisations like Relate, Marriage Care and One Plus One, to help couples stay together
Life Chances Strategy – at the same speech on 11 January 2016, David Cameron also announced a plan for significantly expanding parenting provision, to include the introduction of a voucher scheme for parenting classes, via the Troubled Families Initiative which was launched in 2012.
No Fault Divorce Bill – on 22 January 2016, the second reading of this new law will take place in the House of Commons, in attempt to change the law which has been in place for over the past forty years.
Currently, the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 requires that anyone applying for a divorce in England and Wales (“the Petitioner”), must prove one or more of five facts, three of which are based on their spouses fault; adultery, unreasonable behaviour or desertion for two years. To avoid the need to rely on one of these fault based facts, the Petitioner must wait until they have been separated at least two years before apply for divorce.
These current legal requirements have long been considered to be unsatisfactory by such family law organisations such as Resolution and many family Court Judges.
Therefore, this proposed new legislation was introduced to Parliament by Richard Bacon MP in October 2015 and this is currently making its way through the legal process to potentially become law 2016. This new law could for the very first time allow a divorcing couple to submit a “joint Petition” based merely on the fact that their marriage has “broken down irretrievably” without either needing to blame the other for their marital breakdown.
However, another significant proposed change is that once the first stage of divorce has been achieved with the grant of “Decree Nisi”, the divorce cannot be finalised with the grant of “Decree Absolute” until twelve months later, whereas the current legal procedure requires a wait of only six weeks.
Calculation of financial needs on divorce – long overdue progress could be made during 2016 by the Ministry of Justice, to build on the Law Commission’s 2014 recommendation that there be a method for divorcing couples to calculate how best to distribute their available assets to meet their financial needs. The Family Justice Council is also planning to produce guidance on how Family Court Lawyers consider the calculation of “needs”.
Non disclosure in matrimonial financial proceedings – following from the Supreme Court decisions in the cases of Sharland and Gohil (October 2015), during 2016 we could see further cases of couples who divorced some years ago, but who now return to the Family Court to reconsider their financial decisions if evidence has subsequently come to light that one spouse was concealing significant wealth at the time that the original Financial Court Order was made.
Improvements in the Family Court Service? – from April 2015, the route for a routine divorce in the South West of England was centralised at a Regional Divorce Centre in Southampton. This has resulted in significant delays with the time taken by the Family Court to process divorce papers, sometimes taking months rather than weeks. During 2016, the new South West Regional Divorce Centre will hopefully become more efficient at dealing with the large volume of divorce documents and so these delays will decrease.
If you have any questions concerning any family problem, make contact with any Kiteleys Office, to arrange an initial free telephone assessment with one of our specialist Family Law Solicitors.