12 April 2024
Nick Gova featured acrossed the legal media on the anniversay of no fault divorce
Family Partner Nick Gova has been featured in several publications commenting on the two-year anniversary of no fault divorce, including Today’s Family Lawyer and Edward Fennell’s Legal Diary.
The article in Today’s Family Lawyer explains that the latest divorce figures have shown a decline in applications and notes that calls for cohabitation reform to be pushed forward, in line with the modern relationship landscape, reflects the need for a legal shift that affords cohabiting couples legal protection.
In Edward Fennell’s Legal Diary, Nick’s comments are featured within the ‘Legal comment of the week’ section.
Nick says:
“By removing the need to apportion blame at the start of the process, no fault divorce has taken the heat and conflict out of many divorces. It has also helped couples to start constructive discussions about children and finances earlier on in the process. Couples are also making use of the ability to make a joint divorce application, with 61.1% of divorces under the new law made as joint applications.
“Some commentators had expected an increase in divorces following the introduction of no fault divorce but the latest statistics for 2022 show that the divorce rate fell to the lowest level since 1971. A major factor in the drop in divorces is the impact of the cost of living crisis and worries about the financial impact of divorce and selling the family home.
“No fault divorce was the biggest change to family law in a generation, but there is still a long way for family law to go to catch up with the reality of modern families. In particular, co-habiting couples don’t receive the same protections as married couples, which can lead to very unfair outcomes if they split up, particularly for the partner who may earn less.”
Read Nick’s comments:
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