Resolution & Good Divorce Week 2022

Good Divorce Week is an annual occurrence and a campaign led by Resolution.

Resolution is an organisation which consists of over 6,500 Family Law practitioners who are committed to a Code of Practice. This promotes a constructive and non-confrontational approach to family issues and considers the needs of the family holistically, in particular, concerning the best interests of the children of the family.

Family Law practitioners are acutely aware of the difficulties that separating spouses face on ending a marriage and where they involve issues concerning child arrangements and settling finances, emotions can run high during what is an already difficult, stressful and overwhelming process.

Resolution advocates for the process of separating, resolving finances and child arrangements to be conducted in a way that minimises conflict between separated spouses and keeps in focus the best interests of any children in the marriage.

Resolution publishes a Code of Practice as well as multiple Good Practice Guides to be utilised not only by its members but also as an ancillary guide to other published good practice guides. An example of this is the Family Law Protocol published by the Law Society, the governing body of solicitors. Even where family law practitioners are not members of Resolution, they are encouraged to adopt the spirit of the Code of Practice.
 
Good Divorce Week takes place between 28 November and 2 December 2022. This year, Resolution is highlighting the crisis in the Family Courts and is raising awareness of all the different options that are available to families.

Of course, at times it is necessary for a court application to be made, albeit this should always be seen as the last resort as opposed to the first.

To put into some context the crisis faced by the Family Courts across England and Wales, according to the Office of National Statistics:

• 103,592 divorces were completed in the year 2020;
• The median range of marriage stood at 11.9 years in opposite-sex marriages (which form the majority of divorces in England & Wales);
• 4.7 years in same-sex female marriages and 5.4 years in same-sex male marriages. These statistics should be viewed against the fact that same-sex marriages were only permitted since 2015.

Recognising the delays in the Family Courts, the Ministry of Justice publishes Family Court statistics. The latest stats published in June 2022 detail the number of new applications made, their disposal and the average length of time it takes for a case to complete. 

The full statistics covering the quarter period of January 2022 to March 2022 can be found on the following link  https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2022/family-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2022

In summary, the following statistics should be noted:-

• During the period of January 2022 to March 2022, a total number of 68,134 applications were made during this three-month period. This includes all Family Law applications.
• Between January 2022 and March 2022, a total of 10,815 new applications were made relating to finances. Just under 3,000 of the new applications were contested, requiring the court to provide assistance or indeed, determine the division of assets between the spouses and former spouses.
• In the 3 months between January 2022 and March 2022 There were 13,891 new applications relating to Children's Law matters (issued by private individuals for example, parents). The average time taken to agree or determine these applications was 34 weeks.

Whilst, there may have been some decrease in the number of divorce, finance and children applications made to the court in comparison to the year 2021, this should be borne against the backdrop of the Covid-19 lockdown commencing in March 2020.

It is of particular importance to note that these are the number of new applications made alone in this single quarter, it doesn’t take into account Family Law applications made in previous quarters or indeed previous years. The previous applications are still stuck in the court system awaiting determination.

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown imposed in March 2020, the Family Courts struggled with a significant backlog of work and court hearings to accommodate. This backlog was caused by a number of factors including a lack of availability of Judges, admin staff shortages, and a questionable computer system. 

During the lockdown, a significant number of court hearings were cancelled until the court grappled with moving cases online, something which is not the norm in Family Law cases. The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in an already broken Family Law justice system which is at a crisis point.

At Birkett Long, all our Family Law Solicitors are members of Resolution and will be supporting Resolution's Good Divorce Week campaign.

In the week commencing 28 November 2022, look out for my daily blogs giving you advice and tips on how to "divorce well".

If you require any further information, or wish to discuss issues concerning divorce, children, finances or indeed other Family Law related matters, please do not hesitate to contact me via my profile.