DivorceTech: A long overdue catch up with modern times?

Music to my ears: the most dangerous phrase in the English language “We’ve always done it that way” may finally be giving way to the realities of the modern age! In his latest published commentary Sir James Munby is calling for the streamlining of divorce processes. Why should those couples who want simple no-fuss divorces have to share the same procedural space and time-line as those in complex, intervention-heavy finances battles.

I have little doubt that within a decade, straightforward divorces will be artificial intelligence-led, digitalised and automated. Pretty much every other process out there, from renewing car insurance to ordering the groceries to choosing your next date, is available at the touch of a button. Why not a simple legal process?

Referring to the ‘the lamentable history of procrastination’ Munby isn’t holding his breath for ‘speedy progress’ but I’m not sure he’s right. The groundswell of calls for change across the board to divorce law indicates to me that the tipping point is near.

Let’s see…

Divorce should be separate from money battles, says Sir James Munby calls for streamlined online divorce procedures to stop family courts from being clogged up by arguments about assets.

The process of obtaining a divorce should be completely separated from a couple’s disputes over money. Referring to the government’s 'lamentable history of procrastination” in reforming divorce laws, Sir James Munby called for the streamlining of new online divorce procedures.

The proposal is aimed at reducing administrative pressure within the family courts by unlinking 'the largely administrative and bureaucratic” divorce work from the more complex legal battles about who takes which assets from a marriage.

'Has the time not come to bring about a complete de-linking – separation – of divorce and ‘money’,” Munby asked. My view, which I have been propounding for some time, is an unequivocal and emphatic yes!”